Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged his allies to take "strong decisions" at this week's NATO summit in Ankara after a Russian attack on Kyiv killed at least 19 people overnight.
"It is critically important that the world, first and foremost the United States and our European partners, come out of the NATO Summit in Ankara with strong decisions in support of our air defence," Zelensky said in a post on Facebook on Monday.
A residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's City Military Administration in a post on Telegram. In the Darnytsia district, several multistory buildings were damaged and people were believed to be trapped under the rubble.
“These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives,” he said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated that air defences were in operation and urged people to remain in shelters.
"Nine deaths and 46 wounded have now been confirmed as a result of the Russian attack (including five wounded children)," Tkachenko posted on Telegram. "Sadly, this is not the final toll. Rescue operations are still ongoing."
One fatality was recorded in the Bucha district, northwest of Kyiv, earlier in the morning.
"There are no words that can ease this pain," Tkachenko said.
Meanwhile, three Russian Shahed-type drones struck a gas station belonging to Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, SOCAR, in the village of Nechayane.
SOCAR Energy Ukraine said no one was injured in the strike as staff had followed air raid procedures and already taken shelter.
This is not the first time that SOCAR installations in Ukraine have been hit in Russian air strikes.
Last summer, two filling stations in the Zhytomyr region were badly damaged in explosions and in August, a Russian drone strike on a SOCAR oil depot in the occupied Odesa region started a fire and seriously injured four people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned hours earlier of another large-scale Russian attack on Kyiv.
The assault was the second on the capital and its surroundings in less than a week and came as both sides increased long-range attacks, underlining the growing reach of the war more than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted energy facilities inside Russia in recent weeks in an effort to weaken the Kremlin's war effort.
It has also struck at Moscow-controlled territory in Ukraine that predates the current invasion.
Zelenskyy renewed calls for Western partners to bolster Ukraine’s air defences, particularly by supplying more Patriot missiles, saying that failing to replenish them only emboldens Russia to prolong its four-year war, in a post on Telegram late Sunday.
