At least two people have been killed and 54 injured, including children, in an overnight Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, the mayor says.
Vitali Klitschko says falling drone wreckage triggered a number of fires in the city, and there are fears that a number of people may be trapped under the rubble of a destroyed residential building.
Ukraine’s state emergencies service DSNS later reported nine killed and 63 injured, citing preliminary data.
Blasts were also reported by local officials in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, which also came under attack. At least two people were injured.
This comes just hours after
US President Donald Trump accused Volodymyr Zelensky of harming peace negotiations, after the Ukrainian president ruled out recognising Russian control of Crimea.
Ukraine has repeatedly stated that it will not give up Crimea, a southern peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently control about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
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In a post on social media, Mayor Klitschko wrote that six children and a pregnant woman were among those injured in the overnight Russian attack.
“He mentioned that fires erupted at six sites,” and added that “individuals are trapped beneath the debris” of a collapsed residential structure.
Search crews were observed sifting through the debris as they looked for people who had survived.
Klitschko stated that the western district of Svyatoshynskyi in the capital suffered the most damage.
Video footage has surfaced on social media allegedly depicting missiles striking Kyiv, resulting in massive fires.
In Kharkiv, about 40km (25 miles) from the Russian border, two people were injured, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
He said “private houses” were damaged in the overnight Russian missile and drone attack.
The Ukrainian Air Force cautioned that nearly every region of the country was at risk from potential airstrikes.
The Russian armed forces have remained silent regarding the alleged assaults.