Just as it happened in London between June and August 1944 with the famous flying bombs V-1kyiv was subjected this Monday to an intense bombardment with drones of Iranian origin, called suicide bombs, in a gesture that New York Times describes as “the alliance of Russia and Iran against the West”.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, the Russian army launched 48 drones, also called kamikaze, against the center of the capital, initially causing 4 deaths and the destruction of hundreds of apartments. Firefighters later found the remains of four other people and fear there must be many more in the rubble.
An AP analysis indicates that the use of drones could be an indication that Russia is seeing its missile arsenal dramatically reduced.
Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky commented in a video that Moscow is trying to terrorize the Ukrainian population, but “it will not succeed. The drones fly low and we are shooting them down.” Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ilnat added that his troops managed to shoot down 13 drones that entered the airspace from the south, coming from Crimea.
The concentrated use of kamikaze drones was the second bombardment in as many weeks after months in which airstrikes had become a rarity in central kyiv. power installations as well.
But almost eight months later, Ukraine has grown grimly accustomed to the attacks of the Russian invasion. Life in the city resumed as rescuers cleared away the rubble.
Previous Russian air strikes on kyiv have been mostly missile-based. Analysts believe that the slower-moving Shahed drones can be programmed to precisely hit certain targets using GPS unless the system fails, of course.
“Russia has no chance on the battlefield and tries to make up for its military defeats with terror,” he said. “Why this terror? To put pressure on us, on Europe, on the whole world,” Zelensky added.
On the other hand, the Russian military claimed to have used “air and sea-based long-range high-precision weapons” to attack Ukraine’s military and energy facilities. They hit “all assigned targets,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov insisted, without mentioning any downings.
