KYIV, Ukraine >> Russian drones and missiles killed at least 14 civilians and injured several dozen others in Ukraine in overnight attacks, local officials said Monday, with nine deaths reported in the capital, Kyiv, where an apartment building partially collapsed.

The attacks came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy began a visit to the United Kingdom, where he met privately with King Charles III.

Russia fired 352 drones and decoys overnight, as well as 11 ballistic missiles and five cruise missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defenses intercepted or jammed 339 drones and 15 missiles before they could reach their targets, a statement said.

A Russian ballistic missile strike destroyed a high school later in the day in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing two staff, authorities said. No children were on the premises due to the summer vacation, said Zelenskyy, who described the strike as “absolutely insane.”

The strikes came nearly a week after a Russian attack killed 28 people in Kyiv, 23 of them in a residential building that collapsed after a direct missile hit. Russia has also hit civilian areas with long-range strikes in an apparent attempt to weaken Ukrainian morale.

‘Coalition of murderers’

Russian forces have been trying to drive deeper into Ukraine as part of a summer push along the roughly 620-mile front line, though the Institute for the Study of War said progress has failed to make significant gains.

“Russian forces are largely relying on poorly trained infantry to make gains in the face of Ukraine’s drone-based defense,” the Washington-based think tank said late Sunday.

Zelenskyy said preliminary data indicated that Russian forces used North Korean missiles in the Kyiv strike. He described Russia, North Korea and Iran, which has provided drones to Russia, as a “coalition of murderers.”Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s defense and new ways to pressure Russia will be the two main topics in his visit to the United Kingdom on Monday. Zelenskyy met privately with King Charles III and stayed for lunch, Buckingham Palace said. He was also expected to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of this week’s NATO summit in The Hague, Starmer’s office said.

Drones hit hospitals and residential areas

Drones and missiles hit residential areas, hospitals and sports infrastructure in numerous districts across Kyiv, emergency services said.The most severe damage was in Shevchenkivskyi district, where a section of a five-story apartment building collapsed.

Nine people were killed in the district, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Ten others, including a pregnant woman, were rescued from a nearby high-rise that also sustained heavy damage. Dozens of vehicles were burned or mangled by flying debris.

Oleksii Pozychaniuk, 29, who lives in the building next to the one struck, said he heard the whistle of the rocket approaching and “froze in terror” before feeling the impact.“Windows burst out, glass was flying everywhere,” he said. “We barely made it downstairs with my child. Everything here was on fire.”Klitschko said rescue workers were searching for survivors.