A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has killed at least eight people and injured dozens in one of the deadliest strikes since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than three years ago.
Loud blasts sounded over the city overnight on Thursday after air raid sirens rang out, warning residents to head to shelters before the Russian missile attack.
While Ukraine has been battered by Russian aerial attacks throughout the war, strikes on Kyiv, which has better air defences than other cities, are less common.
Through the night, rescue workers were going through the rubble of destroyed buildings and tackling blazes in apartment blocks.
“Russia has launched a massive combined strike on Kyiv,” Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said on Telegram, adding that eight people were killed and dozens more wounded.
At least 42 people were hospitalised, including six children, it added.
Russia also launched a large-scale attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv overnight. Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said at least seven missiles had been fired at the city.
“One of the most recent strikes hit a densely populated residential area … Two people were injured there. The inspection of the sites of enemy strikes is under way,” Terekhov said, urging the city’s residents to “be careful”.
Separately, Russia’s Ministry of Defence reported downing 87 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 45 over Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Ceasefire efforts
The attacks throw yet more doubt on already fraught US efforts to get Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, hours after President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to accept Moscow’s occupation of Crimea as a condition for peace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet responded to Zelenskyy’s offer to completely halt air attacks on civilian targets, and last month rejected a US-Ukrainian call for a full and unconditional ceasefire.
“Putin shows only a desire to kill,” Andriy Yermak, one of Zelenskyy’s top aides, said as Russia unleashed its attack overnight. “The attacks on civilians must stop,” he added.
Russia has launched a number of its most deadly aerial attacks at Ukraine over the last month – defying Trump’s push to bring about a rapid end to the bloodshed.
A ballistic missile attack on the centre of the northeastern city of Sumy killed at least 35 people on April 13, while an attack on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rig in early April killed at least 19.
The Ukrainian leader had on Wednesday called for an “immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire”.
“Stopping the killings is the number one task,” Zelenskyy said on social media, as his top officials met European and US officials in London.
Hours before the attack on Thursday, Trump had said a peace deal was “very close” – and closed with Moscow – but accused Zelenskyy of being “harder” to negotiate with.
The Ukrainian president’s refusal to accept US terms for ending the conflict “will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field’”, Trump said.
“I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy,” Trump told reporters. “I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy. So far it’s been harder.”
Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi said the Ukrainians he spoke to following Thursday’s attack “are incredibly frustrated”.
When asked about Trump’s seven-point peace plan, “many people here don’t even want to listen to the question. They say that Trump should keep quiet,” he said.
“People here are frustrated, they are angry, they are tired of what they describe as Russian lies and they are tired of what they describe as this bullish American government trying to force them into making concessions while they still experience ongoing air attacks on a daily basis,” Basravi reported.
