KYIV: Russia unleashed the “most important” assault by drones on Kyiv overnight Saturday-Sunday since the start of the invasion, but nearly all were destroyed, military authorities said.

Forty of the 54 drones launched targeted the capital, killing two people and wounding three.

“In total a record number of explosive drones launched were counted: 54!” Ukraine’s air force said in a Telegram post on Sunday.

“It’s the most important drone attack against the capital since the start of the invasion” in February 2022, the regional military administration said on Telegram.

The attack “took place over several waves and the air raid alert lasted more than five hours!”

“According to preliminary reports more than 40 Russian drones were destroyed by air defence” systems over Kyiv, the administration added.

With most of the drones being downed, “debris fell on a seven-storey building” in the capital’s Golosiivskii district, killing one person and wounding another.

A fire broke out in a warehouse zone sending flames shooting 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) into the sky and also injuring one person, the administration said.

“The emergency services are at all the sites,” the regional authorities said.

Near a petrol station in the Solomianskii area, a 41-year-old man died and a 35-year-old woman was wounded and hospitalised, said Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.

It was the 14th drone attack on the Ukraine capital by Russia this month, the authorities said, noting an unprecedented number in a single month after Kyiv had been relatively spared at the start of the year.

The mayor described the assault as “massive” with drones “arriving from several directions at once”.

Sunday was to be celebrated as the capital’s special day, prompting the authorities to make an ironic statement: “Today the enemy decided to ‘congratulate’ the population on Kyiv Day with the help of their killer drones”.

The 54 attack drones were launched “from the regions of Briansk and Krasnodar” in Russia, said the air force, adding that 52 were destroyed.