WATCH: KYIV HIT BY MULTIPLE BLASTS AS UKRAINE REPORTS “KAMIKAZE” DRONE STRIKES

Mon 17 October 2022:

The Ukrainian capital Kyiv has been hit by at least four explosions – with a presidential adviser blaming “kamikaze drones” sent by Russia.

A week ago, the capital was hit by Russian missiles at rush hour, part of nationwide attacks which left 19 dead.

This morning’s attacks were from drones – the low buzzing of these slow-moving weapons is becoming familiar across the country. Kyiv reverberated to the rattle of gunfire as anti-aircraft batteries frantically tried to shoot them down.

The blasts hit the Shevchenkivskyi district and damaged a number of residential buildings, Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging service.

“Rescuers are on the site,” he wrote, adding that as a result of what he said was a drone attack, a fire also broke out in a non-residential building.

Emergency services were reportedly clarifying information about any possible victims.

According to Anton Gerashchenko, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser, the capital was attacked by “Iranian drones”.

Military analysts have said Russia most likely used strategic bombers, cruise missiles and Iranian-made Shaheed “kamikaze” drones last week during renewed shelling in revenge for an attack on the Crimean Bridge, which links the annexed peninsula of Crimea to mainland Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia’s barrage of drone and missile attack across his country would not “break” Ukrainians.

He confirmed a residential building in Kyiv had been hit. The mayor of the capital said two people had been trapped under the rubble.

Iran denies supplying weapons to Russia as more EU sanctions loom

More EU sanctions on Iran will not be limited to blacklisting some individuals if Tehran’s involvement in the war on Ukraine is proven, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.

“Then it will be no longer about some individuals to be sanctioned,” he told reporters as he arrived for a meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg.

However, Iran said it had not provided Russia with drones to use in Ukraine.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said: “The published news about Iran providing Russia with drones has political ambitions and it’s circulated by Western sources. We have not provided weaponry to any side of the countries at war.”

Any use of Iranian drones would mark ‘escalation’ in conflict: Austria

Any use of Iranian drones in Russia’s war against Ukraine would escalate the conflict, Austria’s Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said.

“These kamikaze drones that we are seeing in Ukraine apparently now – this is an escalation,” he told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

He said providing equipment to Russia would actively support Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Kamikaze drones are Small aerial weapons, also known as loitering munitions, which are destroyed after striking the target

The name derives from the Japanese pilots who volunteered to crash their planes in suicide missions in World War Two

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent