Seven killed in Ukraine as Russia targets civilian areas in missile blitz

A damaged home in Kyiv after Russia's night missile attack last Wednesday. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

At least seven people have died after Russia unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine, officials have said.

The attacks came asUkrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky scrambled to ensure more American and European help during a visit to Norway.

US envoy Steve Witkoff, who along with Jared Kushner has tried without success to steer Russia and Ukraine toward a settlement and end the war, was also expected in Oslo, the Norwegian government said.

Mr Kushner, who is US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, will attend the meeting by video conference.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb were due to meet with Mr Zelensky in Norway’s capital.

With further US support for Ukraine in doubt as relations between Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump sour again, the Ukrainian leader said he spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is on a trip to Asia.

That conversation came after Mr Zelensky told a bipartisan group of US lawmakers on Monday that he believes “some political decision has been made to slow down … support for us”.

Ukraine has nearly run out of American-made Patriot air defence interceptors that it needs to stop Russia’s ballistic missiles, according to Mr Zelensky, who has pleaded for Washington to send more.

But he said the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that other countries have purchased for Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky also said he sought Mr Rubio’s help to ensure the US continues to share vital intelligence with Ukraine after Kyiv received no, or late, warnings about Russian missile attacks in recent days.

On top of that, Mr Zelensky said speed restrictions were still in place on Kyiv’s use of the military-grade version of US company SpaceX’s satellite internet service, hampering battlefield operations.

Mr Trump has also waived sanctions on Russia, a move which Mr Zelensky criticised as helping Russian President Vladimir Putin push on with Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which will hit the five-year mark in February.

Mr Zelensky said that he had “a substantive conversation” with Mr Rubio.

“I am grateful for his readiness to help and his clear position,” Mr Zelensky said on social media.

With the Russian army held up on the front line, Mr Putin is trying to bomb Ukraine into submission while robbing it of vital US support, Western leaders and analysts say.

European countries, worried by Russia’s plans on the continent, are trying to take up the slack of any fall-off in US supplies, but some key assets are American-made.

Seven people were killed and 31 others wounded, including children, in Russian missile and drone attacks on the Kyiv region over the past day, regional police said.

Three people were killed and six wounded in the Obukhiv district, where warehouses were damaged, police said.

In the Bucha district, one woman was killed and 21 people were wounded, eight of them children, and hundreds of buildings were damaged, according to police.

On Tuesday morning, three people were killed and four injured when two vehicles caught fire in a Russian attack on the Kyiv-Odesa motorway, Ukraine’s state emergency service said. 

The dead included the driver of a shuttle bus that was hit. The bus transports people from Kyiv to the national military memorial cemetery.

Russia also attacked energy facilities in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight, causing power outages in some areas, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration. No-one was injured, he said.

The Russian defence ministry said in a statement that its forces carried out drone strikes on logistics centres, port infrastructure and three cargo ships in the port of Reni in the Odesa region.

It said another bulk carrier was hit at sea on its way to Odesa.

Meanwhile, air defences intercepted 136 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions overnight, the defence ministry said.

A fire broke out at an unspecified industrial facility in the Tambov region as a result of the attack, governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said.

- Press Association