Russian airstrike on Kyiv kills at least three

Russian forces unleashed a combined drone and missile strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Saturday, killing at least three people in a central district, city officials said.

Explosions boomed across the pre-dawn sky as air defenses repelled the attack, which also wounded three others, according to military administration chief Timur Tkachenko. He said four people had been killed, while police reported three deaths.

A metro station and water pipe were also damaged, said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Rescue workers plodded through a flooded street as they sifted through debris. The charred remains of a van were visible in front of the station, whose façade was marked by twisted metal and blown-out windows.

“Russian forces initially launched drones and then a ballistic-missile strike,” parliamentary ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on social media. “These acts merely underscore the enemy’s ruthlessness and barbarity.”

There was no immediate comment from Moscow, which typically denies targeting civilians.

Russia also struck the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where the regional governor said ten people were wounded and the offices of an industrial facility were damaged.

The Ukrainian military said it had destroyed 24 of 39 drones and two of four missiles launched by Russia across various parts of Ukraine during the overnight attack.

On Friday, a Russian missile strike on the city of Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, killed four people and partially destroyed an educational facility, officials said.

Russia has carried out regular air strikes on towns and cities far behind the front line of its almost three-year-old invasion of Ukraine, targeting critical infrastructure in particular.