Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press
- Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign affairs said the country shot down more than 70 drones near Kyiv.
- The drone attack is Russia's largest since its invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
- Five people were injured and a kindergarten caught fire during the attack.
Ukraine says it intercepted most of Russia's drones launched toward Kyiv as part of the largest drone attack on the country since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign affairs said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the country's Armed Forces and Air Defense system shot down 71 out of 75 "Shahed" drones launched into the country by Russia on the night of November 25.
During the night of November 25, Russia launched 75 'Shahed' drones, out of which 71 were successfully destroyed by the Armed Forces of #Ukraine and the Air Defense systems
— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) November 25, 2023
❗ The number of launched attack UAVs became a record high since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. pic.twitter.com/N7lxwXOidt
Mykhailo Shamanov, a spokesperson for the Kyiv military administration, told CNN that the drone attack on the city is the fourth from Russia in the last month.
Compact Armament Research, a UK-based organization that investigates weapon components, examined 20 Iranian-made drones inside Ukraine from November 2022 to March 2023, according to CNN. CAR confirmed that around half of the drones reviewed were Shahed-136s and had motors that were reverse engineered by the Iranian company, Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar.
CAR said Mado appears to have tried to conceal its role in the manufacture of the drones after finding that some serial numbers on the device's components had been rubbed off, CNN reported.
In a Telegram post, Ukraine's air force said it intercepted the "vast majority" of the 71 Iranian-made drones near Kyiv, but found some in other regions of the country as well, according to the outlet.
Still, Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said five people were wounded during the attacks, including an 11-year-old girl, according to Reuters. Two people were injured in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district, Klitschko said, and several areas in the district caught fire during the attack, including a residential building, he told CNN.
Kyiv city military administration head, Serhii Popko, confirmed to the outlet that a kindergarten caught fire after official's downed a drone in the Solomianskyi district.
Ukraine's energy ministry said in a statement that 77 residential buildings and 120 non-residential facilities in central Kyiv lost power as a result of the attack, Kyiv Post reported.