Ukraine repels "exceptional" Russia missile, drone attack on Kyiv

Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has come under a Russian aerial attack involving drones, cruise and ballistic missiles in what one Ukrainian military official described as an “exceptional” onslaught involving the most number of missiles fired by Moscow in the shortest time and from different directions.

“It was exceptional in its density — the maximum number of attack missiles in the shortest period of time,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app, Al Jazeera reports.

It was not immediately known how many Russian missiles and drones targeted the city in the early hours of May 16 morning — the eighth attack on the capital so far this month — or the extent of possible damage and casualties. Air raid alerts had sounded across all of Ukraine as the Russian attack got underway.

Popko said that based on preliminary information, the majority of the “enemy targets in the airspace of Kyiv were detected and destroyed!”

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram channel that three people were injured and a large building damaged.

Explosions were reported in the city’s Solomyanskyi district, the mayor said, and debris had fallen onto the city’s zoo in the Shevchenkivskyi district. In a separate post, Klitschko added that falling debris set ablaze several cars in Solomyanskyi.

An explosion in Kyiv during a Russian missile and drone attack on May 16, 2023 

“Stay in shelters!” the mayor wrote on Telegram.

Air defence systems were also repelling a drone attack in Boryspil, Klitschko said, a city just southeast of Kyiv that is home to the capital’s main passenger airport and which is now closed.

The Kyiv Independent news outlet reported that air raid alerts were sounding in all regions of the country due to the threat of missile attacks from Russia. Journalists with the news organisation reported hearing at least 10 loud explosions over the capital city in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Witnesses in Kyiv also reported several blasts that sounded like air defence systems destroying objects, the Reuters news agency reported.

An explosion is seen in the sky over the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, during a Russian missile and drone on May 16, 2023 

Tuesday’s early morning attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned to Ukraine following a trip that took him across Europe and where he received new pledged of military support from allies in Rome, Berlin, Paris and London.

Zelenskyy described the new weapons pledged by the Europeans as “important and powerful.”

In a video address from a train taking him back to Kyiv, he said: “We are returning home with new military help. Newer and more powerful weapons for the front, more protection for our people. Greater political support.”

France offered dozens more light tanks and armoured vehicles, Germany said it was preparing a new military aid package worth 2.7bn euros ($3bn), and the United Kingdom promised hundreds more air-defence missiles and long-range attack drones.

The Kremlin said it did not believe the promise of new military hardware would change the course of the war.