“This is how Russia celebrates the day of our ancient Kyiv,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address.
Notably, the pre-dawn attacks came on the last Sunday of May when the capital celebrates Kyiv Day, the anniversary of its official founding 1,541 years ago.
“Strength is in people, it is in cities, it is in life, and when life, people, and the most important cities for culture are despised, Russia will only face defeat,” Zelenskiy said.
Several districts of Kyiv, by far the largest Ukrainian city with a population of around 3 million, suffered in the overnight attacks, officials said, including the historical Pecherskyi neighbourhood.
“The history of Ukraine is a long-standing irritant for the insecure Russians,” Ukraine’s chief presidential aide, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram, reported Associated Press.
“Today, the enemy decided to congratulate’ the people of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the help of their deadly UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles),” Popko also wrote on the messaging app, according to AP.
France condemned the attack “in the strongest terms”, adding that it had claimed the lives of at least two people and left several injured, in what it called a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, Reuters reported.
“These unacceptable acts constitute war crimes and cannot go unpunished,” the French foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.