Two people were killed and four others taken to hospital after a Russian drone struck a petrol station in Kyiv early on Friday, according to the city's mayor.
Fears are growing in the Ukrainian capital that Moscow has launched a new campaign targeting petrol stations, a tactic Russian forces have used for some time in areas closer to the front line.
“There are two dead following the morning attack on a petrol station in Kyiv,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on social media.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian drone attacks were “increasingly taking on a terrorist character” and that Kyiv needed to strengthen its countermeasures.
Russia has not publicly commented on the strike but denies targeting civilians.
Two Ukrnafta stations reportedly hit
Ukraine's State Emergency Service released footage showing the petrol station damaged by fire, with smoke still rising from the site following the drone attack.
Ukrnafta, Ukraine's state-owned oil company, said two of its petrol stations had been hit simultaneously on Friday morning.
“This is yet another deliberate strike on civilian infrastructure that provides people with fuel and essential goods,” chief executive Bohdan Kukura said on social media.
“There is no military target in such attacks. This is terrorism against the civilian population,” he added.
Faster drones pose challenge for air defences
For weeks, Russia has been launching a new type of faster drone against Kyiv, equipped with jet engines and targeting, among other sites, supply-chain hubs and warehouses.
The drones can reach speeds of up to 600 kilometres per hour, making them more difficult for Ukrainian air defences to intercept.
“The primary purpose of these strikes is to paralyse economic activity and make it extremely difficult to transport anything anywhere,” Ihor Kozi, a military expert at the Kyiv-based Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, told a local television station.
The latest attack comes as Russia continues its campaign of drone and missile strikes against Ukraine, with Kyiv and other cities regularly targeted.
