A Russian drone strike on a residential apartment building in Kyiv killed a 14-year-old boy and injured seven people on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Emergency teams continued clearing the site after the fire caused by the strike was extinguished. Zelenskyy expressed condolences to the boy’s family and described the attack as having no military justification.
He said the threat of strikes had remained almost continuous across Ukraine, with eight regions coming under attack since the beginning of the day. One person was killed in Odesa in what he described as a double-tap strike on a postal facility, while a medical clinic in Zaporizhzhia was hit while people were inside. Injuries were also reported in the Sumy and Mykolaiv regions.
The attacks came as Russian strikes continued to target Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. Kyiv has warned that Moscow is seeking to increase pressure on the country as winter approaches and has urged international partners to respond with stronger economic and political measures.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for greater international pressure on Russia at global forums. In a separate account of the impact on medical facilities, he said a maternity hospital in Kyiv was damaged in an earlier missile attack.
He said that while the attack was taking place, a child named Kyrylo was being born in a shelter. Zelenskyy later visited the hospital to congratulate the family, meet women preparing to give birth and offer support to medical workers.
Zelenskyy cites scale of Russian attacks
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, the Ukrainian President said Russia had used more than 2,100 missiles of various types against Ukraine since the start of the year. Of these, he said, more than 950 were ballistic missiles.
He also stated that Russia had deployed 63,000 attack drones of different types during the first eight months of the year, including more than 7,700 jet-powered “shaheds”, which he described as highly destructive and dangerous weapons.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s efforts against Russia’s oil sector were aimed at weakening Moscow’s ability to fund and prolong the war, rather than targeting the industry for its own sake. He said Ukraine was not targeting fuel, factories or ports as such, but Russia’s capacity to finance the military campaign and sustain its intensity.
The latest strike adds to the civilian toll as the Russia-Ukraine conflict heads into another winter. Kyiv is pressing its Western partners to retain sanctions, increase pressure on Moscow and continue diplomatic efforts to bring the war to an end.
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