Kyiv police praised for shooting down drone, but officials say leave air defence to military

When three Kyiv police officers normally tasked with patrolling the Ukrainian capital's streets heard the menacing buzz of a drone overhead early Monday morning, they quickly pulled out their AK-74 assault rifles and started rapidly firing dozens of rounds of ammunition into the sky.

"It was very fast. We didn't have such a lot of time to make a decision, so we decided to shoot," said Oleksandr Kravchuk, a five-year veteran of the city's police force.

The officers told CBC News that they were finishing up their night shift on Monday morning when they got a call telling them the capital was under attack.

Kravchuk said they then heard two explosions nearby and decided to block off a road near one of the sites, because people would soon be on their way to work.

As the officers were stationed on a bridge, Kravchuk said they all started to hear what sounded like a "moped" racing through the sky.

It was an Iranian-made Shahed 136 drone, and according to Kyiv's mayor, it was one of 28 that targeted the capital on Monday.

The triangular-shaped drones, which are often described as "kamikaze" or "suicide" drones, are designed to drive toward their target and explode on impact.

In Monday's attack, one slammed into a highrise apartment building in the city centre, killing at least four people.

Kravchuk said he estimated the low-flying drone was about 500 metres away when the officers first heard it and about 200 metres away when they began shooting.

He said they aimed their high-powered weapons just ahead of the drone, trying to estimate the speed that it was travelling.

Kravchuk said he emptied his 30 rounds of ammunition before they saw the drone plummet toward the ground.

As it exploded, the officer said he felt the earth shake.

"It was a lot of adrenalin," he said. "I had a very good feeling that we dropped it down."

The officers later saw a chunk of the drone they took down. Scrawled across it in black marker, the phrase "for Belgorod" was written.