In response to rising safety concerns at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, Russia has fired dozens of missiles and drones towards Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, wounding at least five people. Ukraine’s military leadership claimed to have shot down all 35 nighttime Iranian Shahed drones that had been launched, and they also claimed that Russia had fired hundreds of missiles. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on Monday, “Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded civilians, high-rise buildings, private homes, and other civilian infrastructure were damaged.”
Moscow is getting ready to celebrate Victory Day, a significant Russian festival commemorating the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, and the latest air attack comes just before the occasion’s traditional military march in Red Square. According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, at least five persons were injured as a result of the air raids on the capital, while a warehouse full of food near Odesa was set on fire by Russian missiles. Explosions were also recorded in other parts of Ukraine. According to Ukraine’s top commander in charge of the city’s security, Russia has increased bombardment of destroyed Bakhmut in an effort to seal in gains before the May 9 holiday. Bakhmut, formerly a salt-mining town, is a strategic objective for the Russians as they push east. Local officials in Kiev have stated that their air defense systems are successfully repelling the strikes, while witnesses have reported hearing many explosions throughout the city. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram channel that three persons were hurt in explosions in the Solomyanskyi area and two more were injured when drone wreckage fell onto the Sviatoshyn district, both located west of the city’s core. According to the military administration in Kyiv, drone debris damaged a two-story building in the city’s central Shevchenkivskyi area and landed on a runway at Zhuliany airport, one of the two passenger airports in the Ukrainian capital.
Pictures of what military spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk called “a large structure fully engulfed in flames” after what he said was a Russian strike on a warehouse were released on his Telegram channel. Hours after air raid sirens wailed throughout around two-thirds of Ukraine, media outlets reported hearing the boom of explosions in the southern district of Kherson and the southeastern area of Zaporizhia, where the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is located.
