Russia's missile and drone strike on Kyiv kills six and injures 52
Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with missiles and drones overnight on Thursday, killing at least six people, including a 6-year-old boy, Ukrainian authorities said.
Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said at least 52 other people were injured in the attacks, and that the number was likely to rise.
A large part of a nine-story residential building collapsed after it was struck, Tkachenko added. Rescue teams were at the scene to rescue people trapped under the rubble.
"The main target of the massive attack was the capital. Significant damage was inflicted on residential infrastructure. An entire section of a residential building was destroyed in one of the residential areas," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on his official Telegram.
"Missile strike. Directly on a residential building. People are under the rubble. All services are on site."
"Today the world has once again seen Russia's response to our desire for peace, which we share with US and Europe," he added.
Images from the scene showed plumes of smoke emanating from a partially damaged building and debris strewn on the ground. The force of the blast wave was strong enough to leave clothes hanging limply from trees.
Residents defied police orders not to return to the scene of the attacks to retrieve their belongings. Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko arrived at the scene.
At least 27 locations across Kyiv were hit by the attack, Tkachenko said, with the heaviest damage seen in the Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts.
Zelenskyy said that Russian overnight strikes also targeted Dnipro, Poltava, Sumy and Mykolaiv regions with some 300 drones and eight missiles launched.
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has shortened the deadline he gave his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin from the original 50 days to 8 August for peace efforts to make progress or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs.
Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in US-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.
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