KYIV:Ukraine said Thursday it had downed 20 Russian attack drones and two cruise missiles in an overnight attack that killed one and wounded at least four in the capital Kyiv.
“We have a successful air defense operation,” air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat told national television.
“Twenty Shaheds were destroyed — all those flying were downed.”
The 20 Iran-made Shahed attack drones were destroyed “mainly in the Kyiv region”, Ukraine’s air force said in a separate statement on Telegram.
The drones had “entered the capital from different directions”, Kyiv’s military administration said on Telegram earlier, adding air defenses had destroyed “about a dozen” in the city’s airspace.
Falling debris was reported in five city districts, it said, adding that a 19-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man had been hospitalized with shrapnel wounds.
Two people were wounded in Darnytsky district “as a result of falling debris”, Sergiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, wrote on Telegram.
It was unclear if they were the same two people.
Emergency services were responding to calls in Solomyansky, Shevchenkivsky, Podilsky and Darnytsky districts following “explosions in the capital”, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said earlier.
In Podilsky district, firefighters discovered the “body of one dead person”, Klitschko posted on Telegram.
Klitschko also said two people had been “hospitalized” in Darnytsky district after falling debris damaged a residential building.
It was not clear if they were the same two people mentioned by the military administration.
Two others in Shevchenkivsky district had been treated at the scene, Klitschko said.
Fires broke out in an apartment building in Shevchenkivsky and in a non-residential building in Podilsky district, he said, adding emergency services were on site.
A picture posted on Telegram by Kyiv’s military administration showed a room in a high-rise building with part of its wall blown out, in what it said was the result of falling debris in Darnytsky district.
Ukrainian air defenses also destroyed two Kalibr cruise missiles during the night, Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram.
It said an Iskander-M ballistic missile had also been launched from Crimea, a southern peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Information was “still being clarified” regarding the missile launch, it said.
Ukraine says downed 20 Russian drones, 2 cruise missiles
Ukraine says downed 20 Russian drones, 2 cruise missiles
- Two people were wounded in Darnytsky district
Ukraine’s Zelensky: We have backed US peace proposals to get a deal done
- “The tactic we chose is for the Americans not to think that we want to continue the war,” Zelensky told The Atlantic
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had sought to back US peace proposals to end the war with Russia as President Donald Trump seeks to resolve the conflict before November mid-term elections.
Zelensky, in an interview published by The Atlantic on Thursday, said Kyiv was willing to hold both a presidential election and a referendum on a deal, but would not settle for an accord that was detrimental to Ukraine’s interests.
“The tactic we chose is for the Americans not to think that we want to continue the war,” Zelensky told the US-based publication. “That’s why we started supporting their proposals in any format that speeds things along.”
He said Ukraine was “not afraid of anything. Are we ready for elections? We’re ready. Are we ready for a referendum? We’re ready.”
Zelensky has sought to build good relations with Washington since an Oval Office meeting in February 2025 descended into a shouting match with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
But he said he had rejected a proposal, reported this week by the Financial Times, to announce the votes on February 24, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion. A ceasefire and proposed US security guarantees against a future invasion had not yet been settled, he said.
“No one is clinging to power,” The Atlantic quoted him as saying. “I am ready for elections. But for that we need security, guarantees of security, a ceasefire.”
And he added: “I don’t think we should put a bad deal up for a referendum.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Zelensky is not a legitimate negotiating partner because he has not faced election since coming to power in 2019.
Zelensky has said in recent weeks that a document on security guarantees for Ukraine is all but ready to be signed.
But, in his remarks, he acknowledged that details remained unresolved, including whether the US would be willing to shoot down incoming missiles over Ukraine if Russia were to violate the peace.
“This hasn’t been fixed yet,” Zelensky said. “We have raised it, and we will continue to raise these questions...We need all of this to be written out.”
