KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia hit Ukraine’s capital with drone and missiles Sunday in the largest aerial attack since the war began, killing four people across the country and damaging a key government building.
Russia attacked with 810 drones and decoys, Ukraine’s air force said, adding it shot down 747 drones and four missiles.
Associated Press reporters saw a plume of smoke rising from the roof of Kyiv’s government headquarters. It was not immediately clear if the smoke was the result of a direct hit or debris, which would mark an escalation in Russia’s air campaign, which has so far spared government buildings in the city center.
The building is the home of Ukraine’s Cabinet and its ministers. Police blocked access to the building as fire trucks and ambulances arrived.
Yuriy Ihnat, an air force spokesperson, confirmed to The Associated Press that Sunday’s attack was the largest Russian drone strike since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia also launched 13 missiles. Hits from nine missiles and 54 drones were recorded at 33 locations across Ukraine.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that four people were killed and 44 wounded. He said he spoke on the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron about the attack.
“Together with France, we are preparing new measures to strengthen our defense,” Zelenskyy said.
Marcon earlier on Sunday accused Russia of “striking indiscriminately” and said Moscow “is locking itself ever deeper into the logic of war and terror.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also condemned the attack. “These cowardly strikes show that Putin believes he can act with impunity. He is not serious about peace. Now, more than ever, we must stand firm in our support for Ukraine and its sovereignty,” Starmer said in a statement.
Multiple locations hit in Kyiv
In the Ukrainian capital, the attack killed two people and wounded 20 others, according to city officials.
Those killed were a mother and her 3-month-old child, whose bodies were dug out of the rubble, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration. At least 10 locations in Kyiv were damaged, he added. Direct drone hits struck a nine-story residential building in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district and a four-story residential building in Darnytskyi district.
“I just have no more words left to express what I feel towards Russia,” said Olha, a 77-year-old Kyiv resident whose apartment was damaged. She didn’t give her last name. “Although I’m an ethnic Russian myself, from outside Moscow. And I’ve never thought my people would be capable of this.”
Zelenskyy called for sanctions on Russia and for strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses.
“Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have started long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” he said. “The world can force the Kremlin criminals to stop killing; only political will is needed.”
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko posted a video of herself inside the damaged government building, where she said a fire covering 800 square meters (8,600 square feet) was put out.
“For the first time since the start of full-scale invasion, Russians struck our government headquarters in the center of Kyiv,” she said.
“It looks like Russia is not seeking peace and is not ready for negotiations. We call our partners to help close our sky. Let’s strengthen sanctions against Russia. Let’s create the security guarantees system that will help stop the enemy,” she said.
Russia insists it targeted military infrastructure
The Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday that it used “high-precision weapons” and drones to strike drone assembly and storage sites, military air bases in central, southern and eastern Ukraine, an industrial facility and a logistics facility on the outskirts of Kyiv.
The ministry said that “all designated objects were hit” and claimed that “no strikes were carried out on other objects within the borders of Kyiv,” in what could be a reference to the damaged government building.
Sunday’s attack is the second to target Kyiv in the span of two weeks, as hopes for peace talks wane.
It comes after European leaders pressed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to work to end the war after 26 of Ukraine’s allies pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once the fighting ends.
Zelenskyy has said he is ready to meet Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to put punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.
Moscow has repeatedly objected to any Western troop deployments to Ukraine and pushed back against a Putin-Zelenskyy summit, saying lower-level talks must take place first.
Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery in Russia
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted a total of 100 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the annexed Crimean peninsula and the Azov Sea between 8 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Sunday.
Most were downed over the Belgorod, Voronezh and Krasnodar regions near the border with Ukraine, according to the statement.
In the Krasnodar region, falling drone debris sparked a brief fire at an oil refinery, local authorities said. In the Belgorod and the Voronezh regions, two people were injured, officials said.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said Sunday that its troops seized the village of Khoroshe in the Dnipropetrovsk region. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that drone debris struck a four-story building in Sviatoshynskyi District. It was a nine-story building.
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Associated Press journalists Volodymyr Yurchuk and Susie Blann in Kyiv, John Leicester in Paris, and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
