1 of 2 | Ukrainian air defenses shot down a Russian attack drone over Ukraine’s parliament building early Saturday morning during a widespread drone assault in which 58 of 67 drones tracked were shot down. Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE
Sept. 7 (UPI) — Russia launched 67 Shahed drones at various targets in Ukraine Saturday, but Ukrainian officials on Saturday said they destroyed 58 of them while several others flew into other regions.
Russia launched the drones overnight Friday and into early Saturday morning from Kursk, Yeisk and the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Ukraine’s air surveillance systems tracked the 67 drones, including six that the Ukrainian military said flew toward Russia, Belarus and Russia-occupied Luhansk Oblast.
Three other drones disappeared from radar while over Ukraine.
Debris from one of the intercepted drones landed outside Ukraine’s parliament building while other drones targeted several locations, including Sumy in the northeast, Kherson in the south, Poltava in central Ukraine and Kyiv.
Kyiv military region leader Serhii Popko called it a “massive drone attack” on Kyiv and said one drone was shot down over the parliament building.
The Russian drones approached Kyiv at 3 a.m. local time, but none reached their targets.
Air raid sirens sounded for more than eight hours with no casualties reported from the drone attack.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky recently asked for more help with Ukraine’s air defense systems to fend off Russian missiles, attack drones and bombs used to attack Ukrainian cities and villages.
Russia launched missile attacks against Kharkiv in western Ukraine on Sunday and Monday, and a military school in Poltava on Tuesday.
More than 55 people died from the missile attacks.
A Russian missile attack on Lviv in western Ukraine killed seven Wednesday after striking civilian infrastructure.
U.S. Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Zelensky and other representatives of the Ukraine Defense Contract Group on Saturday in Ramstein, Germany.
The ad-hoc group is composed of 57 nations, including all 32 NATO nations.
“There’s no one capability that will … be decisive in this campaign,” Austin said, adding that Russia is a large nation with lots of targets.
“There’s a lot of capability that Ukraine has in terms of [unmanned aerial vehicles] and other things to address those targets,” he said.
Austin’s made his comments in response to requests for more offensive firepower from Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.