A RUSSIAN drone and missile barrage on the Ukrainian capital Kiev today morning killed two people, one a four-year-old boy, the city’s military administration said.

The attack involved four ballistic missiles and 57 Shahed drones, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defences shot down 53 drones.

The bodies of a 35-year-old man and his son were found under rubble after missile fragments fell on a residential area in Kiev’s Brovary suburb. Another three people were injured in the attack.

Kiev military administration head Serhii Popko said it was the second time this month the city has been targeted. He said ballistic missiles did not reach the capital but that suburbs took the hit, while drones heading for the capital were shot down.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had used a North Korean missile in the strike.

He reiterated calls to Western allies to step up assistance to Ukraine, saying: “To really stop Russian terror, we need not only a full-fledged air shield that will protect all our cities and communities but also strong decisions from partners — decisions that will remove restrictions on our defensive actions.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s incursion into the Russian region of Kursk continued for a sixth day.

The largest such attack since the invasion — and unprecedented for its use of Ukrainian military units on Russian soil — it caught Moscow unaware and was an embarrassment to Russian military leaders, who have scrambled to contain the breach.

The exact aims of the operation remain unclear and Ukrainian military officials have adopted a policy of silence.

Military experts have said that it is probably intended to draw Russian reserves away from the intense fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, while a presidential adviser suggested it may strengthen Kiev’s hand in any future negotiations with Russia.

Kursk acting governor Aleksei Smirnov said on Sunday that a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group entered the Belovsky district the previous day, but that the situation had been stabilised.

In Moscow, the Defence Ministry said 35 drones were shot down overnight over the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions.

Kiev has not commented on Sunday’s drone attacks inside Russia, but Ukraine has increased the pace of similar drone attacks, largely targeting military infrastructure and oil depots, in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, Belarus said it was sending more troops to its border with Ukraine on Saturday, saying Ukrainian drones had violated its air space as part of the military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

Leader Alexander Lukashenko said Belarusian air defence forces destroyed dozens of targets flying from Ukraine over the Mogilev region, which borders Russia, on Friday evening.

“The Ukrainian armed forces violated all rules of conduct and violated the air space of the Republic of Belarus in the eastern direction, very close to us in the Kostyukovichi district,” Mr Lukashenko said at a meeting in Minsk on Saturday.

Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said Belarus regards the violation of its air space as a provocation and is ready for “retaliatory action.”