Russia has been shelling Kiev with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least eight people, wounding more than 70 and damaging buildings in the biggest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year, Reuters reports.
The attack caused multiple fires, six children were among the wounded, and some people are still trapped under the rubble, officials said.
"There has been destruction. The search for people under the rubble continues," the State Emergency Service wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha wrote on the social network X that the "brutal strikes" showed that Russia, not Ukraine, was the obstacle to peace. Russia did not immediately comment on the attack.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said eight people had been confirmed killed in the Ukrainian capital so far, although officials had previously said nine had been killed, Reuters reported.
The most serious incident occurred in an apartment building that was destroyed in the Svyatoshinsky district west of the city center.
Images posted on Telegram showed rescue teams working with searchlights, carefully moving through piles of rubble and climbing ladders that ran along the facades of buildings. Police called apartment after apartment to check if residents were safe.
Rescue teams, the Emergency Situations Service said, are working at 13 locations in the Ukrainian capital, and 40 fires have broken out.
"Mobile phones can be heard ringing under the rubble. The search will continue until it is clear that everyone has been pulled out," it said.
Fires broke out in garages, administrative buildings, and falling metal pieces hit vehicles.
An air raid alert in the Ukrainian capital was in effect for six hours.
Reuters writes that the attack came at a critical moment in Russia's war in Ukraine, which began with Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022, with both Kiev and Moscow under pressure from United States (US) President Donald Trump to show progress towards a peace agreement.
Trump and his administration have threatened to abandon efforts to reach a ceasefire if progress is not made, leaving European states to look for ways to support Kiev.
Talks in London on Wednesday aimed at reaching an agreement made "significant progress" towards reaching "a common position on the next steps," a joint statement from Britain, France and Germany said.
But the talks were brought to a new low after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided at the last minute not to attend.
Reuters reports that Trump appeared to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the lack of progress after Zelensky said he would not recognize Russia's occupation of the Crimean peninsula as part of a peace deal.
On the attack and Kharkiv and Zhytomyr region
Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city in the northeast, suffered two waves of Russian missile attacks overnight, injuring two people and shattering windows, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram, Reuters reports.
There was also damage in the Zhytomyr region, west of Kiev, where emergency services said Russian forces launched another attack on rescue teams battling the fire, injuring one worker.
Ukrainian state railway "Ukrzaliznytsia" announced that railway infrastructure was attacked and two railway workers were injured.
In the Kiev and Kharkov areas, shelling damaged the railway and administrative and technical buildings, but trains operated normally.
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