5-Year-Old Child Killed In Latest Russian Attacks On Ukraine

Russian forces launched a drone attack overnight on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, killing three people -- including a 5-year-old child -- and injuring 10 others, according to the city administration.

Among the dead were a father and his young daughter. The youngest casualty was 11 months old.

The air raid alarm lasted for more than five hours, the city administration said.

Natalya, a Kyiv resident, told RFE/RL that her apartment had been hit by an "enormous" blast shortly after midnight on March 23.

"Everything was shaking," she said. "I was thrown from the room into the hallway by the shock wave with glass shards flying. Thank God the curtains were drawn -- that saved us from cuts."

Although her family survived the explosion, she said it had been "very, very hard" for the children.

"They kept crying the whole night," she said. "I couldn't calm them down."

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Deadly Russian Strikes Hit Kyiv, Causing Fires, While Other Regions Also Burn

Ukrainian police said drone debris fell across several districts of Kyiv, damaging buildings in the Podilskiy and Dniprovskiy districts. Cars were damaged in the Shevchenkivskiy district and an industrial zone in the Holosiyivskiy district was also hit by falling debris.

Ukraine’s state emergency service also reported fires caused by the strikes, saying a blaze broke out on the upper floors of a nine-story building in Diniprovskiy and spread to the roof. One woman died and 27 people were evacuated.

RFE/RL correspondent Olha Armianyshyna said the Red Cross were at the scene, adding that the neighborhood was “still being cleaned up” the following morning and that “a distinct smell of burning” hung in the air.

Another fire was reported on the 20th floor of a 25-story residential building in Podolskiy.

Ukraine’s air force said on March 23 that 147 Shahed drones and drone decoys had been used in the overnight attack on the country. The assault affected multiple regions -- including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Odesa, and Donetsk -- according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on March 23 that Russian troops had struck training sites for drone operators and the infrastructure of Ukrainian military airfields.

The ministry also said it destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight, and claimed that Russian forces had captured the village of Sribnoye, near Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, according to the Interfax news agency.

Meanwhile, inside Russia, the acting governor of the Rostov region said a drone strike killed one person traveling in a car on the Morozovsk-Tsimlyansk highway. Acting Governor Yury Slyusar said an apartment building was also hit in the city, although there were no casualties.

In a separate development, the Ukrainian General Staff said its forces had killed or wounded nearly 1,500 Russian troops over the last 24 hours and destroyed nine tanks.

Reports of battlefield strikes cannot immediately be independently verified.

The ongoing fighting comes even as the rest of the world discussed a potential cease-fire and a day after a family of three died in attacks in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya region.

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Drone Strikes Kill Family, Hit Multiple Regions Across Ukraine

The latest wave of strikes is part of a sharp escalation by both Russia and Ukraine in drone warfare, which has followed cease-fire negotiations between Ukraine, the United States and Russia.

The Russian attacks have employed drones, missiles and glide bombs, and followed a pledge made by President Vladimir Putin in a March 18 phone call with the White House to halt strikes on energy infrastructure. Hours after that two-hour talk with US President Donald Trump, Russian drones hit Ukrainian energy and water supply facilities, along with schools and hospitals.

Moscow has denied allegations of deliberately striking civilian targets in Ukraine throughout the war, even though repeated attacks on hospitals, schools, energy facilities, and residential buildings have been documented throughout the conflict.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, RFE/RL's Russian Service, Reuters, AP, and Interfax