Three killed in latest Russian air strikes on Ukraine

[June 24, 2023]  (Reuters) -At least three people were killed in Kyiv early on Saturday after Russia unleashed its latest overnight air strikes on Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said. 

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said missiles had targeted at least five regions across the country. Three people were killed and eight wounded after a high-rise in the capital was struck, he said.

Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building damaged during Russian missile strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 24, 2023. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

"This is the style of terrorists. The style of Russia," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine's military said air defences had destroyed 41 out of 51 cruise missiles, as well as two drones, launched by Russia in the assault.

In a separate post, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said the damage to the high-rise had been caused by fragments from a downed missile. He added that more than 20 missiles had been shot down around the city.

Emergency workers on Saturday morning were sifting through debris at the scene, where a gaping hole was visible on one side of the building. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on Telegram that more people may be trapped under the rubble.

Officials in the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk said eight people were wounded - two of them children - and several buildings destroyed in attacks there.

Governor Serhiy Lysak said air defences had destroyed nine missiles and three drones but that residential buildings in the regional capital Dnipro and an unspecified infrastructure object were hit.

At least two Russian missiles also targeted Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, with one hitting an industrial zone and another damaging a gas line, said Governor Oleh Synehubov. He said there were no casualties.

There were reports of explosions in other cities but no immediate word of casualties or damage.

Moscow began stepping up regular air strikes on Ukraine in May as Kyiv's military was planning a counteroffensive, which is now ongoing, to retake Russian-occupied territory in the east and south.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski, Dan Peleschuk, Valentyn Ogirenko and Yurii KhomenkoEditing by Sandra Maler, William Mallard, Toby Chopra and Frances Kerry)

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