RUSSIA launched a large aerial assault in and around Ukraine’s capital early this morning, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than a dozen others, including three children, local authorities said.

In a statement, Ukraine’s air force said the main targets of the Russian attack were the Kiev and Odessa regions.

The overnight strikes marked the sixth consecutive day of Russian attacks on Kiev, following an unprecedented stretch of air raid alerts that began last week.

The warnings continued at a near-constant pace throughout the rest of the week, forming a sustained, several-day barrage that has increasingly involved the use of fast, jet-powered drones. 

The relentless attacks have subjected Kiev and its residents to prolonged danger and disruption, with strikes coming night and day.

The latest attack struck civilian infrastructure and residential buildings in several districts of Kiev, with eight people killed in the city itself and three others in the surrounding region.

Russian strikes killed seven people in the Darnytskyi district of the capital, authorities said. 

An eighth person was killed in the Holosiivskyi district, when a non-residential building was hit and caught fire, the emergency services said. 

The other three people who died were in areas of the Kiev region outside the city, and 12 were wounded. 

The Odessa region came under a major Russian attack overnight, damaging civilian infrastructure and wounding one person, regional head Oleh Kiper said.

Two residential buildings were damaged, while a fire broke out at a sewing factory. Russian forces also struck the Orlivka international ferry crossing on the border with Romania, he said.

Ukrainian forces said they destroyed or suppressed 199 aerial targets, including five ballistic missiles and 187 drones. Missile and drone strikes were recorded at 28 locations, while debris from intercepted targets fell at another 10 sites, it said.