July 6 (Reuters) – Russian missiles and drones struck the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Monday, killing at least three people and hitting apartment blocks and other buildings, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration, said on Telegram.
Rescue crews were pulling residents from buildings shattered by the overnight barrage, said Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Tkachenko had earlier said seven people had been injured in the assault. He said four residential buildings had been struck in the historic Podilskyi district alone.
Klitschko said on Telegram that rescuers were pulling residents from apartments in a badly damaged residential building in the area.
“From a building in the Podilskyi district, where a partial collapse occurred, rescuers evacuated 15 people,” he wrote on Telegram. “Three women and six children were taken down from the upper floors.”
Tkachenko also said three apartment buildings had been hit in the eastern Darnytskyi district, where many died in a strike last Thursday, when Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at the city, killing at least 30 people.
Reuters witnesses reported a series of explosions in and around the capital and said air defences were in action against Russian drones.
Pictures posted on unofficial Telegram channels showed several high-rise apartment buildings and a commercial building ablaze after being struck. Other pictures showed serious damage to building interiors.
Bloggers told residents to shut their windows as smoke settled over the city. Residents crowded into shelters in the city’s metro and in underground parking garages.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had earlier warned residents of an imminent Russian attack.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Tom Hogue and Michael Perry)
