Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/KYIV: Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv were told to move to air raid shelters early Friday as warning sirens sounded all across the city, a day after Russia carried out its biggest aerial attack since its invasion of the country in February.
Shortly after 2.00 am local authorities in Kyiv issued an alert on Telegram about the air raid sirens and called on residents to head to shelters. Olekskiy Kuleba, governor of the Kyiv region, said on the messaging app that an “attack by drones” was underway.
Several explosions and anti-aircraft fire were heard 20 km (12 miles) south of Kyiv, reported Reuters while citing witnesses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address late on Thursday that air commands in central, southern, eastern and western Ukraine intercepted 54 Russian missiles and 11 drones during the day.
Countrywide power outages amid freezing temperatures
Zelensky said that most regions in the country were suffering power outages in freezing temperatures following a barrage of Russian missile strikes.
He added that the ongoing power disruption was “especially difficult in Kyiv region and the capital, Lviv region, Odessa and the region, Kherson and the region, Vinnytsia region and Transcarpathia.”
With each such attack, Russia was only driving itself further into a dead end as its missiles were “becoming less and less,” he added.
Ukraine and its Western allies denounced Russia’s invasion of the country on February 24 as an imperialist-style land grab.Whereas, Russian President Vladimir Putin has described Moscow’s move as a “special military operation” to demilitarize its neighbour.
