Russian forces on Wednesday launched repeated attacks with Iranian-supplied “kamikaze drones” against targets in Ukraine’s Kyiv region and to the south in Odesa, killing at least one person, according to Ukrainian officials.
“There have been a repeated series of kamikaze drone strikes on Bila Tserkva infrastructure,” Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv region state administration, posted on Telegram. “There are fires at infrastructure facilities. There is one victim.”
Kuleba added emergency crews were responding and asked all Kyiv residents “to remain in their shelters.”
“The danger is still present,” Kuleba warned, as air raid sirens sounded in the region.
Kirilo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said Russian forces had also launched an attack on the southern port city of Odesa with a “Shahed-136” kamikaze drone.
Tymoshenko said Ukrainian air defense forces were able to “detect and destroy the enemy’s drone over the sea,” in a post on his Telegram account.
Unverified videos posted on social media Wednesday showed fire and plumes of smoke in the night sky following the attack on Bila Tserkva south of Kyiv.
Some context: US intelligence warned in July that Tehran planned to send Russia “hundreds” of bomb-carrying drones for use in the war in Ukraine. In August, a US official told CNN Russian troops were believed to have been training on the Iranian built drones for several weeks.
Iran began showcasing the Shahed-191 and Shahed-129 drones, also known as UAVs or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, to Russia at Kashan Airfield south of Tehran in June, US officials told CNN.
Both types of drones are capable of carrying precision-guided missiles.
