A Russian missile strike on Kyiv killed three people on Saturday in what Ukrainian leaders called a “heinous” attack.

Russia said the rare deadly aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital, which has much better air defences than elsewhere in the country, was “retaliation” for bombardments on its territory.

City officials said the victims were two men, aged 43 and 25, and a 41-year-old woman. Another three people were wounded in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district.

The strike comes as Ukraine and Russia vie for the upper hand in the war before US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

Mr Trump has vowed to end the war soon and there are fears he could cut off US support for Kyiv or strong-arm Ukraine into an unjust peace.

Volodymyr Zelensky said the world had to make Vladimir Putin end an illegal invasion that had lasted nearly three years.

“Everyone who is helping the Russian state in this war must be put under such pressure that it is felt no less than these strikes. We can only do this in unity with the whole world,” he said.