


At least one drone was shot down above the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Thursday as officials condemned Russia’s fourth attack on the city this week.
Shocking video from the streets near the city’s Independence Square show a drone flying over the capital as military personnel fired anti-aircraft ammunition during a raid that lasted about 20 minutes.
Spectators appeared to look on in concern and confusion until the drone was shot down, erupting into a fiery blaze that plummeted down toward the capital.
The violent sight was immediately followed by screams from the people on the streets, echoed by sounds of explosions from the drone before it crashed.
Serhiy Popko, the city military administration head, told Al Jazeera the drone was taken down by the air defense force, with the aftermath causing a fire in the city’s Solom’yans’kyi district.
The fire was quickly put out, and no injuries were reported.
Ukrainian officials said Russia fired about two dozen combat drones into the country, with Kyiv suffering three other attacks in the last four days.


The nation also saw an attack at a university campus in the Black Sea city of Odessa, and the downed drone there appeared to contain a handwritten message that read, “For the Kremlin,” Ukrainian military officials in the city said.
The drone attacks in Ukraine come just a day after Russia accused Ukraine and the US for a purported attack on the Kremlin, where video appeared to show two explosions over the Russian city.
The footage showed two airborne objects approaching Russia’s Senate Palace, one of them exploding with a bright flash. Russia claimed its military used “radar systems” to “disable” the drones “without causing any casualties or damage.”



Putin was not in his residence at the complex at the time, officials said.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the two explosions over the Kremlin an act of terrorism and condemned the US and Ukraine for the alleged drone attacks.
“Attempts to disown this, both in Kyiv and in Washington, are, of course, absolutely ridiculous. We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv but in Washington,” Peskov said.
The US and Ukraine have both denied being involved in the attacks, with White House national security spokesperson John Kirby accusing Peskov of “just lying” about the attacks.