Russian strikes kill seven across Ukraine as Kyiv comes under attack

Russian drone strikes killed at least seven people and wounded more than 80 across Ukraine, as Moscow’s forces pounded Kyiv after a deadly strike damaged the National Academy of Sciences in the capital, Al Jazeera reported.

The attacks hit apartment buildings, offices, gas stations and data centres, as well as the academy in central Kyiv, according to  The Associated Press. A woman was killed in the academy strike, while staff members escaped the burning building using firefighters’ ladders.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russia was conducting a campaign of “pure terror” against civilians.

“The terror goes on,” Klitschko told reporters at the academy site. “For more than a week Russia has kept attacking Kyiv, disrupting normal life in the city and destroying buildings.”

The academy called the attack “Russian terror” and “barbarity”, saying it targeted “peaceful people who were simply at their workplaces”.

Elsewhere, three people were killed and at least 18 wounded in a strike on an office centre in Dnipro, while 43 people, including 11 children, were wounded in Kharkiv, officials said.