RUSSIA HAS RAMPED up its aerial assault on Ukraine following yesterday’s drone strike on the Kremlin which Russian officials blame on Kyiv.
Russia launched up to 24 attack drones against Ukraine overnight, 18 of which were shot down, the Ukrainian air force said this morning.
Russia also conducted strikes on the city of Kherson which killed 21 people, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who is today due to meet international leaders in the Hague.
This latest step-up in activity comes a day after Russia accused Ukraine of conducting its own drone attack against the Kremlin in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Russia has since opened a terrorism investigation while Zelenskyy has denied any Ukrainian involvement. The Kremlin has also accused the US of masterminding the drone strike on the Kremlin.
“Decisions on such attacks are not made in Kyiv, but in Washington,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Kyiv only does what it is told to do.”
Russia launched its own drone attack yesterday but most of the aircraft were shot down.
“The invaders launched up to 24 Shahed-136/131 attack drones… The Air Force of Ukraine, in co-operation with other air defence units, shot down 18 attack drones,” the air force said on Telegram.
Sergiy Popko, the head of the city of Kyiv’s military administration, said that according to preliminary information “all enemy missiles and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were destroyed over Kyiv by air defence forces”.
Popko said it was the third day of attempted strikes on Kyiv in May.
“Our city has not experienced such intensity of strikes since the beginning of this year,” Popko said.
He said that debris from the downed drones had fallen on different parts of Kyiv but there were no casualties.
Yesterday, Russian strikes on Ukraine’s southern Kherson region killed 21 people and wounded dozens, Kyiv said, as authorities introduced a curfew in the main city of Kherson starting Friday.
The strikes – which hit both the city and nearby villages – came as Ukraine prepares for a spring offensive.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes hit “a railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket and a gas station.”
Kherson city – from which Russian forces withdrew last November – lies near the frontline in southern Ukraine.
“As of now, 21 people have been killed! 48 wounded!”, Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
He published images of bodies and wounded people on the floor of a vegetable aisle at a supermarket, with debris around them.
“The world needs to see and know this,” Zelenskyy said.
Kherson officials from the Kherson Regional Prosecutors Office called the attack “massive”, noting 12 of the victims were killed in the city and others in nearby villages.
“On the morning of 3 May, Russian troops began the massive shelling of the city of Kherson and the region’s settlements,” they said.
Officials had earlier said three people died in a strike on Kherson’s only working supermarket.
The officials said shelling killed three employees of a “power engineering team” between the nearby villages of Stepanivka and Muzykivka.
Officials also announced Wednesday that Kherson will be under curfew from Friday to Monday.
Long curfews have been used in Ukraine in the past to facilitate troop and arms movements.
The head of Kherson’s regional military administration Oleksandr Prokudin said the curfew would last from 5pm on Friday until 3am on Monday (local time).
“During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move on the streets of the city. The city will also be closed for entry and exit,” Prokudin said on Telegram, advising residents to stock up on food and medicine.
People could go for short walks near their houses or visit shops but should carry identity documents with them.
“Such temporary restrictions are necessary for the law enforcement officers to do their job and not put you in danger,” he wrote.
Kherson was captured by Russian troops last year in the first days of the invasion and remained under Russian occupation until November 2022.
Russian forces withdrew from the city, crossing to the eastern side of the Dnipro River which now delineates part of the front line in southern Ukraine.
Russia said today that it was facing an “unprecedented” wave of Ukrainian “sabotage”, a day after an alleged drone hit the Kremlin in what Moscow called a “terrorist attack” by Kyiv.
“The terrorist and sabotage activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are gaining unprecedented momentum,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. It added that Russia “reserves the right to take retaliatory measures.”
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