Ukraine’s air force said today that Russia launched a massive attack overnight, shooting down a total of 67 long-range Shahed drones, 58 of which were destroyed.
Air defence units have been deployed for action in 11 regions of Ukraine, the air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
The parliament issued a separate statement with several pictures on its official Telegram page, saying that drone debris was found near the parliament building in the capital Kyiv.
It is rare for a Russian missile or drone to reach this far into central Kiev, as the city is protected by a network of Soviet-era and Western-donated air defence systems.
The Government House, located on a hill in the centre of the city, is possibly the most secured place in Ukraine, as it also houses the offices of the President, the Cabinet and the Central Bank.
Photos on Telegram showed at least four pieces of debris scattered on the ground near the Parliament building. One piece lay at the bottom of the stairs leading to the main entrance of the building, while another piece of metal appeared to be riddled with shrapnel.
Reuters correspondents in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv heard a series of explosions shortly after 3 am (0000 GMT) on Saturday, some powerful enough to reverberate around the city centre, waking residents up.
Since the start of its invasion in February 2022, Moscow has launched thousands of missiles and Shahid drones into Ukraine.
This Iranian-designed drone has been in use by Russia since September 2022 as a cheaper, more useful alternative to missiles, which are expensive and difficult to manufacture.
The propeller-driven Shahed flies at less than 200 km/h (125 mph) but could be difficult for conventional air defence systems to detect because it flies at a lower altitude and emits much less heat than a missile.
Kiev’s air force said the drones were fired from two Russian border regions as well as from the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
