(Reuters) – Russia launched a wave of kamikaze drone attacks on Kyiv and its region for a second night in row, Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday, hours before President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to meet NATO leaders at a summit that has backed Ukraine’s independence.
According to preliminary information from Ukrainian military, there were no immediate reports of casualties or major destruction. All drones were intercepted before hitting their targets.
“The 504th day of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine. The enemy launched another air attack on the capital,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters witnesses in Kyiv heard blasts resembling the sound of air defence systems intercepting aerial objects. It was not immediately known how many of the Iranian Shahed drones Russia launched and how many were intercepted.
Air alerts were issued for more than two hours over Kyiv and across Ukraine and fighting continued as NATO leaders gathered for a summit which the Kremlin criticised, warning that Moscow would respond to protect its own security.
A night earlier, Russia launched 28 drones on Kyiv and the southern port of Odesa, with Ukraine’s air defence shooting down 26 of the Shahed drones.
Zelenskiy will attend the inaugural session of the NATO-Ukraine Council on Wednesday in Vilinius, a body established to bring Kyiv and the 31-member transatlantic military alliance closer.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Michael Perry)
