Jaroslav Lukiv
BBC News
Reporting fromLondon
At least 12 people have been killed and more than 80 others injured, including children, in an overnight Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, local officials say.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Thursday morning that falling drone wreckage from the strikes that hit the night before triggered a number of fires, and it was feared people were trapped under the rubble of a residential building.
Blasts were also reported in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, injuring at least two people, the mayor said.
After the attacks, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday morning that he would cut short a visit to South Africa.
Officials said the overnight Russian attack involved some 70 missiles and up to 150 drones.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv city military administration, said 12 people had died.
In a post on social media, Klitschko wrote that six children and a pregnant woman were among those injured.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said phone calls could be heard from the wreckage as rescue teams combed through the rubble.
The worst-hit area was the western Svyatoshynskyi district, Klitschko said.
Kyiv officials said five other districts were hit, including Holosiivskyi in the south, Solomyanskyi district in the south-west and Shevchenkivskyi district in the west.
Footage on social media appears to show missiles hitting the city, triggering huge blazes.
An apartment block was flattened, the windows of surrounding buildings blown out and balconies ripped down.
Hours later, US President Donald Trump said on social media that he was "not happy" with the strikes and President Vladimir Putin should "stop".
His criticism followed Zelensky's comments to reporters in South Africa that the US could put more pressure on Russia to secure a ceasefire.
Trump had accused Zelensky the day before of harming peace negotiations.
Zelensky has ruled out recognising Russian control of Crimea, a southern Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Putin went on to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls almost 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Trump said on Wednesday that Crimea "was lost years ago", but Zelensky pointed to a 2018 "Crimea declaration" by Trump's then secretary of state Mike Pompeo that said the US "rejects Russia's attempted annexation".
A woman whose apartment was badly damaged in the latest attack on Kyiv told the BBC she fled twice from her hometown in the east of Ukraine, an area that is now occupied by Russia.
When asked whether Zelensky should give up those territories to get a peace deal done, she said no, because it would be "against our constitution".
Thursday's attack was one of the deadliest on Kyiv since 8 July last year, when 34 people were confirmed dead and 121 injured after Russian strikes hit civilian infrastructure including the Okhmatdyt children's hospital.
Reuters
In Kharkiv, about 40km (25 miles) from the Russian border, two people were injured, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
He said "private houses" were damaged in the overnight Russian missile and drone attack.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the overnight attacks indicated that Russia and not Ukraine was "the obstacle to peace", and that Putin did not respect peace efforts "and only wants to continue the war".
Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff is due to visit Moscow this week, after the US president said a peace deal was "very close".
US Vice-President JD Vance has said Washington's plan includes a call for the front lines in the conflict to be frozen "at some level close to where they are today".
Kyiv has warned it cannot accept a "frozen conflict". Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said a full ceasefire was a "necessary first step".
Ukraine's air force warned that virtually all the country's regions were under the threat of air strikes.
The Russian military has not commented on the reported attacks.
In a post on social media, the Russian defence ministry said that 87 Ukrainian drones had been either destroyed or intercepted overnight over several Russian regions.
Additional reporting by Seher Asaf and Vitaliy Shevchenko
War in Ukraine
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