Kyiv, UKRAINE – Video posted by police officials to social media on Monday showed Ukrainian police officers using AK-47s to shoot Russian “kamikaze drones” out of the sky from a bridge in Kyiv (video below).
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russia launched an attack on the capital of Ukraine on Oct. 17 using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, The Kyiv Independent reported.
It was the first attack of its kind where Russia bombarded Kyiv with so-called “kamikaze drones” and Klitschko said officials do not yet have any information on how many casualties have resulted from the latest attacks.
As the unmanned weapons flew into the city, Ukrainian police officers bravely stood on bridges and roadways firing their rifles into the air at the approaching drones.
Ukrainian Police First Deputy Chief of Patrol Oleksiy Biloshytskyi shared a video of officers on a bridge during one drone attack on central Kyiv.
Bodycam video showed the scene when officers first arrived on the overpass over another roadway and stopped their vehicles.
The officers got out of their patrol cars with their rifles in hand and started scanning the sky.
In the video, explosions and aircraft sounds can be heard in the background.
A surveillance video from above showed the officers identified at least one incoming drone from the bridge and they all started firing at it.
The video showed that at least four officers were firing at the incoming drone for about 15 seconds before it suddenly exploded.
In the last few seconds, there was a buzzing sound as the drone closed in on the officers.
Bodycam video showed the bridge shook when the drone crashed into the ground nearby with a tremendous boom.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below:
This video published by Oleksiy Biloshytskyi, first deputy chief of the patrol police, shows police officers downing a kamikaze drone with firearms during a Russian attack on central Kyiv on Oct. 17. pic.twitter.com/HuionBSpbz
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 17, 2022