Russian drone attack kills nine in east Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine: A Russian drone attack on a residential block killed nine people including three elderly couples in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, officials said on Thursday.

Moscow has pummelled Ukrainian cities with dozens of drones or missiles almost daily since it invaded in early 2022.

Images distributed by the emergency services showed a gaping hole in the facade of the long block of flats and rescue workers digging through debris for survivors.

“This is a terrible tragedy, a terrible Russian crime. It is very important that the world does not pause in putting pressure on Russia for this terror,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.

National Police later said the search operation had been completed after 19 hours, with rescuers finding nine bodies in the ruins, while 13 people were wounded.

Among the dead were three couples -- men and women between the ages of 61 and 74 -- Ukrainian prosecutors said.

Those killed also included a 37-year-old woman, while her eight-year-old daughter was wounded, the Sumy prosecutor´s office said.

Sumy lies just over the border from Russia in northeastern Ukraine and has been regularly targeted by Moscow. Around 255,000 people lived there before the war. “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin claims to be ready for negotiations, but this is what he actually does. Only strength works with liars,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.