Russian attack on Kyiv kills seven, hits apartments, other buildings

Russian missiles and drones struck the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Monday, killing at least seven people and hitting apartment blocks and other buildings, Tymur Tkachenko, head of ​the city’s military administration, said on Telegram.

Rescue crews were pulling residents from buildings shattered by the overnight barrage, said Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Tkachenko ⁠said the death toll included two bodies pulled out of a heavily damaged apartment ‌building in the historic Podilskyi district. Altogether, ​24 people were injured throughout the city.

He said four residential buildings had been struck in the Podilskyi district alone. 

Klitschko said rescuers were pulling residents from apartments damaged on both sides of a ⁠building.

“From a building in the Podilskyi district, ‌where a partial collapse ‌occurred, rescuers evacuated 15 people,” he wrote on Telegram. “Three women and six children were taken down from the ⁠upper floors.”

Klitschko said two people had died in the eastern Darnytskyi district, where drone fragments struck a 25-story apartment building, ‌and rescue teams were working ‌to free residents trapped on upper floors.

He also said a fire had broken out in a 30-story building in Darnytskyi, where ⁠many died in a strike last Thursday, when ​Russia launched hundreds of ⁠drones and ​dozens of missiles at the city, killing at least 30 people. 

Reuters witnesses reported a series of explosions in and around the capital and said air defenses were in action ⁠against Russian drones.

Reuters pictures showed rescue teams clambering over rubble by a shattered apartment building and whisking people out on stretchers. Smoke wafted ⁠through the air.

Pictures posted on unofficial Telegram channels showed several high-rise apartment buildings and a commercial building ablaze after being struck. Other pictures showed serious damage to building interiors.

Bloggers ⁠told residents to shut their ‌windows as air quality deteriorated. Residents crowded ​into shelters ‌in the city’s metro and in underground parking garages.

Ukraine’s neighbor ​Poland, a NATO and EU member, briefly scrambled fighter jets as a preventive measure.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had earlier warned residents of an imminent Russian attack.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Michael Perry and Lincoln Feast.)