KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine shot down 24 of 28 Shahed drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack that damaged residential buildings in Kyiv and an infrastructure facility and grain warehouse in southern regions, officials said.
They said more than two dozen Russian drones targeted Ukraine’s capital, hitting the 24th, 25th and 26th storeys of an apartment building and injuring two people, and causing lesser damage to several other residential buildings.
In the south, Russia again tried to hit port infrastructure – a frequent target since it pulled out of a U.N.-brokered deal reached after Russia’s February 2022 invasion that allowed safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea.
“…Wreckage of the downed (drone) damaged a granary. There was a fire that was quickly tamed by the company’s employees,” the southern military command said on the Telegram messaging platform, describing the aftermath in the Odesa region.
In the neighbouring Mykolaiv region, an unidentified infrastructure facility was hit, causing a fire, the military added. There were no reports of injuries in either region.
Later on Friday, Mykola Oleschuk, chief of Ukraine’s air force, said it had downed three Russian SU-34 fighter-bombers “in a southern direction”, which he did not specify.
Reuters could not independently verify that report.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk, Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Mark Heinrich)
