Russian airstrikes on Kyiv have killed at least 18 people and wounded dozens in the most deadly night raid on the Ukrainian capital since the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Seventeen people were reported killed when a five-storey residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district was struck in the middle of the night, said Svitlana Vodolaha, a spokesperson for the state rescue service.
A further 10 were still unaccounted for but not all may have been the building at the time, she added. There were 200 rescuers and 59 rescue vehicles on site and the search and clean-up effort was expected to go on into the night.
The victims included four children, Vodolaha said. Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, had earlier said a child as young as two had died at the scene.
Another person died in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district, where an attack at 5.40am damaged buildings and offices near the railway station, including those housing the EU delegation to Ukraine and the British Council.
The council in Ukraine said on social media that its office had been “severely damaged” and would be closed to visitors until further notice.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the onslaught showed that Russia had no intention of negotiating an end to the war. “These Russian missiles and attack drones today are a clear response to everyone in the world who, for weeks and months, has been calling for a ceasefire and for real diplomacy,” the president said on social media. “Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table.”
Aerial bombardment of Kyiv had been relatively muted during August, when Trump made a failed attempt to bring about an end to the war by meeting Putin in Alaska.
But the overnight attack indicated Russia was ready to return to its deadly campaign of bombing cities, even though Trump has previously complained about such attacks and threatened to impose sanctions on Russian oil if they continued.
The Kremlin said on Thursday it was “still interested” in diplomacy but would continue to launch strikes on Ukraine.
A wave of strikes could be heard from the city centre after 3am and again, more loudly, shortly after 5.30am. Officials reported impacts at more than 20 locations around Kyiv. A further 38 people were wounded in the attacks, officials added.
Ukraine’s air force said Ukraine had been targeted with 629 missiles and drones overnight, one of the biggest aerial attacks mounted by Russia. That included 11 ballistic missiles, 20 Kh-101 cruise missiles and 598 Shahed and decoy drones.
A large proportion were intercepted or jammed, including 563 of the Shaheds, but three high-speed ballistic missiles, one Kinzhal and two Iskanders, as well as two cruise missiles were not stopped, according to the air force data.
Katarina Mathernova, the EU ambassador to Ukraine, reported that the offices of the EU delegation were “severely damaged by the shock wave” from a city centre blast, and posted pictures of light damage to the office building.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the delegation’s staff were safe. “Russia must stop its indiscriminatory attacks on civilian infrastructure immediately and join negotiations for a just and lasting peace,” she said.
Photographs showed more serious damage to the office building where the British Council is based, with the front windows shattered. The council is responsible for promoting British culture and English language teaching internationally.
Keir Starmer condemned the strikes and confirmed that the British Council building had been damaged. “Putin is killing children and civilians, and sabotaging hopes of peace. This bloodshed must end,” he said.
A railway siding in the east of Kyiv was among the locations bombed, and images showed that some intercity carriages had been burned out. One train was significantly damaged, the country’s rail operator said, and journeys were likely to be delayed.
The mayor, Vitali Klitschko, declared that Friday would be a day of mourning in Kyiv after what he said was “a barbaric attack”. He said it had been “a terrible night” for the capital, with many buildings damaged.
Zelenskyy said there should be an international response and called for further sanctions against Russia, including from China, an ally of Moscow. “We expect a reaction from China to what is going on. China has repeatedly called for not expanding the war and for a ceasefire,” he said.
Hours earlier, Beijing had said Putin would be among the leaders attending a military parade with Xi Jinping in the Chinese capital next week.
