8 dead as Russian drones, missiles pound Ukraine

Russia launched a heavy drone and missile attack on Ukraine early on Friday, killing six people in Kyiv and two more in the south in strikes on energy facilities, apartment buildings and infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces used 430 drones and 18 missiles and Kyiv was responding with long-range strikes. It was one of the biggest attacks on the capital so far.

Ukrainian officials said most of the drones and missiles were shot down, but falling debris and fires damaged high-rise apartments, a school, a medical facility and administrative buildings across nine districts in the city of about 3 million.

“Only pressure – with sanctions and strength – can force Russia to end this war, a war that no one but them ever needed,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the Azerbaijani Embassy was also hit, by debris from an Iskander missile.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its troops hit Ukrainian energy facilities and weapons-production complex with high-precision weapons to respond to Ukrainian attacks on Russia.