On Tuesday, shortly after the start of the NATO summit in Vilnius, after a Russian warplane that may be equipped with hypersonic Kinjal missiles was detected during takeoff, warnings of possible airstrikes were sounded in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, The Guardian reports, citing News. .ro.

European market in Kyiv, UkrainePhoto: Dominika Zarzycka / ddp USA / Profimedia

City officials sent an alert to all cellphones starting at 3 p.m. local time, urging residents to take shelter.

The alarm was caused by the detection of a MiG-31K aircraft that took off from the Savasleyka airbase in the Nizhny Novgorod region in western Russia. While such flights occur regularly, the Kremlin has a habit of targeting Kyiv at symbolic moments to stage a political and military show.

Air raid sirens were also activated in February when Joe Biden made his first visit to Kyiv since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion. The American president and Volodymyr Zelenskyy then left the Mykhailivskyi Monastery together.

During the night, Ukraine announced the shooting down of 26 Russian Shahed drones launched from the southeast. The two managed to get past the Ukrainian air defense. In Odesa, kamikaze drones hit the administrative building of the port, two port terminals, including a grain one, caught fire. The fire was extinguished, no serious damage or injuries were recorded, the capital authorities reported.

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