Russia strikes Kyiv apartments, energy sites

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said nine people had been injured, with five of them taken to hospital.

He said power cuts and disruptions to the water supply had hit districts on the east bank of the Dnipro River that runs through the city.

Pictures posted online showed apartments ablaze as firefighters moved into position. Fragments from downed drones also struck several parts of the city.

Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk said Russian forces had hit energy sites.

"Energy experts are taking all necessary measures to minimise negative consequences," Grynchuk said on Facebook on Friday.

"As soon as safety conditions allow, energy experts will begin clarifying the consequences of the attack and conducting restoration work."

Russian forces have focused on Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent weeks as winter again approaches in the more than three-and-a-half-year-old war.

A massive missile and drone attack last week hit several of Ukraine's main gas production facilities, causing considerable damage.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said both drones and missiles had been deployed in the post-midnight assault on the capital.

Tkachenko said firefighters had brought a blaze triggered by a drone under control. The blaze had set apartments on fire on the 6th and 7th floors of a high-rise block in the central Pecherskyi district.

In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, drones struck several targets, injuring three people and triggering at least one fire in a dwelling, the regional governor said.

Meanwhile, 23 Ukrainian children and adolescents have been brought out of Russian-occupied areas of the country to territory under Kyiv's control, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff said on Thursday.

Andriy Yermak, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the rescue was carried out under the president's "Bring Kids Back UA" program aimed at bringing to safe areas children deported to Russia or confined to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

Yermak said those returning included two sisters who refused a demand to attend Russian schools made by Russia-installed authorities who had threatened to remove the girls from their mother's care.

Another teenage boy similarly refused to attend Russian school and one child and her mother were refused permission to leave occupied areas as one of their relatives was serving in the Ukrainian military.

Ukraine says Russia has illegally deported or forcibly displaced more than 19,500 children to Russia and Belarus in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

US-funded research, in a report by Yale's School of Public Health, suggested in September the number could be closer to 35,000.

Russia denies it has deported children from Ukraine, saying it has taken action to ensure they are safe from wartime hostilities.

Australian Associated Press