Russian airstrikes target apartment blocks in Kyiv, killing several and injuring dozens
Several people have been killed and dozens injured in a huge Russian air strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 11 apartment blocks were hit overnight, with strikes reported across the city. Four people were killed and 26 were injured, including a pregnant woman and two children aged seven and 10.
The strike follows a series of increasingly large Russian air assaults on Kyiv in recent months.
Interviewed on social media outside a damaged block of flats, one Ukrainian man said both his elderly parents had been killed in the attack. His mother and father, who both had cancer, only moved to Kyiv five days ago and had intended to spend the winter in the capital.
"They told us my mother had been killed on the spot, and my father was lying under a slab and had most likely been killed instantly", he said.
Emergency crews spent much of the morning evacuating residents, extinguishing fires, and clearing debris from damaged buildings and courtyards.
In Kyiv's Dniprovskyi district, a high-rise apartment block caught fire after debris struck upper floors, blowing out windows and filling stairwells with smoke.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, accused Russia of deliberately hitting civilian areas.
In September, more than 800 drones and multiple missiles were launched in what Ukrainian officials described as the largest attack on the capital since the full-scale invasion in 2022.
That operation set government buildings ablaze and killed several civilians, including an infant and the child's mother.
Earlier in the summer, a missile strike on a residential building in western Kyiv killed at least 16 people and injured more than 100.
Analysts say the rising tempo of attacks shows Russia is trying to stretch Ukraine's air defences and cause more damage to the country's strained infrastructure such as its heating and power networks.
The attacks follow a now-familiar pattern, with Russian forces firing large numbers of low cost Shahed-type drones into Ukraine along with decoys. These are then followed by waves of cruise or ballistic missiles.
The tactic is designed to overwhelm Ukraine's air defences - its Patriot batteries and interceptor drones.
The sheer scale of the attacks means Ukrainian forces are forced to quickly distinguish between slow-moving drones and much faster, more destructive missiles and then prioritise which ones they try and take down.
While officials say there were no major power outages, there was localised damage in several parts of the capital. They also said utility workers had begun repairs as emergency crews continued to clear debris and search for survivors.
As well as overwhelming Ukrainian air defences, the Kremlin wants these attacks to disrupt daily life in the capital and exert political pressure on Kyiv to come to the negotiating table.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it intercepted a significant number of drones and missiles but did not release specific figures.
President Zelensky reiterated calls for additional Western air defence systems, including Patriot and NASAMS batteries, saying Ukraine's cities remain at risk.
As the clear-up operation continued, Vitali Klitschko urged residents to remain vigilant.
"Kyiv has endured many attacks," he said. "We will recover again. But the threat is not going away."
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