Russia kills six in drone, missile strikes on Ukraine's Kyiv: Zelenskyy
The overnight attack wounded at least 52 people and caused damage at 27 locations across four districts of Kyiv, city military administrator Tymur Tkachenko said on Thursday as casualty numbers are expected to rise.
Rescue teams were at the scene to search for people trapped under the rubble.
Russia's latest deadly attack on Ukraine came after United States President Donald Trump on Monday issued a 10- or 12-day ultimatum to Moscow to halt its invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year, or face sanctions.
Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Russia had used more than 300 drones and eight missiles in the attack as he posted a video of burning ruins on social media.
'Today, the world once again saw Russia's response to our desire for peace, shared with America and Europe,' Zelenskyy wrote. 'That is why peace without strength is impossible. But forcing Moscow to make peace, compelling them to come to a real negotiating table – all the tools needed for this are in the hands of our partners.'
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a 'horrible morning in Kyiv'.
'The brutal Russian strikes destroyed entire residential buildings and damaged schools and hospitals,' Sybiha said.
'This is unequivocally one of the largest attacks that we've seen in recent weeks and the majority focusing on Kyiv,' Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford said, reporting from Kyiv.
A 'large residential area … with box flats all around' was hit, he said, adding, 'The majority of the windows in those flats have been blown out.'
'According to the minister of the interior [Ihor Klymenko], … the power of this attack was so strong that people were literally hurled out of their apartment buildings.'
Yana Zhabborova, a resident of one of the damaged buildings, woke up to the sound of the explosions, which blew off the doors and windows of her home.
'It is just stress and shock that there is nothing left,' said Zhabborova, a 35-year-old mother of a five-month-old and five-year-old.
Russia's Defence Ministry said the attack had targeted and hit Ukrainian air fields and ammunition depots as well as businesses linked to what it called Kyiv's military-industrial complex.
The Ukrainian air force later said its air defences intercepted and jammed 288 of the 309 drones involved in the attack and three of the eight missiles.
Ukrainian drones later struck an electronics plant in the western Russian city of Penza, according to Governor Oleg Melnichenko and an official from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The official said the plant, which produces combat control systems for the Russian military, caught fire. Melnichenko confirmed that it caught fire.
Drone wreckage also halted some trains in the Volgograd region, state rail operator Russian Railways said.
Russia's Ministry of Defence said on Thursday that it had shot down 32 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Ukraine calls on international community to pressure Russia
Meanwhile, Russia said it had captured the town of Chasiv Yar, which had been a strategically important military hub for Ukrainian forces in the east.
The town in the Donetsk region 'was liberated by Russian forces', Russia's Defence Ministry said in a statement. Ukraine has not commented on the reported retreat.
If confirmed, the capture of the town, which had been the site of battles for months, would be the latest locality to fall to Russia's incremental but steady territorial gains.
The fall of the hilltop town now paves the way for Russian forces to advance on the remaining civilian strongholds in Donetsk, like the garrison city of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, important logistical bases for the Ukrainian military and home to many civilians, who have up to now not fled the fighting.
The Kremlin has made the capture of the Donetsk region its military priority and claimed as far back as late 2022 that the industrial territory was part of Russia.
Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made advances into areas on the eastern front line largely spared since the start of its invasion.
Thursday's attacks came on the heels of a Russian strike on a military training camp, which killed at least three Ukrainian soldiers on Tuesday.
After Thursday's strikes, Sybiha called on the international community to apply utmost pressure on Moscow to end the war it launched in February 2022.
'President Trump has been very generous and very patient with Putin, trying to find a solution,' Sybiha wrote.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin 'does not care about any attempts to put an end to the killing', Sybiha charged. 'He only seeks to destroy and kill. Because the entire existence of this war criminal is based on this senseless war, which he cannot win but refuses to end.'
'It's time to make him feel the pain and consequences of his choices. It's time to put maximum pressure on Moscow,' Sybiha wrote.
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