KYIV, Feb 26 — A high-rise apartment block was hit by a missile overnight in Kyiv as fighting raged between Russian attackers and Ukrainian forces, officials said today. 

Emergency services said the number of victims was "being specified” and that an evacuation was underway.

They posted a picture online of the tower block with a hole covering at least five floors blasted into the side and rubble strewn across the street below.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko wrote online that the building had been hit by a missile. 

He said in a video that the night had been "difficult”, with Russian "sabotage groups” in the capital. 

He insisted that there were no regular Russian troops in Kyiv, but said they were trying to enter from several directions.  

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted a picture of the damaged apartment block.

"Kyiv, our splendid, peaceful city, survived another night under attacks by Russian ground forces, missiles. One of them has hit a residential apartment in Kyiv,” he wrote. 

He urged the international community to "fully isolate Russia, expel ambassadors, (introduce an) oil embargo, ruin its economy.”

"Stop Russian war criminals!” he added.

The Russian military said today it had targeted Ukraine’s military infrastructure using cruise missiles fired from the air and sea. — AFP