Russia hit Kyiv and its surrounding region with waves of drones for a second consecutive day on Friday, killing at least one person and damaging warehouses, homes and apartment buildings. Ukrainian officials said the strikes were an attempt to derail daily life for millions of residents.
At least one person was killed outside Kyiv, Governor Tymur Tkachenko said. He added that 14 warehouse premises, 16 homes and three blocks of apartment buildings had been damaged. Air-raid sirens blared across the city Friday morning, a day after an hours-long missile and drone attack that targeted major retailers and consumer logistics in Kyiv and elsewhere.
Those strikes continued into Friday, destroying sorting centres belonging to Ukraine's top private courier Nova Poshta near Kyiv and in the northern city of Sumy, the company said. In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone tore into the home-improvement store Epicenter, wounding at least four people, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
Attacks aim to wear down Kyiv's defences
Ukraine's state emergency service said Russia had attacked the Kyiv region 38 times over the past 24 hours, warning residents to stay clear of areas where firefighters were still battling blazes. Friday's attacks appeared aimed at prolonging the disruption sparked by Thursday's strikes, which delayed trains across several regions and left passengers stranded for long periods.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Centre for Countering Disinformation, said the goal is to wear down air defences and the population. Ukraine's state railway said Friday that delays were gradually decreasing, but the effects of the frequent strikes and air-raid alerts would be felt for at least another day. Kyiv spent nearly 15 hours under air-raid alert on Thursday, according to Ukraine's foreign ministry.
Retailers and logistics hit again
Russian forces also struck a shopping center in Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said — the second such attack there in two days. Russia and Ukraine have stepped up strikes in recent weeks on consumer logistics and online retailers in a bid to dent each other's economies and weaken their respective war efforts.
Also Friday, a Russian drone attack destroyed a Kyiv-region warehouse belonging to a major book retailer that shipped thousands of titles per day, the company said.
Source: Commodities & Futures News
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