Russian marches attack Kyiv and Odesa hours before the NATO summit

 Ukrainian army said, on Tuesday, that Russia launched 28 Iranian-made explosive marches on the southern port of Odesa and the capital, Kyiv, just hours before the start of a NATO summit in Lithuania that will focus on ways to confront Russian security threats.

The Ukrainian Air Force stated that the air defense systems shot down 26 Iranian-made Shahed aircraft launched by Russia.

In turn, Ole Kuiper, Governor of Odessa, said, "The defenses shot down 22 drones, while two fell on an administrative building in the coastal city."

He added, in statements he made via a post on the "Telegram" application, that "the fire broke out at two docks near the port of Odesa, and it was quickly extinguished without serious damage or injuries."

The army indicated that it intercepted all the marches that were sent toward Kyiv, but the debris damaged several homes in the area.

In this regard, Serhiy Popko, head of the military administration in Kyiv, said in a post on "Telegram": "The enemy attacked Kyiv from the air for the second time this month."

Witnesses heard explosions in Kyiv similar to the sounds of air defense systems that intercept targets during an air strike, as the military commander of the region, Ruslan Kravchenko, said on his Facebook page that "slight damage was caused to a multi-story building and 12 residential homes in the Kyiv region, which includes the capital, as a result of falling debris.". "

And the "NATO" summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, which begins on Tuesday, will be dominated by the repercussions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as the leaders are scheduled to agree on the first comprehensive defense plans for NATO since the end of the Cold War in the face of any Russian attack.

Russia has rebuked the alliance and its main power, the United States, for their support of Ukraine and warned that Kyiv's potential membership in the alliance "will be met with a clear and firm reaction."