Ukraine says Russian strike on Kyiv leaves first civilians dead this year

An overnight Russian air attack on Kyiv and its region killed two people, Ukraine’s authorities saidon Monday, in what appeared to be the first reported deaths in Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital this year.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the strike set ablaze a medical facility in the Obolonskyi district in Kyiv's northern sector, where an inpatient ward was operating. After the fire was extinguished, a body was found inside, the service added.

A woman was also injured and 25 people were evacuated, the service said on the Telegram messaging app.

It released a nighttime photo showing emergency responders carrying a body on a stretcher past an ambulance outside a building, with snow on the ground.

Russia also hit towns and villages across the Kyiv region, damaging homes and critical infrastructure, and killing a civilian in the Fastiv district, just southwest of the capital, the region’s governor Mykola Kalashnyk said on Telegram.

Small parts of the region were left without power, Kalashnyk added.

There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in their attacks.

Russia has repeatedly attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones during the nearly four-year-old war, saying it strikes military targets, while Ukraine says civilians and civilian infrastructure are often hit.