Russian forces launched a major missile and drone attack on Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least nine people in the city, and injuring more than 60, the Ukrainian authorities said, in the deadliest strike on the Ukrainian capital since last summer.
Explosions could be heard throughout the night; clouds of brown smoke rose over the city as the sun came up. One missile hit a two-story building with eight apartments where emergency workers hunted for survivors Thursday morning.
A five-story building next door lost all of its windows. People stood outside, staring at the damage and talking on their phones, telling loved ones that they were alive. No military target was visible nearby.
An emergency service spokeswoman, Svitlana Vodolaha, told reporters at 8:30 a.m. local time: “Just now we dug out another person. Alive!”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that nearly 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, and 150 attack drones had targeted cities across the country, although Kyiv was the hardest hit.
“It is extremely important that everyone around the world sees and understands what is really happening,” Mr. Zelensky said in a social media post, adding that he would cut short a visit to South Africa and return to Ukraine after meeting the South African president.
The attack on Kyiv was one of the deadliest of the war and the worst since last July, when Russian missiles killed 41 people in Ukraine, destroying a children’s hospital in Kyiv and killing 21 people throughout the city. Recent deadly missile strikes have also targeted the cities of Sumy and Kryvyi Rih.
It comes at a crucial time in the war, which started with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. On Easter, a temporary truce called by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia seemed like more of a public-relations stunt than an actual cease-fire along the front lines, but still, there were no drone or missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. On Wednesday, planned peace talks in London were downgraded, largely because the U.S. decided not to attend.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has echoed Kremlin talking points in the war and on Ukraine, a reversal of previous U.S. policy.
Over the past week, the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to walk away from the peace process. And on Wednesday, President Trump and his top aides demanded that Kyiv accept an American-designed plan that would seemingly grant Russia all the territory it has gained in the war, while offering Kyiv only vague assurances about the country’s future security.
So far, Mr. Zelensky has rejected such a deal.
Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn from Kyiv, Ukraine.
