The death toll from Russia's biggest airstrike on Ukraine on Saturday rose to 39 as rescuers continued to clear the rubble, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, according to Reuters.
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Russia launched 158 missiles and drones at cities across Ukraine on Friday in what Ukrainian officials described as the worst aerial bombardment since the war began in February 2022.
"The work to clean up the consequences of yesterday's Russian attack is still ongoing. Almost 120 towns and villages, hundreds of civilian objects have been damaged," Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging application.
Zelensky said 39 people were killed and 159 injured in the attacks, which included various types of ballistic and cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones.
Ukrainian air defenses said they shot down 87 Russian missiles and over 30 drones.
At least 16 people were killed in the capital Kyiv, the highest number of civilian casualties in the city during the nearly 22-month war, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.
The city declared January 1 as a day of mourning for the victims.
Klitschko said rescuers were continuing to dig through the rubble in Kiev, where a warehouse and several residential and commercial buildings were hit.
Rescue efforts continued in other towns and villages in the center, south and west of the country, local officials said.
Local authorities raced to help repair thousands of broken windows in residential buildings and restore heat.
The weather is unseasonably warm in much of Ukraine with temperatures hovering around four degrees Celsius, but forecasters expect a drop to zero later in the week.
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