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Russian strikes across Ukraine kills couple near Kyiv

Continued Russian strikes across Ukraine have killed another two people near Kyiv. (AP PHOTO)

Russia pounded cities across Ukraine with drones and a missile, killing a couple near the capital Kyiv a day after five people died in an attack on a passenger train, ahead of a fresh round of peace talks.

Local media reported that the woman had a four-year-old daughter who survived the overnight strike. Officials said four people, including two children, sought medical attention after the attack.

"When I carried her ⁠out, the girl started crying very hard, and then she began to shake violently," Marian Kushnir, a journalist who was a neighbour of the deceased couple, told Radio Free Europe on Wednesday.

A Russian drone hit a passenger train
The continued attacks come a day after Russia targeted a passenger train in killing five people. (EPA PHOTO)

"I felt a lot of pain, because in 10 years of war, I had never had such feelings before, when, holding a crying four-year-old child in my arms, I realised that her mother was dead."

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack on the apartment block, as well as another strike with short-range rockets on what he described as a residential area without military ‌targets in the southern ​city of Zaporizhzhia.

"We will respond fairly to Russia for this and other similar attacks," he wrote on social media.

Ukraine and Russia met for ‍US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi last week, with further meetings expected on Sunday, but Russia has continued to pound Ukrainian cities and both countries have hit each other's energy infrastructure.

The latest attack came as Ukraine was still reeling from Tuesday's drone strike on a passenger train in the northeast that killed five people, an assault Zelenskiy denounced as "terrorism."

Russia Ukraine War
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attacks on residential areas of Ukraine. (AP PHOTO)

There was no comment from Russia on the attacks. Both Moscow and Kyiv deny they are targeting civilians in the war, which is approaching its four-year mark on February 24.

Ukraine's air force said ​Russia launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile and 146 drones overnight, of which 103 were downed.

In Kyiv, a ‌17-storey residential building was hit, causing minor damage to the roof and shattering windows on the upper floors, the emergency services said.

Russia also struck other locations across the country, including the ​southern port city of Odesa, as well as Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih.

Russia Ukraine War
Six people were hurt in Russia's dawn attack on Zaporizhzhia, which damaged 14 apartment buildings. (AP PHOTO)

In Odesa, which had declared a day of mourning after a drone strike killed three people ‍overnight on Tuesday, three more people were hurt, the head of the city's military administration, Serhiy Lysak, said.

Ukraine's Sea Ports Authority said the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi came under attack but continued operating normally. Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike damaged manufacturing facilities, a locomotive and hangars, and sparked a fire that ​was ​being extinguished.

Moscow has repeatedly attacked Ukraine's ports in recent months in retaliation ​for Kyiv's strikes on unregulated oil tankers sailing to Russia.

Emergency services said the attack ​damaged a monastery, causing a fire.

At dawn, Russia also attacked the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported on Telegram.

Six people were hurt in the attack, which also damaged 14 apartment buildings, partially knocking out electricity, he said.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine would "respond fairly" to the Russian attacks. (AP PHOTO)

In the central city of Kryvyi Rih, two people were injured in an overnight missile attack, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said, adding that the attack "significantly" damaged an infrastructure facility.

Zelenskiy said 243 buildings in Kryvyi Rih were without heating as a result.

Russia has battered Ukraine's power grid this winter, plunging most Ukrainians into blackouts for most of the day and leaving some without heat for days on end during the coldest winter for years.

Zelenskiy said repairs were still ongoing to turn the heating back on for 700 of Kyiv's ‍apartment blocks, after a strike last Saturday knocked it out for about 6000 buildings. 

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