Ukrainian Authority Calls Russian Drone Attack Targets Important Infrastructure

Children's hospital in Kherson was hit by a Russian attack on the evening of January 1. (Wikimedia Commons/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russia has targeted Ukraine's critical infrastructure in a series of drone strikes on Monday morning in Kyiv and surrounding areas, officials said.

Russia continues to attack Kyiv for the second night in a row, after firing a series of missiles over the capital on New Year's Eve and during the previous day.

"His voice is loud in the region and in the capital, night drone attacks," Governor Kyiv Oleksify Kuleba said on the messaging app Telegram.

"Russia launched several waves of Shahed (irran-made) drones. Targeting critical infrastructure facilities. Air defenses are working," he explained.

At 3 a.m. local time, Ukraine's air defense system destroyed 16 aerial objects over Kyiv, the city's military administration said. The sirens fired at the time for more than three hours.

Earlier in the evening, debris from a drone destroyed aboard Kyiv hit the capital's northeastern district, injuring one person, Mayor Kyiv Vitali Klitschko said.

A 19-year-old man was taken to hospital in Desnianskiy Kyiv district, Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app, after drone debris hit the road there and damaged a building.

Separately, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, aide to the President of Ukraine, said drone debris hit a road in Desnianskiy district, northeast of Kyiv, destroying a building next to it.

The district, which is located on the left bank of the Dnipro River, is mostly the most populous residential and district area in the capital.

Ukraine's regional military command in the east of the country said the air defense system destroyed nine Iranian-made Shahed drones over the Dniprop layoffssk and Zaporizhzhia areas in the early hours of Monday.

As previously reported, Ukrainian troops shot down 45 Iranian-made Shahed drones fired by Russia on the first night of this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Sunday, praising Ukraine for showing gratitude to the troops and one another.

"Drones, missiles, others will not help them," he said of Russia.

"Because we are united. They are united only by fear," he said.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin's harsh New Year's address hinted that he would not stop attacking Ukraine, in contrast to President Zelensky's previous message of hope.