Status: 12/14/2022 8:42 a.m
Ukrainian media and authorities report numerous airstrikes. According to the city administration, official buildings in a central district of Kyiv are said to have been damaged. The US is considering the delivery of the Patriot air defense system.
There were several explosions in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in the morning. They happened in the central district of Shevchenkivskyi, writes Mayor Vitali Klitschko in a telegram. According to Ukrainian media reports, Russia’s armed forces flew drone attacks on the three-million metropolis and its surroundings. At first there was talk of rocket impacts. The authorities said the air defense was deployed. There were air raids in the capital, the surrounding area and in Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia.
Two office buildings were damaged
According to officials in Kyiv, the drones are said to be Iranian-made Shahed drones. They had already been used in previous attacks on targets in the country.
Shrapnel from a drone damaged two office buildings in the Shevchenko district, the city administration also announced in its Telegram channel. No information was given about possible injuries. Regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said Ukrainian forces shot down ten drones over Kyiv and the surrounding area.
The reports of the attacks come at a time when Russia has been carrying out airstrikes on Ukraine in recent weeks, primarily targeting the country’s infrastructure.
Iranian-made Shahed drones are said to have been used again. (Archive image: Shahed-136 drone)
Image: picture alliance/dpa/AP
USA apparently want to deliver Patriot air defense system
In the face of increasing Russian airstrikes in recent weeks, the Ukrainian government has repeatedly demanded air defense systems from the West. After much hesitation, the USA now apparently want to comply and provide a Patriot air defense system.
A final decision could be announced as early as this week, the New York Times newspaper and CNN reported, citing US government officials.
The White House has yet to give the final green light. This could happen as early as this week. The US Army describes the Patriots as their “most advanced air defense system”. The US is already delivering Himars multiple rocket launchers and the Nasams air defense system to Ukraine.
Kuleba expects major Russian offensive
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba expects a new major Russian offensive in January or February. “I think that Russia will probably have restored its ability for a major offensive by the end of January or the beginning of February – they will try and we will try to prevent it,” he told press officials in Kyiv.