Russia, Ukraine war: Moscow launches second biggest attack on Kyiv

Russian missiles and drones ripped through apartment blocks on Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least 23 people including four children, authorities said, in an attack the United States warned undermines peace efforts.

The European Union mission, a British government cultural building and two media outlets’ offices were also damaged, setting off international protests. “Two missiles hit in a distance of 50m of the delegation within 20 seconds,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said.

Russia has rained down aerial strikes on Ukrainian cities despite US President Donald Trump’s push for a ceasefire and even as Moscow talks up the importance of ending the war launched by its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The attack — one of the deadliest on Kyiv— blasted a five-storey crater in one apartment block, ripping the building in two at about 3am local time Thursday,

US President Donald Trump “was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised,” his press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

AFP reporters saw rescuers carrying several victims away from the apartment block in body bags throughout the day as they sifted through the smouldering rubble.

“Glass was flying... we were screaming when the bombs went off,” Galina Shcherbak, who was at a parking lot close to one of the strikes, said.

Ukraine’s air force said Moscow fired 629 drones and missiles. That would make it the second-largest overnight barrage of the war, according to analysis of Kyiv’s data.

Andriy, whose flat was destroyed in the strike, told AFP he had only just made it out alive. “If I had gone to the shelter a minute later, I would not be here now, I would have been buried.”

“I came out, could not hear anything, there was fog everywhere, and my left eye was completely covered in blood.”

A “rare” maritime drone attack by Russia on a Ukrainian naval forces vessel in the Black Sea also claimed at least one life while leaving several people wounded or missing, a Ukraine navy spokesperson said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack on Kyiv “a horrific and deliberate killing of civilians”.

“The Russians are not choosing to end the war, only new strikes. Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” he said on social media, calling for fresh sanctions against Moscow.

“All deadlines have already been broken, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy ruined. Russia must feel accountable for every strike, for every day of this war,” he said.

Mr Zelensky’s top aides are set to meet with Trump’s team tonight in New York.

The Kremlin, which claimed to have targeted military sites, insisted it was still interested in diplomacy, but that its strikes would “continue”.

“The Russian armed forces are fulfilling their tasks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“They continue to strike military and military-adjacent infrastructure facilities.”

The EU and British government meanwhile summoned Russia’s ambassadors after the barrage damaged buildings of the EU’s mission and the British Council in Kyiv. Offices of local media outlets were also damaged.

Inside the EU mission, AFP reporters saw blown-out windows and partially collapsed ceiling panels.

French President Emmanuel Macron slammed Russian “terror and barbarism”, saying on X: “This is Russia’s idea of peace.” British PM Keir Starmer accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “sabotaging hopes of peace”, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said “Russia showed its true face” with the strikes.