Russia launched a new series of overnight drone strikes on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, but most of them were downed by Ukraine’s air defenses, the military said on May 3, as Ukrainian forces in the eastern city of Bakhmut repelled more Russian attacks.
The Ukrainian Air Force Command said it destroyed 21 of the 26 Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 drones launched in the attack. The drones had been launched from Russia’s Bryansk region and from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, it said.
A four-hour air-raid alarm was declared in Kyiv and a number of other regions.
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The capital’s military administration said all the drones targeting Kyiv were shot down, without specifying their number. The attack was the third wave of Russian air strikes on Kyiv in six days.
In Dnipro, a drone hit the city administration building, the head of the regional military administration, Serhiy Lysak, said on Telegram.
“A fire broke out, but it has already been extinguished. No residents were wounded. Rescuers are still working at the site,” Lysak wrote.
Explosions were also reported on social media in the Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhya regions.
A fire broke out at a fuel depot in the Russian village of Volna near the bridge to Crimea, local governor Venyamin Kondratyev said on May 3 said on Telegram, without mentioning the cause of the fire.
In the Donetsk region, Russian forces spearheaded by Wagner mercenaries continued to launch waves of assaults over the past 24 hours on Bakhmut, which remains the focal point of Moscow’s efforts in the east.
“Russian troops focused on conducting offensive operations in the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka directions carried out more than 30 attacks, Ukraine’s General Staff said in its daily report on May 3. The Russian attacks were repelled, it said.
On May 2, a Ukrainian military commander vowed not to give up Bakhmut.
With indications that the start of a long-expected Ukrainian counteroffensive is near, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, underlined the importance Kyiv attaches to holding Bakhmut.
“Together with the commanders, we have made a number of necessary decisions aimed at ensuring the effective defense and inflicting maximum losses on the enemy,” Syrskiy said in remarks released after he visited troops in Bakhmut.
“We will continue, despite all the forecasts and advice, to hold Bakhmut, destroying Wagner and other most combat-capable units of the Russian army,” he said.
Ukraine still holds some parts of the city after months of fierce fighting against regular Russian troops and Wagner mercenaries.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said control of some parts of Bakhmut had changed hands recently.
“There are positions lost, and positions we are driving the enemy out of. Fierce fighting continues — as of now, the city is controlled by our armed forces,” she told a Ukrainian television channel.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the paramilitary group, said Wagner units advanced up to 160 meters in some directions on May 2, repeating claims on Telegram that Ukrainian forces now control less than 3 square kilometers of Bakhmut.
It was not possible to verify the battlefield claims of either side.
Prigozhin also repeated his complaints that Moscow was not supplying his forces with enough ammunition.
According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Russian forces have received sufficient ammunition and Russia’s domestic defense industry “generally” meets the military’s needs.
