April 16 (Reuters) – Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities early on Thursday, killing three people, including a 12-year-old child, injuring more than 20 and badly damaging buildings, officials said.
In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people, including the child, had died. In the southeastern city of Dnipro, where Russian attacks set residential buildings ablaze, the regional governor said one person was killed.
“At result of the enemy attack on the capital, two people have been killed, a 12-year-old boy and a 35-year-old woman,” Klitschko wrote on Telegram. “Ten residents have been injured. Six are being treated in hospital.”
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration put the injury toll in the city at 18, including a child.
An air raid alert remained in effect in both Kyiv and Dnipro more than two hours after it had been imposed in the capital.
Photos posted on line showed fires burning out of control and smoke billowing skyward.
Klitschko said rescue teams had rescued a mother and child from a building in a central district where the ground floor was badly damaged.
He also said a missile had hit the sixth floor of an apartment building in the central Podil district.
Klitschko said a large fire had broken out in a building in a district in the north of the capital and four emergency medical workers were injured, while debris had fallen in several locations.
In Dnipro, Regional Governor Oleksandr Ganzha wrote on Telegram that one resident had died. He listed 10 people as injured and posted pictures showing residential buildings ablaze.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in the northeast, officials said two people had been injured in drone strikes.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
