Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) - Russian drones struck Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences in the historic heart of Kyiv on Monday, in the latest deadly daytime attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Kyiv has increasingly faced Russian drones and missiles as Europe’s worst conflict since World War II grinds through its fifth year.

The capital again came under fire after an air force alert warning of approaching drones.

Video footage shared online appeared to show a high-speed drone smashing into the National Academy of Sciences at a sharp angle, exploding and sending acrid smoke into the blue sky above.

People were seen leaning out of windows as bright orange flames engulfed part of the building.

Ukraine’s former national security and defence council secretary Volodymyr Gorbulin told state broadcaster Suspilne that he was at work at the academy at the time and was slightly wounded.

But he said his assistant, who was near the building, was killed.

The National Academy of Sciences is close to the German embassy, a cathedral, the national opera and government buildings.

Kyiv cultural sites, government buildings and schools have all been targeted before, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The academy called the attack “Russian terror” and “barbarity”, targeting “peaceful people who were simply at their workplaces… Ukrainian science, education and culture”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said a separate strike in the capital hit a medical facility.

Elsewhere, Russian strikes killed four and wounded at least 19 at a business centre in the central city of Dnipro while authorities reported an unspecified number of fatalities in a strike on a residential area in eastern Kharkiv.

Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky said Russian forces damaged an ice cream factory in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv, and residential buildings in Sumy, in the north, Rivne, in the northwest, and southern Odesa.

Thirty civilians were wounded, three of them seriously, in strikes on Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine, the regional military administration said.

A Russian jet-powered drone struck a Ukrainian village near the Polish border earlier Monday, damaging a border checkpoint, a regional Ukrainian official said.

- Winter fears -

Russia has been deploying newer jet-powered drones that move faster and are harder to intercept than the traditional models, which are based on Iranian Shahed drones.

Zelensky last week renewed his appeal to Ukraine’s Western allies to step up their military support, including for US-made Patriot interceptors capable of downing powerful ballistic missiles.

His request comes as Ukrainians consider their options with winter approaching, after Russian attacks last year on energy infrastructure cut power and heating as temperatures plunged to as low as -20C.

In an interview with Ukrainian television broadcast on Sunday night, Koretsky stopped short of saying that all residents in cities should leave before winter sets in, calling that an “extreme step”.

But he suggested that vulnerable people should relocate, to avoid overloading the hard-pressed emergency services as they deal with the aftermath of the relentless Russian strikes.

“If a person lives, for example, on the 16th floor and for instance the power gets cut, why at that moment, when the state emergency service specialists need to focus on dealing with the consequences, should we be… handling people who need extra attention?” he told TSN television.

“For such people, it’s worth finding an alternative place to stay for the winter period.”

Meanwhile, European defence ministers discussed whether the European Union needed its own NATO-style emergency mechanism to bolster coordination against “hybrid attacks” by Russia.

European governments say Moscow is stepping up its campaign of sabotage and interference against Ukraine’s supporters, as Kremlin troops struggle to make headway on the frontlines.

Ukraine will postpone some spending commitments, including reconstruction work, because of delays in receiving aid from its foreign backers, Ukraine’s prime minister said Monday.

burs/ach