(Reuters) -Russian drones bore down on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday, with officials reporting fires in apartment and non-residential buildings a day after a record number of drones targeted the country.
The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said three people had suffered shrapnel wounds.
Tkachenko said six city districts had been hit, with fires breaking out in various buildings, storage areas and cars and drone fragments falling to the ground in different parts of the city.
“The enemy attack is continuing,” he wrote. “The defence forces are taking on enemy targets.”
Ukraine’s military issued warnings on the Telegram messaging app that the city could also be subject to a missile attack.
Reuters witnesses reported a series of loud explosions.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said emergency crews were at an apartment building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district, where falling drone fragments had triggered a fire on the top floor. Another fire was being tackled, also in the city centre.
Klitschko put the number of injured at two people in hospital.
On Tuesday night, Russian forces unleashed their largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the now 40-month-old war, with 728 drones targeting widely separated regions, including western Ukraine.
That attack took place hours after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv and aimed unusually sharp criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(Reporting by Gleb Garanich and Ron Popeski; Editing by Sandra Maler and Christopher Cushing)
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