Russia launches heavy strikes at Ukraine, killing at least 20

KYIV, Oct 7: Russia pounded Ukraine with waves of missiles and drones in one of its most "vile strikes" on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, killing at least 20 people, including children, and damaging industrial facilities and energy infrastructure.

Zelenskiy said the strike coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin's birthday.

The heaviest death toll was in Pryluky in the northern Chernihiv region, where a Russian missile obliterated a five-storey residential building. At least 14 people, including four children, were killed there, local officials said.

"Today, as a birthday 'gift' to Putin, the Russian army destroyed a residential building in Pryluky...," Zelenskiy said. "The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively. This was one of the most vile strikes: 70 missiles in total, many of them ballistic."

An excavator and dozens of rescuers with shovels sifted through rubble at the site where several sections of the five-storey building collapsed. �" REUTERS