Ukraine says Russian drone barrage injures one in Kyiv region

KYIV (Reuters) -A Russian overnight drone barrage injured one person and damaged five homes in Ukraine’s Kyiv region, the regional authorities said on Monday.

Governor Ruslan Kravchenko reported no damage to critical infrastructure in the region surrounding the capital.

Overall, during the attack over the central, northern and southern regions of Ukraine, the air force shot down 53 out of 56 Russian drones, according to a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Air defence units destroyed nearly 20 drones that were heading towards Kyiv itself, the Ukrainian military said.

“Russian attack drones were heading to Kyiv from different directions and in different groups,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Telegram.

“According to preliminary information, there were no casualties or damage in Kyiv.”

Reuters witnesses reported a series of loud explosions in what sounded like air defence systems in operation.

Russia has pummelled Ukraine with missile and drone attacks in its 30-month-old full-scale invasion, dealing significant damage to the power grid and other civilian infrastructure.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow. Russia says its aerial attacks target only infrastructure that is key to Ukraine’s war effort.

(Reporting by Valentyn Ogirenko, Pavel Polityuk and Anastasiia Malenko in Kyiv; Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Kim Coghill, Himani Sarkar and Kevin Liffey)