At least 1 killed, 9 injured as Russia, Ukraine trade aerial attacks

Miami Herald

2 days ago

July 21 (UPI) -- At least one person was killed and nine were injured in Kyiv and flights were disrupted in Moscow after Ukraine and Russia traded drone and missile attacks overnight.
Six districts of the Ukrainian capital were targeted, including Darnytskyi, where a kindergarten, a supermarket, warehouses and other non-residential buildings were set ablaze, and Shevchenkivskyi, where a multi-story residential building was damaged, said Kyiv City Military Administration head Timur Tkachenko.
He said the blast wave and flying debris smashed windows and damaged apartments and the entrance to the Lukyanivska metro station. An administrative building was partially destroyed and warehouses were on fire in the Solomyanskyi district.
The Holosiivskyi, Dniprovskyi and Svyatoshynskyi districts sustained minor damage from falling debris, Tkachenko said.
The Ukrainian Air Force said 450 drones and missiles were sent into Ukraine by Russian forces, with Kharkiv and the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk and surrounding region also sustaining significant damage
However, the air force claimed air defenses shot down all but 23.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack continued throughout the night with attack drones also intercepted over the Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Poltava and Kherson regions.
"Russian strikes are always an assault on humanity," he said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Ukraine launched its own attacks, striking deep into Russia with long-range drones for a fifth straight night, sparking "travel chaos" at Moscow's airports, two of which temporarily suspended flights.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there had been no injuries or major damage but that air defenses had now shot down 49 drones between Friday evening and Monday morning, with the Russian Defense Ministry claiming many more downed over provinces bordering Ukraine, but also deeper inside Russia.
The airborne offensive saw cancellations and flight delays at Moscow airports that forced thousands of travelers to wait in long lines or spend the night on terminal building floors.
The latest round of attacks came as French Foreign Minister Jean Noel-Barrot arrived in Kyiv for a two-day visit for talks on further assistance for Ukraine with Zelensky, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
In a social media update Monday, Zelensky said he and Noel-Barrot discussed defense assistance, particularly the need for air defense systems, training and the outcomes of meetings with partners at Ramstein -- the 56-country Ukraine Contact Group set up in 2022 to provide military support.
"We are ready to expand joint defense production. There are decisions by French companies to start manufacturing drones in Ukraine, which is highly valuable. We also talked about sanctions against Russia and negotiations regarding Ukraine's accession to the European Union," said Zelensky.
British Defense Secretary John Healey and German counterpart Boris Pistorius were expected to urge a meeting of the contact group Monday -- which the pair are jointly chairing -- to back a "50-day push" to get as many weapons and ammunition as possible into Ukraine in order to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate.
"Last week, President Trump announced a new plan for large-scale NATO weapons transfers and committed to getting these 'quickly distributed to the battlefield," Healey told the virtual meeting.
"Alongside this, the US has started the clock on a 50-day deadline for Putin to agree to peace or face crippling economic sanctions. As members of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, we need to step up in turn with a '50-day drive' to arm Ukraine on the battlefield and force Putin to the negotiating table," Healey said.
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