KYIV: A Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed at least three people, including a 5-year-old child, sparking fires in high-rise apartment buildings and throughout the capital, Ukrainian officials said early on Sunday.
“A massive enemy drone attack on Kyiv,“ Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on the Telegram messaging app.
The scale of the overnight attack was not immediately clear, but Klitschko said emergency services were dispatched to several districts of the city after reports of fires and damage. Reuters witnesses heard several blasts in what sounded like air defence systems in operation.
“During the clearing of the rubble in the Holosiivskyi district, rescuers found the body of a child,“ Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Telegram.
“The body of a man was found in the same place earlier.”
Ukraine's interior ministry said that eight people were also injured in the city as a result of the attack.
State emergency service photos showed firefighters battling blazes at night, including high in an apartment building.
A third person, a woman, died after drone debris sparked a fire in a high-rise residential building in Dniprovskyi district, the emergency service said, while at least 27 people were evacuated from the building.
The United States is pushing for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia and hoping they will agree on a partial ceasefire that would halt strikes on energy infrastructure. But both sides have been reporting continued strikes.
Two people were injured and several houses were damaged in the region surrounding the capital, regional Governor Mykola Kalashnik said on Telegram.
There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the three-year-long war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion on Ukraine. Kyiv, its surrounding region and the eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts for more than five hours starting late on Saturday, according to Ukraine air force maps. (Reporting by Oleksandr Kozhukhar in Kyiv and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Daniel Wallis, William Mallard and Jamie Freed)
