Explosions as Russia launches its 15th air offensive on Kiev in May | News of the war between Russia and Ukraine

The missile attack, which took place overnight, comes a day after Russia carried out its largest drone attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Several explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital Kiev, according to officials, in Russia’s 15th air assault on the city this month and the second consecutive night attack.

“A missile was shot down near Kiev,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko told the Telegram messaging channel in the early hours of Monday. “Air defense works!”

He added that explosions were heard in several districts of the city, including the historic Podil district of Kiev, where falling debris damaged the roof of a house.

According to preliminary information from the mayor and the city’s military administration, there were no casualties in the attacks that took place during the night.

Monday’s attack, which appears to be a combination of missiles and drones, follows the largest drone barrage unleashed on Kiev the night before, killing one person and wounding others.

Officials said the city’s air defenses shot down 40 drones in and around the capital in the early hours of Sunday.

The Kyiv Independent news site reported that most of the drones were Iranian-made Shahed loitering.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the country’s air defense forces for protecting the country and asked parliament to impose sanctions on Iran for supplying arms to Russia, including Shahed drones.

Now waves of Russian attacks against Ukraine come in several times a week.

The full scale of Monday’s attack was not immediately known.

Reuters news agency reported several loud explosions as the city and the rest of Ukraine were under air raid alerts in the early hours of Monday.

As a long-promised Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake territory Russia has occupied since it began its all-out invasion 15 months ago draws near, Moscow has stepped up its attacks, targeting military infrastructure and supplies.

While Ukraine has almost never publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks inside Russia, a series of raids inside the country have targeted military, energy and transportation infrastructure, with Moscow blaming Kiev for the attacks.