Russian strike kills couple near Kyiv as attacks hit cities across Ukraine

KYIV - Russia pounded cities across Ukraine with drones and a missile overnight, killing a couple near the capital Kyiv a day after five people died in an attack on a passenger train, ahead of a fresh round of peace talks due at the weekend.

Local media reported that the woman had a four-year-old daughter who survived the strike.

Officials said four people, including two children, sought medical attention after the attack.

“When I carried her out, the girl started crying very hard, and then she began to shake violently,” Ms Marian Kushnir, a journalist who was a neighbour of the deceased couple, told Radio Free Europe.

“I felt a lot of pain, because in 10 years of war, I had never had such feelings before, when, holding a crying four-year-old child in my arms, I realised that her mother was dead.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack on the apartment block, as well as another strike with short-range rockets on what he described as a residential area without military targets in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

“We will respond fairly to Russia for this and other similar attacks,” he wrote on social media.

Ukraine and Russia met for US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi last week, with further meetings expected on Feb 1, but Russia has continued to pound Ukrainian cities and both countries have hit each other’s energy infrastructure.

The latest attack came as Ukraine was still reeling from

a Jan 27 drone strike on a passenger train

in the north-east that killed five people, an assault that Mr Zelensky denounced as “terrorism.”

There was no comment from Russia on the attacks. Both Moscow and Kyiv deny they are targeting civilians in the war, which is approaching its four-year mark on Feb 24.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile and 146 drones overnight, of which 103 were downed.

In Kyiv, a 17-storey residential building was hit, causing minor damage to the roof and shattering windows on the upper floors, the emergency services said.

Odesa attacked again

Russia also struck other locations across the country, including the southern port city of Odesa, as well as Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih.

In Odesa, which had declared a day of mourning after a drone strike killed three people overnight on Jan 27, three more people were hurt, the head of the city’s military administration, Mr Serhiy Lysak, said.

Ukraine’s Sea Ports Authority said the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi came under attack but continued operating normally.

Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike damaged manufacturing facilities, a locomotive and hangars, and sparked a fire that was being extinguished.

Moscow has repeatedly attacked Ukraine’s ports in recent months in retaliation for Kyiv’s strikes on unregulated oil tankers sailing to Russia.

Emergency services said the attack damaged a monastery, causing a fire.

At dawn, Russia also attacked the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported on Telegram.

Six people were hurt in the attack, which also damaged 14 apartment buildings, partially knocking out electricity, he said.

In the central city of Kryvyi Rih, two people were injured in an overnight missile attack, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said, adding that the attack “significantly” damaged an infrastructure facility.

Mr Zelensky said 243 buildings in Kryvyi Rih were without heating as a result.

Russia has battered Ukraine’s power grid this winter, plunging most Ukrainians into blackouts for most of the day and leaving some without heat for days on end during the coldest winter for years.

Mr Zelensky said repairs were still ongoing to turn the heating back on for 700 of Kyiv’s apartment blocks, after a strike on Jan 24 knocked it out for about 6,000 buildings. REUTERS