Putin's birthday blitz: He marks turning 74 with barrage and boy, 14, is killed while writing about 'oppression of the defenceless'

Published: 19:00 EDT, 7 October 2026 | Updated: 20:05 EDT, 7 October 2026 Vladimir Putin marked his 74th birthday yesterday by killing at least 25 in Ukraine during a blitz of more than 70 Russian ballistic missiles.One hit a five-storey apartment block that collapsed leaving nine dead, including three children.Dozens more were injured in the strike on Pryluky in the northern Chernihiv region after Putin deployed TU-160 strategic bombers and drones to torch infrastructure across Ukraine in the early hours.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: 'Today, on Putin's birthday, the Russian army 'presented' him with the destruction of a residential block in Pryluky – an ordinary five-storey block of flats.'It came as news emerged of how a 14-year-old schoolboy, Daniel Umansky, was killed by a drone strike on Kyiv while doing his homework.Speaking to the Daily Mail, his weeping father, Zorick, 53, said Daniel had just written that 12th century ruler Volodymyr II of Kyiv 'did not allow the powerful to oppress the poor and defenceless'.Seconds later, at 8am on September 25, a Shahed drone smashed into his flat at 300mph, killing him instantly in front of his mother, Natalia, 43.When found in the rubble, his unfinished homework – bloodied and shredded – remained open on the page he was working on.'I wasn't in a state to take in such details at first,' said Mr Umansky, a wine expert. 'Then I realised how symbolic it was.' Fire and smoke rise in the city during a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine October 7 Pictured: Daniel Umansky, a 14 year old boy who was killed while doing his homework his room on the morning of September 25th Vladimir Putin marked his 74th birthday yesterday by killing at least 25 in Ukraine during a blitz of more than 70 Russian ballistic missilesHe was asleep when the drone hit, and said his wife, a hotel sales manager, had not been able to describe what happened.Mr Umansky added: 'We're still afraid to go into all the details.'The difference in our experiences is probably 15 seconds, but those 15 seconds that she experienced and I didn't were the hardest, the toughest, the cruellest in any person's life.'Luckily, her injuries are not serious. The biggest trauma is psychological. It's in our souls.'The Jewish family moved to Ukraine from Israel, but when Russia invaded in 2022 they went back to Tel Aviv. However, they returned to Kyiv after the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.Daniel's last conversation with his father came the night before he died, when he talked about his dream to live somewhere safe. 'Daniel was living in two countries where there was a constant threat to life,' Mr Umansky said. 'His dream was that his children would never face that.'Then he went to sleep and I never saw him alive again.'He added: 'Russians are trying to make Kyiv impossible to live in. They carry out psychological terror. But Ukraine is not trending now – there are other trends. I ask these people, 'Please pay attention to what Russia is doing'.'