<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, says the attacks on Kyiv early Monday with “kamikaze drones” were a sign of Russian “desperation”.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Several explosions have rocked the central Shevchenkivskyi district of Ukraine’s capital, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, damaging a number of residential buildings. The same area was the target of Russian attacks exactly a week ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>Intense fighting rages in Ukraine’s Donbas, Kherson</b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian and Ukrainian forces are engaged in heavy fighting around two towns in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and in the Kherson province in the south, which Russia said it had annexed last month.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The key hot spots in Donbas are Soledar and Bakhmut,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Sunday. “Very heavy fighting is going on there.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bakhmut has been a target of Russian forces in their slow move through the region since taking the twin industrial towns of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk in June and July. Soledar is just north of Bakhmut.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its forces had repelled efforts by Ukrainian troops to advance in the Donetsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>Kyiv attacked by ‘kamikaze drones’: Ukrainian presidency</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The Ukrainian capital has been attacked by “kamikaze drones”, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian president has said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The Russians think it will help them, but it shows their desperation,” Andriy Yermak said on social media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Military analysts have said Russia most likely used strategic bombers, cruise missiles and Iranian-made Shaheed “kamikaze” drones last week during renewed shelling in revenge for an attack on the Crimean Bridge, which links the annexed peninsula of Crimea to mainland Russia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>Several explosions rock central Kyiv district</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Several explosions have hit a central district of Ukraine’s capital, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The blasts hit the Shevchenkivskyi district and damaged a number of residential buildings, Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging service.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Rescuers are on the site,” he wrote, adding that as a result of what he said was a drone attack, a fire also broke out in a non-residential building.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was no immediate information on casualties.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Kyiv, said residents were being urged to shelter in place. “Today, people are concerned that this is going to continue throughout the day,” he said. Aljazeera</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>