Ukraine's air force claims to shoot down its own drone in Kyiv after device 'lost control'

Following a series of explosions that rocked the capital on Thursday, the Ukrainian air force claimed to have shot down a drone of its own that had lost control over Kyiv.

The explosions came after a flurry of Russian assaults on Wednesday and Thursday that lasted all night. They reverberated throughout Kyiv for around 15 to 20 minutes.

"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.

A drone that air defence was attempting to take down was seen by AFP photographers at the time of the explosions, and the Kyiv city military administration reported that "air defence is at work."

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At the exact moment the Kyiv city military administration declared the air raid alarm to be ended, journalists noticed a cloud of black smoke in the air.

"Firefighters put out a fire on the ground floor of a four-storey shopping centre," according to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, in the Solomyansky neighbourhood.

There were no reported casualties despite the fire spreading over 50 square metres (538 square feet) and inflicting some minor surface damage, according to Klitschko.

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