A few hours before the opening in Lithuania of a crucial NATO summit devoted to support for Ukraine, the country was the target of a new Russian strike. The drone attack took place in the middle of the night in kyiv, Ukrainian authorities reported on Tuesday (July 11th).
“The enemy attacked Kyiv from the air for the second time this month,” Kyiv’s military administration said on its Telegram account, noting that the attack caused minor damage. The action was carried out with Iranian-made Shahed drones launched from the south, she added, likely from Russia’s Krasnodar region.
“All detected air targets moving in the direction of Kiev were destroyed by the forces and means of our air defense,” the same source said without specifying the number of downed drones.
For its part, the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior indicated that drone debris had been located in the kyiv region. “Windows and outbuildings of particular residences were damaged,” the source added. Relatively spared since the beginning of the year, the Ukrainian capital had been the target of frequent nocturnal air raids in May.
The southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa was also targeted by a drone attack overnight, local government official Sergiy Bratchuk said. The air defenses were activated, he said, without giving further details. Air alerts were also activated in Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kirovograd, Poltava, Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Russia claims to have launched 28 explosive drones on Ukraine overnight, targeting in particular a port in the Odessa region, a key area for the grain agreement, Ukrainian authorities said on Tuesday. “A grain terminal at a port in the Odessa region” was targeted in the attack, regional governor Oleg Kiper said. Ukrainian air defense shot down 26 of these suicide drones out of a total of 28, the air force said.
Turkey agreed to Sweden’s membership in NATO on Monday, a “historic day” allowing the Allies to show their unity at the start of the Vilnius summit, centered on support for Ukraine, near 18 months after the start of the Russian offensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, expected at this summit, called for “a clear signal” from Westerners on his country’s membership prospects.
