Deadly Russian attack kills 15 in Kyiv, raising fears for peace talks

KYIV: Russian missiles and drones ripped through apartment blocks in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least 15 people, including four children, an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky said showed Moscow’s rejection of peace negotiations.

Russia has rained down aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities despite US President Donald Trump’s push for a ceasefire and even as it talks up the importance of ending the war, started 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.

AFP reporters saw rescuers carrying victims away in body bags as they sifted through the smouldering rubble.

Heavy construction machinery was deployed to scoop up mounds of debris. Officials warned that several people were believed to be still trapped under the collapsed building.

“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, told AFP.

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 AFP analysis of Kyiv’s data.

Andriy, whose flat was destroyed in the strike, told AFP that 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.”

Zelensky called the attack “a horrific and deliberate killing of civilians”.

“The Russians are not choosing to end the war, only new strikes,” he said on social media, calling for Moscow to face fresh sanctions.

“For the spurning of ceasefire and for the constant Russian attempts to weasel out of negotiations, new strong sanctions are needed,” he added.

“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.

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

“The Russian armed forces are fulfilling their tasks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to a question by AFP. “They continue to strike military and military-adjacent infrastructure facilities.