Five killed in Russian air strikes on Ukraine, officials say

The attack was followed by a missile strike on two residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, where officials said one person was killed and 25 taken to hospital. In Rzhyshchiv, a large part of the top floor of a five-storey dormitory building had been knocked out by the attack.

Russian forces killed at least four people near Kyiv and one person in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday in air strikes which Ukraine's president said showed Moscow was not interested in peace. The State Emergency Service said two dormitories and an educational facility in Rzhyshchiv, 40 miles (64 km) south of the capital, had been partially destroyed in an overnight drone strike that killed four people.

Regional police chief Andrii Nebytov said 20 people had been taken to hospital and several were still missing following a series of explosions there after 3 a.m. (0100 GMT). The attack was followed by a missile strike on two residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, where officials said one person was killed and 25 taken to hospital.

In Rzhyshchiv, a large part of the top floor of a five-storey dormitory building had been knocked out by the attack. Workers in white helmets and reflective jackets clambered through the rubble of another badly damaged building. "We see that the enemy has once again attacked civilian infrastructure (and) innocent people have died," Nebytov wrote on Telegram, adding that one of the victims was an ambulance driver who had arrived to help.

State emergency officials said the search for survivors was continuing after a spate of attacks that the Ukrainian military said involved Iranian-made Shahed drones. "Over 20 Iranian murderous drones, plus missiles, numerous shelling incidents, and that's just in one last night of Russian terror against Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter.

"Every time someone tries to hear the word 'peace' in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes." Zelenskiy called the attack on Zaporizhzhia an act of "bestial savagery".

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 16 of the 21 drones launched at Ukraine overnight from the north. Russia did not immediately comment on the latest attacks.