Russian strike on Kyiv kills 7, including 6-year-old boy, Ukrainian president says

LONDON and KYIV, Ukraine -- A Russian aerial strike that hit several residential buildings in Kyiv killed six people, including a 6-year-old boy, the head of the city's military administration said Thursday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said the death toll in the capital had risen to seven, with "dozens of victims in different areas of the city." At least 64 people were injured, 50 of whom were transported to hospitals, he said.

More than 300 drones were fired, many at the capital, followed by at least six missiles, he said.

"The attack was very vile and specially calculated to overload the air defense system," Zelenskyy said in Ukrainian on the Telegram messaging app.

A building in Kyiv's Sviatoshynskyi district was a "direct hit," Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city's military administration, said in a message on Telegram, adding that it was one of 27 locations in Kyiv that were struck by Russia overnight.

Nine children were among those who were transported to hospitals for their injuries, he said.

"It's a horrible morning in Kyiv," Andrii Sybiha‎, Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, said in a social media post. "The brutal Russian strikes destroyed entire residential buildings and damaged schools and hospitals. Civilians are injured and killed."

"There are still people under the rubble," Sybiha‎ added.

The Russian strike in the middle of the night on the apartment building, where the six people were killed, amounted to a "particularly sinister act," said Ruslan Stefanchuk, a lawmaker who chairs the Ukrainian parliament.

"This is not merely a crime -- it is further proof that Russia is deliberately waging war against the Ukrainian people," he said on social media. "Its targets are our homes, our children, and our basic right to live freely in our own country."