This morning, Russia launched more than 60 Iranian-made Shahed drones against Kyiv territory. An attack for which a record number of unmanned devices were used, which were almost entirely shot down by the Ukrainian defenses, reports the Military Administration of the capital. It is the most intense offensive carried out with drones since the beginning of the large-scale invasion in 2022, according to military officials.
The attack coincides with the 90th anniversary of Holodomor, the great famine caused by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's policies of collectivization and resource redistribution in the first half of the 1930s in which millions of Ukrainian peasants died. Ukraine and more than 30 other countries recognize the Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian people by the Soviet Union, which ruled Ukraine at the time and sought to crush its desire for independence.
“More than 70 shaheds on the night of the day of remembrance of the Holodomor genocide,” wrote the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on his social networks, referring to the total number of drones launched last night against the entire Ukrainian territory. Zelensky called the attack “deliberate terror,” and alluded to the date chosen by Russia to launch this record number of Shahed drones. “Russia's leaders are proud that they are capable of killing,” he added. However, Moscow denies that the deaths were caused by a deliberate genocidal policy and claims that Russians and other ethnic groups also suffered from hunger.
The Ukrainian president highlighted the response of the Ukrainian defenses, which, according to the Air Force, shot down 74 of the 75 drones fired last night against Ukrainian territory before they reached their target. Despite this, five people were injured, including an 11-year-old girl, according to authorities.
In the capital, the explosions from the interceptions woke up many of its inhabitants during the early hours of the morning. Regarding material damage, the fragments of the intercepted drones have damaged several buildings in different districts of Kyiv and have reached electrical system infrastructure. As a result, 77 residential buildings and 77 institutions have been left without electricity, according to the Ministry of Energy.
With the arrival of low temperatures, Ukraine fears being the victim of another Russian campaign of massive attacks on its energy system, like the one that last fall and winter left millions of Ukrainians without light and heating for weeks.
