RUSSIA ATTACKED UKRAINE’S capital overnight with missiles and drones, killing at least six people including a six-year-old boy, authorities have said.

Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said at least 52 other people were injured in the attacks, and the number is likely to rise.

A large part of a nine-storey residential building collapsed after it was struck, he added. Rescue teams are at the scene to rescue people trapped under the rubble.

“Missile strike. Directly on a residential building. People are under the rubble. All services are on site,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his official Telegram page.

Images from the scene showed plumes of smoke emanating from a partially damaged building and debris strewn on the ground.

Residents defied police orders not to return to the scene to retrieve their belongings.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and interior minister Ihor Klymenko also arrived at the scene.

At least 27 locations across Kyiv were hit by the attack, Tkachenko said, with the heaviest damage in the Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline, August 8, for peace efforts to make progress or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs.

Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in US-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.

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