Kyiv - Interception units across Kyiv are working nightly as hundreds of Russian drones target the Ukrainian capital, according to volunteers who join in the defense effort.
A five-person team begins its shifts after dark, including Volodymyr, a public relations office manager who volunteers once a week.
“I took this decision just this year during the… another heavy attack by Russian drones,” Volodymyr said early Saturday morning. “I was underground with my family, and I was thinking there is something that I can do, not just hide here but to fight.”
In the early morning, more drones appear over the city. Ukrainian officials said that by 6 o’clock a total of 653 drones had been launched toward the country, and 615 were shot down.
“This is what the air defense force does. Mobile groups and jamming systems. This is air defense work,” said Petro, the head of the drone-defense team.
While Kyiv’s defense units continued to intercept drones around the capital, missile strikes hit other regions. One target was a railway station in the city of Fastiv.
A “horrible attack” struck a residential area near the station, said Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chairman of Ukrainian Railways. He said Russian claims that it was a NATO base were untrue.
“This is a place where students, nurses, elderly people just take suburban trains every morning,” he said.
In the past 24 hours, Russia launched 51 cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities said. Thirty were intercepted. Damage was reported in about 30 locations, with no casualties confirmed.
Nearly four years have passed since the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, a war that has killed thousands of civilians. Now, with American mediation, efforts to end the conflict have intensified, but Russia has consistently demanded full control over the areas of Ukraine it currently occupies.
