Russian attack on Kyiv kills three, injures 31, including 6 children, Ukraine says

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(Reuters) -Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for new strong sanctions against Russia and its allies after Russian drones killed three and injured 31, including six children, in an overnight air attack on Kyiv.

The attack destroyed two high-rise apartment buildings and Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app that seven of the injured, including two children, were taken to city hospitals.

Debris from destroyed Russian air weapons fell onto a nine-storey apartment building in Kyiv’s leafy Desnianskyi district, sparking a fire that engulfed several storeys, the mayor said.

“Every Russian strike is an attempt to inflict as much damage as possible on ordinary life,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.

“Of course, additional tariff and sanctions restrictions are needed against Russia and all those helping it stay afloat,” he said.

Ukraine’s state emergency service said 13 people were rescued from the building’s upper floors.

Kyiv and its surrounding region were under air-raid alerts for about 1-1/2 hours before the air force called them off at around 0030 GMT.

Ukrainian military officials said on Telegram that Russia had launched 101 drones on Ukraine overnight, 90 of which were downed.

Zelenskiy said Russia has used nearly 1,200 attack drones, more than 1,360 guided aerial bombs, and over 50 missiles of different types against Ukraine over the past seven days.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strikes on each other’s territory. But thousands, mostly Ukrainians, have been killed in the war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; Editing by Tom Hogue)