Ukraine's two largest cities under Russian attack, officials say one dead

Russia attacked Ukraine's two largest cities Kyiv and Kharkiv early on Saturday, officials said, with one person killed and at least 15 injured.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was killed in the capital city and four injured, including three being treated in hospital.

Klitschko said the strikes had triggered fires in districts on either side of the Dnipro River, which bisects the capital. He said heating and water supplies had been disrupted in parts of the city east of the river.

Ukraine's air force said both drones and missiles had been deployed in the assault on the capital.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, reported strikes in at least four districts. A medical facility was among the buildings damaged.

Kyiv has already endured two mass overnight attacks since the New Year that have knocked out power and heating to hundreds of residential buildings. Emergency workers were still engaged in restoring services to residents, with overnight temperatures dipping to minus 13 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit).

In Kharkiv, a frequent target 30 km (18 miles) from the Russian border, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 25 drones had hit several districts over 2-1/2 hours, with at least 11 people injured.

Writing on Telegram, Terekhov said the drones had struck a dormitory for displaced people, a hospital and a maternity hospital.

The latest attacks occurred after negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States completed the first of two days of talks in the United Arab Emirates aimed at finding a resolution of the nearly four-year-old war.

-Ron Popeski/Reuters