Overnight on May 18, Russian forces attacked the Kyiv region with about 80 drones, with at least one fatality and three wounded, according to the Kyiv Regional Military Administration (KOVA).
“Unfortunately, as a result of the enemy attack in the Obukhiv district, a woman died from her injuries. A 61-year-old man, a 59-year-old woman, and a 4-year-old child were wounded. They have been taken to the hospital. All necessary medical care is being provided. The condition of the injured is moderate,” reported Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration. statement said.
Kalashnyk said the attack caused partial destruction of a private house, while windows were damaged in a nearby multi-story residential building.
The sustained overnight Russian drone attack killed a woman in the capital region and injured at least three people, including a child, Ukrainian authorities said early on Sunday, as Moscow escalated attacks following peace talks on Friday, according to RBC-Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the enemy attack in the Obukhiv district, a woman died from her injuries,” Mykola Kalashnik, governor of the Kyiv region, posted on the Telegram messaging app.
When Kyiv administrators announced an “all clear” at 6:38 a.m., the region around the capital and most of the eastern half of Ukraine had been under air raid alerts for over six hours. Air defense units were engaged several times in repelling attacks, the KOVA said on Telegram.
Kyiv Post journalists reported overnight air defense activities, especially anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) and explosions of targeted drones in midair throughout the city and its suburbs, especially south of the capital in the Kriukivshchyna, Hatne, and Obukhiv districts.
“It’s been a tough night. The Russians have always used war and attacks to intimidate everyone in negotiations,” Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram about Sunday’s attack.
On Saturday, a Russian drone attack killed nine civilians after hitting a shuttle bus in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, Kyiv said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the attack “deliberate” and urged stronger sanctions on Moscow, which said it had attacked a military facility, as reported by Reuters.
According to several milblogger Telegram channels, at one point, there were more than 80 drones over Ukraine inbound from Russia.
All the injured in the Obukhiv district, just south of the Kyiv city limits, were hospitalised, including the four-year-old child, Kalashnik said. Several residential buildings were damaged in the district, he added.
Reuters witnesses in and around Kyiv also reported hearing blasts that sounded like air defense units in operation.
The Ukrainian Air Force said mid-Sunday morning it had intercepted 88 of 273 drones Russia launched overnight, mostly targeting the Kyiv region.
“The enemy attacked with 273 Shahed attack drones and various types of imitator drones,” it said. It said 88 were destroyed and 128 more went astray “without negative consequences.”
According to mid-morning reports by Ukraine’s state news agency Ukrinform, “Emergency services are working to eliminate the consequences of a massive overnight drone attack in the Obukhiv and Fastiv districts.”
Ukrainian State Emergency Service (DSNS) told Ukrinform in a statement:
“Rescuers are extinguishing fires caused by the massive enemy attack. Sadly, there are casualties of Russian aggression,” the DSNS said, acknowledging the dead and wounded victims.
This article has been updated with information provided by Ukrainian civilian and military officials.