Kyiv and Kharkiv Targeted by Heavy Russian Missile and Drone Attacks

The Ukrainian Air Force reported heavy drone and missile attacks by Russia on Kyiv and several other locations in the country. The latest attacks occurred overnight and in the early hours of Monday, September 2, with the Russian army using a large number of cruise missiles along with several ballistic missiles. Several powerful explosions shook Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, sending many residents to shelters. According to Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, emergency services were dispatched to the neighborhoods of Holosiivskyi and Solomianskyi. Mr. Klitschko also reported one injury in the Shevchenkivskyi neighborhood. At the same time, Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine in the east of the country, also witnessed at least one explosion. Just one day before these attacks, Russia claimed to have intercepted and destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones over 15 different regions of the country, including near Moscow. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, 46 Ukrainian drones were intercepted over the Kursk region, an area that Ukraine has occupied parts of for several weeks. Another 76 drones were intercepted over the border areas of Bryansk, Voronezh, and Belgorod. In a drone attack by Ukraine on a refinery and power plant near Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, stated that parts of one of the two drones intercepted and destroyed over the city caused a fire at a refinery. Ukraine's drone attacks, including those on the outskirts of Moscow, have extended the war far beyond the border areas and into the heart of Russia. In recent months, Ukraine has attempted to reduce the speed and intensity of Kremlin attacks by targeting refineries and oil transfer terminals in various parts of Russia. On the other hand, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on Sunday that its forces had taken control of two more areas in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. In recent days, Russian forces have been making slow but steady advances in Donetsk, getting closer to the strategic city of Pokrovsk, which is considered a critical logistical passage for Ukrainian forces. On the same day, Russian missile attacks on Kharkiv continued. According to the mayor of the city, ten Russian missiles hit various locations in Kharkiv, damaging a shopping center, a sports complex, and a residential building, with over 40 people injured. More than two and a half years after the start of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, the capitals of both countries increasingly feel the war and its effects.