Ukrainian law enforcement officers stand amid the debris of a destroyed petrol station in Kiev. (AFP Photo)
An early morning Russian drone strike on a petrol station in Kiev killed two people and hospitalized four, the city's mayor said on Sept. 11.
Fears are growing in the Ukrainian capital that Moscow has launched a new campaign targeting fuel stations there, a tactic that Russia's troops have long deployed in areas closer to the front line.
"There are now two killed in the morning attack on the Kiev gas station," Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on social media.
Ukrainian oil giant Ukrnafta reported two of its petrol stations were hit simultaneously on Sept. 11 morning.
"This is yet another deliberate strike on civilian facilities that provide people with fuel and essential goods," CEO Bogdan Kukura wrote on social media.
"There is no military objective in such attacks. This is terror against the civilian population," he added.
The strikes on the petrol stations follow weeks of Russia raining down a new kind of faster, jet-powered drone on Kiev, including to attack logistics centers, warehouses and commercial supply chains.
The devices travel at up to 600 kilometers (370 miles) per hour and are harder for Ukraine's air defenses to intercept.
"The primary purpose of these strikes is to paralyze economic activity and to make the delivery of anything anywhere extremely difficult," Igor Koziy, a military expert at the Institute of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation in Kiev, told local TV.
