A RUSSIAN drone struck a block of flats in a south-eastern Ukraine city, killing three people and injuring 10 others, officials said today, while a Russian general was killed by a car bomb.

Among the civilians killed in the night-time drone strike in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, were a child and a 76-year-old woman, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.

Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy drones at five Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s air force reported. Authorities in the north-eastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions reported damage to civilian infrastructure but no casualties.

Russia pounded Kiev in a prolonged barrage on Thursday night, killing at least 12 people and injuring 87 in its deadliest assault on the Ukrainian capital since July.

The attack drew a rare rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin from US President Donald Trump, who has said that efforts to end the war are coming to a head.

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on Kiev,” Mr Trump posted on social media. “Not necessary, and very bad timing.

“Vladimir, stop! 5,000 soldiers a week are dying. Let's get the peace deal done!”

Mr Trump’s efforts to get a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia have failed to make a breakthrough. Senior US officials have warned that the administration could soon give up attempts to stop the war if the two sides do not come to an agreement.

US envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to meet with Mr Putin in Moscow today, their second meeting this month and the fourth since February.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Investigative Committee said today that Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the general staff of the Russian armed forces, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car in Balashikha, just outside Moscow.

The committee’s spokesperson, Svetlana Petrenko, said that the explosive device was rigged with shrapnel. She said that investigators were at the scene.

Russian media ran videos of a vehicle burning in the courtyard of a block of flats.

The committee did not mention possible suspects.

The attack follows the killing of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, who died on December 17 when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his flat exploded as he left for his office.

The Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Mr Kirillov, and Ukraine’s security agency acknowledged that it was behind that attack.

Mr Kirillov was the chief of Russia’s Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, the special troops tasked with protecting the military from the enemy’s use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment. Mr Kirillov’s assistant also died in the attack.