Ukraine's capital Kyiv has been rocked by a series of explosions for the second time in a week after Russian drones struck buildings near a central railway station during rush hour on Monday morning.
Several blasts hit the central Shevchenkivskyi district early in the morning, followed by more explosions just after 8am local time, when many people were rushing to work or school.
At least four people were killed when one of the drones struck a residential building, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy.
Mr Tymoshenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app that 19 people had been rescued from the residential building, and rescue work was continuing.
The attacks caused a number of fires and damaged several residential blocks, Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
He also said a pregnant woman was among the people killed in the attack.
"I have never been so afraid," ," said Vitalii Dushevskiy, 29, a food delivery courier who rented an apartment in the blasted building.
"It is murder, it is simply murder, there are no other words for it."
His flatmate, who gave his name only as Nazar, said they had tried to leave their flat only to find the staircase "all gone".
Shevchenkivskiyi, a busy hub with universities, student bars and restaurants, was previously hit by several explosions on Monday last week when Russia ordered the biggest aerial offensive against Ukrainian cities to date, in retaliation for a blast on the Kerch bridge linking mainland Russia to Crimea.
Andriy Yermak, the head of President Zelenskyy's staff, said the latest attacks were carried out with so-called "suicide drones" — unmanned flying vehicles laden with explosives.
"Russians think this will help them, but such actions are just their convulsions," Mr Yermak said on Telegram.
Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, which they often call "kamikaze drones", in recent weeks.
Iran denies supplying the drones to Russia, while the Kremlin has not commented.
In the Kyiv region alone, 13 or more drones were shot down, all of them as they flew in from the south, said Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force.
An Associated Press photographer caught one of the drones on camera, its triangle-shaped wing and pointed warhead clearly visible against the blue sky.
A Reuters reporter saw pieces of a drone used in the latest attack that bore the words "For Belgorod".
The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, close to the border with Ukraine, has accused Ukrainian forces of repeatedly shelling the region, and gunmen shot dead 11 people at a military training ground in the Belgorod region on Saturday.
Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
EU seeks to verify Iranian involvement
The European Union is seeking concrete evidence of any Iranian involvement in Russia's war on Ukraine, the bloc's top diplomat said on Monday.
"We will look for concrete evidence about the participation [of Iran in the Ukraine war]," Josep Borrell told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was also set to take part in the gathering.
The EU could decide to move towards imposing new sanctions against Iran over the matter, according to two diplomats involved in preparing talks among the ministers, though no detailed decisions were expected on Monday.
Denmark's Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said the EU should react strongly to the latest air attacks on Kyiv.
"What we can see now: Iranian drones are used apparently to attack in the middle of Kyiv, this is an atrocity," Mr Kofod said, saying the EU had to take "concrete steps" in response.
ABC/Reuters/AP
