Kyiv pummelled by six-hour drone attack on remembrance day for Stalin atrocities

Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine today, targeting Kyiv with dozens of craft in a bid to overwhelm the city’s air defences.

Ukrainian officials said they managed to down 74 of the 75 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in a six-hour blitz largely aimed at the capital.

“The enemy launched a record number of attack drones in Ukraine. The main direction of the attack is Kyiv,” said General Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of the Ukrainian air force.

The attack appeared to have been launched to disrupt Ukraine’s Holodomor Remembrance Day, which honours the millions who starved to death in the 1930s under the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Five people were wounded in the attack, including an 11-year-old child, according to Ukrainian officials.

The drones caused fires and damage to buildings across Kyiv. “My wife thought that the house would collapse in half,” said one survivor.

Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkevics, on a visit to Kyiv, posted a photo of himself on social media inside a dark bomb shelter.

Moscow was probably seeking to pierce Ukraine’s air defence as it targets the energy grid at the beginning of winter.

Its forces attempted the same tactic last year, which led to millions living in freezing, dark conditions but ultimately failed to quell Ukrainian morale.

Volodmyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said of the drone assault: “More than 70 Shahed on the night of the Holodomor Remembrance Day... The Russian leadership is proud of the fact that it can kill.”

Shahed drones are cheap, Iranian-made UAVs which are being supplied in huge numbers as part of a growing security alliance between Tehran and Moscow which has deeply concerned the West.

The drone attack led to power cuts in 77 residential buildings and 120 institutions according to Kyiv city administration chief Serhii Popko.

In a speech on Saturday, Mr Zelensky also drew a direct comparison between Holodomor – which means death by starvation in Ukrainian – and the current onslaught by Russia.

“In the last century, famine came from Moscow. Now, we hear words of denial from there. And every one of these words of denial actually sounds like a confession,” Mr Zelensky said.

He added that it was “impossible” for Ukraine to forgive Russia for Holodomor, a man-made famine unleashed by Stalin once he felt threatened by Ukraine’s strengthening economy.

Swiss neutrality

Switzerland’s President Alain Berset was also in Kyiv and paid homage to the victims of Holodomor that he said was “provoked by Soviet leaders”.

Mr Zelensky said he and Mr Berset discussed “humanitarian demining, the use of frozen profits from the assets of the aggressor country and the peace formula”.

Switzerland’s famed neutrality has been tested since Russia invaded Ukraine – the Alpine country has followed the EU’s lead on sanctions on Moscow but has refused to allow countries that hold Swiss-made weapons to send them to Kyiv.

It came as Ukraine continued to urge Western allies, notably Germany and the United States, to increase supplies of arms and armour.

Israel-Hamas war

There is growing concern in Kyiv that the Israel-Hamas war has distracted its allies, amid reports that Washington is diverting ammunition which had been earmarked for Ukraine to Israel.

A report citing government sources in the German tabloid Bild claimed on Friday that Berlin and Washington are seeking to pressure Mr Zelensky into negotiations with Mr Putin in the near future.

The report, citing German sources in the coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, claimed that Germany and the United States will only send enough weapons and ammunition to help Ukraine maintain the current frontlines.

This would pressure Mr Zelesnky into pivoting from an attempt to recapture occupied territory to meeting Russia at the negotiating table, the report said. The United States, which Bild’s sources claimed is in full agreement with Berlin on the plan, has not yet issued a response.