There were no reported casualties
A video has surfaced on social media capturing the moment Ukraine’s Air Force shot down one of its own drones. The incident happened on May 4 when the Ukrainian air force shot down a drone of its own that had lost control over central Kyiv. According to BBC, there were explosions for around 15 to 20 minutes on Thursday evening as air defence attempted to shoot it down in an area near the president’s office.
Cheers could be heard when the drone was finally taken down.
Watch the video here:
JUST IN: Ukraine confirms shot down drone over Kyiv was not a Russian drone but their own Ukrainian TB2 drone.
“On May 4, around 20:00 in the Kyiv region, during a scheduled flight, the Bayraktar TB2 UAV lost control.”
“Since the uncontrolled presence of UAVs in the sky of the… pic.twitter.com/qBFczQnWoh
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 4, 2023
Ukraine presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak initially said it was an enemy drone that had been shot down, but later admitted it was Ukrainian and had been destroyed to avoid “undesirable circumstances”.
“At about 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) a Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial device lost control during a scheduled flight in the Kyiv region… the target was destroyed!” the air force said, adding it was establishing the cause of a “likely” technical malfunction, as per an AFP report.
At the time of the explosions, journalists reported seeing a drone that air defence was attempting to shoot down, while the Kyiv city military administration said “air defence is at work.” A cloud of black smoke was seen in the air, just as the Kyiv city military administration announced the air raid alert was over.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said ”firefighters put out a fire on the ground floor of a four-storey shopping centre” in the Solomyansky district. There were no reported casualties despite the fire spreading over 50 square metres.
The incident comes after Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday.