KYIV, Ukraine: Kyiv was the target of the “heaviest” rocket and drone fire since spring early today (Wednesday), authorities said, with two people reported dead, as Russia claimed to have destroyed four Ukrainian boats in the Black Sea carrying up to 50 soldiers.
More than 20 missiles and drones were “destroyed by air defense forces” overnight, the military administration of the city of Kyiv wrote on Telegram, describing the airstrike as the “strongest” to hit the city since spring.
At least three loud explosions were heard in central Kyiv around 5:00 a.m. (02:00 GMT).
Two people died as a result of falling debris, Sergiy Popko, the head of the military administration of the city of Kyiv, wrote on Telegram.
Another person was injured and given medical treatment.
Russian forces launched groups of Iranian Shahed attack drones at the capital from different directions and fired missiles from the planes, the military administration of the city of Kyiv said.
Earlier, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said a Russian aircraft “destroyed four high-speed military boats” in the Black Sea around midnight Moscow time (21:00 GMT Tuesday).
The boats were carrying “landing groups of Ukrainian special operations forces with a total number of up to 50 people,” the ministry said in Telegram.
It did not provide details on where exactly in the Black Sea the incident occurred.
Early Wednesday morning, Russian defenses also repelled a “nearby naval drone attack” near Crimea’s Sevastopol Bay, the state-run TASS news agency quoted local Moscow-deposed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev as saying.
Sevastopol is the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Both Ukraine and Russia have stepped up activity around the strategic waterway after a UN-brokered deal to ensure safe passage for grain ships collapsed last month.
In recent weeks, Kiev has attacked Russian ships in its waters and on the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Last week, Ukraine said its forces raised the country’s flag in Crimea during a “special operation” to mark its second Independence Day of the war.
Moscow’s Defense Ministry also said last week that one of its jets had destroyed a Ukrainian “survey boat” near Russian gas production facilities in the Black Sea.
Ukraine has launched another wave of nighttime drone strikes against Russia, targeting several regions from an airport near the Estonian border to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, Russian authorities said.
Air defences “repelled” a drone attack on the airport in Pskov, about 800 kilometers (nearly 500 miles) from the Ukrainian border and near the borders of EU member states Latvia and Estonia, the governor there said.
Regional governor Mikhail Vedernikov, who said he was at the scene of the attack, posted a video on Telegram of the massive fire with the sounds of explosions and sirens in the background.
Authorities assessed the damage, but there were no casualties, he said.
The Ministry of Defense did not immediately comment.
The RIA Novosti agency, citing the Ministry of Emergency Situations, said that two Ilyushin Il-76 heavy transport aircraft caught fire.
All flights at the airport Wednesday were canceled, Vedernikov wrote, “until the nature of the possible damage to the runway becomes clear.”
Citing air traffic services, TASS also said that Moscow’s Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports were “temporarily closed” for operations.
The Pskov region was targeted by drones earlier in May.
Authorities in the Bryansk region near the Ukrainian border, the southern Oryol region, and the Kaluga and Ryazan regions, southwest and southeast of Moscow, reported that all the drones had been destroyed or shot down.
Air defences also destroyed a drone “heading towards Moscow,” the city’s mayor wrote on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties or damage according to initial reports.
Moscow and other Russian regions have been targeted by near-daily drone strikes since Kiev vowed this summer to “return” the conflict to Russia.
