The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said today that Russia launched more than 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones against his country overnight, most of which were shot down.

Zelensky also denounced the attack, which took place on the day Ukraine remembers the Holodomor famine of 1932-33, when several million Ukrainians died, as an act of “deliberate terrorism (…) The Russian leadership is proud of the fact that she can kill.”

The Ukrainian leadership has again likened the Holodomor to the current Russian invasion in the past. Ukraine and more than 30 other countries recognize the Holodomor as the genocide of the Ukrainian people by the Soviet Union, which Ukraine then belonged to, as it tried to suppress its desire for independence.

Moscow denies that these deaths were caused by a deliberate policy of genocide and points out that Russians and other citizens of other ethnicities also suffered from the famine.

“Prelude”

Most of the drones targeted Kiev and injured at least five people.

The attack, the worst launched by drones since the beginning of the war, began early this morning and targeted various districts of Kyiv, continuing as dawn broke. In total it lasted six hours.

A spokesman for local authorities in the Ukrainian capital told state-run Suspile station that at least 40 drones had been shot down. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, 71 drones were shot down, “most of which were destroyed in the Kyiv region”, as well as one missile.

THE mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko pointed out on Telegram that the attack injured five people, including an 11-year-old girl, and caused material damage to buildings in various areas of the capital.

Debris from a downed drone caused a fire at a daycare center, he added.

The target of the attack is currently unclear, but Ukraine has been warning in recent weeks that Russia will once again seek to strike the country’s energy infrastructure, as it did last winter.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said nearly 200 buildings in Kyiv, 77 of which are residential buildings, were left without electricity due to the attack.

“Looks like we heard the introduction today. The prelude to the winter season”, commented o Serhii Foursa ebecome a well-known Ukrainian economist on Facebook.