7 killed as Russian strikes pound Ukraine

New Delhi, Oct 22: At least seven people, including two children, were killed and more than two dozen injured as Russia launched a wave of drone and missile attacks across Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, according to the BBC.

The strikes hit multiple cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv, damaging residential areas and critical infrastructure.

A kindergarten in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, was struck, injuring several people. In Kyiv, a couple in their 60s died when a drone hit their apartment block, while a woman and two young children were among those killed in the wider region, the report said. Zelensky accused Moscow of continuing its “terror against civilians,” saying the latest attacks showed Russia was not facing sufficient international pressure for its ongoing war. “As soon as the issue of long-range missiles became further away for us, for Ukraine, then almost automatically Russia became less interested in diplomacy,” he remarked as quoted by BBC.

Ukraine’s military claimed responsibility for a strike on a Russian chemical plant in Bryansk, near the border, late Tuesday, saying it had used UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles in “a successful hit” on a facility producing explosives and rocket fuel components. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said his planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest had been postponed, calling it “pointless” amid continued hostilities. The Kremlin has rejected calls for a ceasefire from Trump and European leaders.  Across Ukraine, power outages were reported after strikes on energy facilities.