One dead in drone attacks on Kyiv: Mayor

(Reuters) -Ukrainian anti-aircraft units engaged attacking drones for the third consecutive night in and around Kyiv on Thursday, triggering fires and falling debris in several districts and killing at least one person, officials said.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said the body of one resident was recovered when emergency services put out a fire in the capital’s historic Podil district.

With explosions resounding in the capital and other regional centres more than 500 days into Russia’s invasion, military officials said Ukrainian forces were making progress with their counter offensive on front lines in the east and south.

These included gains near the shattered city of Bakhmut, captured by Russian forces in May after months of battles.

In Kyiv, Klitschko reported a fire in an apartment building in Podil and said two people were injured when debris damaged one storey of an apartment building in Darnytskyi district in the east of the city.

Two more people were injured in Shevchenkivskyi district further west, where a balcony caught fire in an apartment building. Debris also struck the central Solomyanskyi district.

The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, described the assault as a “mass attack” by Iranian-made Shahed drones that had approached from different directions.

“Anti-aircraft forces identified and destroyed about 10 foreign targets,” Popko wrote on Telegram.

Pictures on the military administration’s website showed buildings with burnt out areas or damaged facades.

The three days of assaults coincided with a NATO summit in Lithuania praised by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for providing Ukraine with “a foundation of security” for the first time since independence. He had earlier expressed a measure of frustration that no timetable was given for securing NATO membership.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Ukraine shot down 11 of 15 Iranian-made drones fired by Russia and two people were hurt in a fire caused by the attack on Kyiv. An elderly man was killed in shelling of the southern city of Kherson.

UKRAINE REPORTS PROGRESS NEAR BAKHMUT

On the front line, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar reported on Telegram: “In the Bakhmut sector, we attacked today on the southern flank around Bakhmut. There is an advance. Our defenders are digging in at their established positions.”

Maliar said Ukrainian forces had contained attempted Russian advances on towns to the north and west. In the south, they “pressed on with offensive operations” towards the Sea of Azov.

“In the past week, our defenders in the south have significantly undermined the enemy’s attacking and defensive capabilities,” she wrote.

Reuters was unable to verify battlefield developments.

In its account of the front line, the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had repelled 30 Ukrainian attacks in the past 24 hours in areas spanning Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

It listed one of the sites of its successful operations as Klishchiivka, a village occupying heights outside Bakhmut.

Ukraine said this week its forces had control of elevated positions allowing for direct strikes on the city of Bakhmut.

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