ISLAMABAD
\nRussian forces unleashed a combined drone and missile strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Saturday, killing three people, while two other attacks in the country\u2019s south killed three more, officials said.
\nIn Kyiv, explosions boomed across the pre-dawn sky as air defences activated against the attack, which also wounded three others, according to city military administration chief Timur Tkachenko.
\nA shopping mall, business centre, metro station and water pipe were damaged in the assault, he said.
\n\u201cRussian forces initially launched drones and then a ballistic-missile strike,\u201d parliamentary ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on social media. \u201cThese acts merely underscore the enemy\u2019s ruthlessness and barbarity.\u201d
\nRescue 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 facade was marked by twisted metal and blown-out windows.
\nAs daylight broke, they could be seen examining missile fragments and loading a body bag into a truck.
\nAir force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian media that both missiles aimed at Kyiv were destroyed, but that one of them was shot down at a low altitude, resulting in heavy damage.
\nThere was no immediate comment from Moscow, which has denied deliberately targeting civilians.
\nAnother Russian missile attack killed one person and wounded 11 in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.
\nThe governor of the adjacent southern region of Kherson, Oleksandr Prokudin, said Russian shelling killed two people in a town north of the regional centre, also called Kherson.
\nThe 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.
\nOn Friday, a Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy\u2019s hometown, killed five people and partially destroyed an educational facility, officials said. One woman wounded in the attack died in hospital on Saturday.
\n\u201cAll those who assist the Russian state in this war must face pressure as impactful as these strikes,\u201d Zelenskiy wrote on social media in response to Saturday\u2019s attack.
\nRussia has carried out regular air strikes on towns and cities far behind the front line since the start of its almost three-year-old invasion of Ukraine, targeting critical infrastructure in particular.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Russian forces unleashed a combined drone and missile strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Saturday, killing three people, while two other attacks in the country\u2019s south killed three more, officials said. In Kyiv, explosions boomed across the pre-dawn sky as air defences activated against the attack, which also wounded three others, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-456495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n