Several blasts rock Kyiv, hit by kamikaze drones
Russian drones struck buildings near a central Kyiv railway station during a rush-hour attack on Monday morning that caused several fires and damaged residential blocks.
There was no immediate word of any deaths in the drone strikes, exactly a week after Russian missiles slammed into Kyiv during the morning rush hour in the heaviest attack on the Ukrainian capital since the early days of Russia's invasion.
A Reuters reporter saw pieces of a drone used in the attack that bore the words: "For Belgorod."
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The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod close to the border with Ukraine has accused Ukrainian forces of repeatedly shelling the region, and gunmen shot dead 11 people at a military training ground in the Belgorod region on Saturday.
Reuters heard several blasts and saw smoke and flames rising above buildings on Monday. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitshchko said several residential buildings had been damaged.
Several blasts hit the Shevchenkivskyi district shortly after 8 a.m. (0500 GMT), when many people go to work and children head to school. A wave of explosions was also heard about an hour earlier.
Reuters television footage showed an air missile shooting into the sky as apartments burned.
Kyiv's city administration said after the first wave of explosions that "critical infrastructure" was being attacked.
The Shevchenkivskyi district, a busy hub with universities, student bars and restaurants, had also been hit a week earlier.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president's staff, said the latest attacks were carried out with so-called suicide drones.
"Russians think this will help them, but such actions are just their convulsions," Yermak said on Telegram.
Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. Iran denies supplying the drones to Russia, while the Kremlin has not commented.
Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
