Multiple killed as Russian air strikes hit Ukraine: Kiev

Russia has launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine, killing at least four civilians and damaging residential buildings and infrastructure across the country.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said on Saturday that a Russian missile slammed into a residential building in the central city of Poltava, killing three people and injuring 10, including a child.

The ministry posted pictures on the Telegram messaging app showing the residential building with several top floors smashed and thick columns of smoke rising into the sky. Fire brigades and dozens of rescuers were going through the rubble.

One person was killed and four were wounded in the city of Kharkiv in the northeast as the result of a drone attack, the Kharkiv mayor said.

Officials said that the Russian forces also damaged buildings in the city of Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine.

Stepping up air attacks

Ukrainian air defence was also repelling the attacks in Kiev, but there were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties in the capital, they said.

"Russia's daily attacks on Ukraine are a signal that the aggressor will not stop committing its crimes," Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Telegram.

"Last night and in the morning, Russia shelled Ukraine again: Odesa, Poltava, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia... The terrorist targets civilian infrastructure: residential buildings, educational institutions, cars," he added.

Russian forces, on the other hand, took control of the village of Krymske in Ukraine's Donetsk region, Russian news agencies also cited Russia's defence ministry as saying on Saturday.

The ministry said its forces had launched attacks aimed at Ukraine's gas and other energy infrastructure and had shot down 108 Ukrainian drones in the last 24 hours, the agencies reported.