Russia launched 28 kamikaze drones on the southern port of Odesa and Kyiv early Tuesday, according to Ukraine’s military, just hours before the opening of a NATO conference in Lithuania focused on how to deal with Moscow’s security threats.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force, air defense systems shot down 26 of Russia’s Iranian-made Shahed drones. According to the local governor, 22 drones were shot down over Odesa, and two of them damaged an administration facility in the port.
Governor Oleh Kiper claimed on the Telegram messaging app that a grain and another terminal near the Odesa port caught fire, but it was immediately doused with no “critical damage” or injuries.
All drones headed towards Kyiv were intercepted, but debris damaged several residences in the area, according to the military.
“The enemy attacked Kyiv from the air for the second time this month,” claimed Serhiy Popko, chief of Kyiv’s military administration, in a Telegram post.
Reuters’ witnesses in Ukraine’s capital heard blasts resembling the sound of air defence systems intercepting targets during the air raid.
In the Kyiv region that surrounds the capital, 12 residential houses and one multi-storey building suffered minor damage by falling debris, the military head of the region, Ruslan Kravchenko, said on his Facebook page.
There were no injuries reported.
The meeting in Vilnius, which begins on Tuesday, will be dominated by the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with leaders expected to agree NATO’s first detailed measures to defend against any assault from Moscow since the Cold War’s end.
Russia has chastised NATO and its dominant power, the United States, for their backing for Ukraine, and has warned that Kyiv’s possible membership in NATO will be met with a “clear and firm” response.
The Russian invasion of its neighbor, now in its 503rd day and with no end in sight, has murdered thousands, displaced millions, and reduced several cities in Ukraine’s east and south to ruins.
