At least 16 people were killed Tuesday when Russia launched a massive missile and drone barrage on Kyiv.
The attack, which also injured 124 more, was condemned by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as one of the capital’s most horrific attacks.
The strike was one of the deadliest on Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and came as direct peace talks between the two sides appeared to stall.
Zelensky said “an entire section of an apartment block” was destroyed and rescuers were searching under the rubble for possible survivors.
The Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported drones flying over the city and explosions ringing out as Ukrainian air defence systems attempted to intercept the barrage.
Dozens of residents took shelter in a metro station in central Kyiv, sleeping on mats, exchanging information on the drone and missile threat or reassuring pets, AFP journalists saw.
Residents in Kyiv told AFP the attack was one of the strongest in recent memory.
“It was probably the most hellish night in my memory for our neighbourhood,” 20-year-old Ukrainian student Alina Shtompel told AFP.
“It is indescribably painful that our people are going through this right now.”
Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said that some 27 locations in Kyiv were hit.
One person was also killed and 10 wounded in a strike on the southern port city of Odessa, while attacks on the Sumy and Kherson regions later in the day killed two others, authorities said.
A total of 440 drones and 32 missiles were used in the strikes nationwide, Zelenskyy said.
“Kyiv has faced one of the most horrific attacks,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on Facebook.
“Right now in Kyiv, efforts are underway to rescue people from under the rubble of an ordinary residential building – it’s still unclear how many remain trapped.”
He urged the international community not to “turn a blind eye.”
Russian President Vladimir “Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on,” he said.
US citizen dead
Another Kyiv resident, Sergiy, said his windows were shattered during the strikes.
“I was asleep. There was a loud bang. The window was smashed, and glass rained down on me,” he said.
Residential buildings, educational institutions and “critical infrastructure facilities” were all hit, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
A total of 114 were wounded in the attack on Kyiv, 68 of them hospitalised, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.
He reported earlier that a US citizen had died in a Russian attack on the capital’s Solomyansky district.
“During the attack on Kyiv … a 62-year-old U.S. citizen died in a house opposite to the place where medics were providing assistance to the injured,” Klitschko said on Telegram.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the new strikes showed Moscow was “continuing its war against civilians.”
More than three years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has kept up its attacks despite efforts by the United States to broker a cease-fire.
Talks have stalled. Moscow has rejected the “unconditional” truce demanded by Kyiv and its European allies, while Ukraine has dismissed Russia’s demands as “ultimatums.”
Zelenskyy had been hoping to speak with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Canada, but the U.S. leader cut short his visit, amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.
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