Russian missile and drone attack kills at least 15 in Kyiv

Kyiv, Ukraine: An hourslong barrage of Russian missiles and drones killed at least 15 people in Ukraine's capital, including four children, early Thursday, officials said. The attack, which they said also injured at least 45, was the largest on Kyiv since President Donald Trump's summit in Alaska with President Vladimir Putin of Russia nearly two weeks ago.

A five-story apartment building was destroyed in the Russian strikes, and other homes were damaged. A missile also hit a shopping mall in central Kyiv, authorities said, and buildings belonging to the European Union mission and the British Council were damaged.

In all, officials said, Russia launched 598 drones and 31 missiles in the overnight assault on Kyiv and other cities. Ukraine's defenses shot down 563 drones and 26 missiles, according to Ukrainian authorities.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said the Russian bombardment was the Kremlin's answer to the recent diplomatic flurry aimed at halting the fighting.

"Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table," Zelenskyy wrote on social media. "It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war. And this means that Russia still does not fear the consequences."

The attack came 13 days after Trump and Putin met in Anchorage, Alaska, for a one-day summit to discuss a settlement for the war. Russia has insisted that substantive peace talks, which could cover difficult questions of Russian territorial gains and Ukrainian security guarantees, must come before a ceasefire. That would allow Russia to continue to press its advantage on the battlefield while negotiations drag on.

After the Alaska summit, Trump reversed his demand for a preliminary ceasefire, at Putin's insistence. The fighting along the front lines, as well as missile and drone bombardments on Ukrainian cities, has continued.

While Trump has at times voiced frustration with Putin's continued barrages against Ukraine, he has not followed through on threats to impose new economic penalties against the Kremlin.

"Every conversation I have with him is a good conversation," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. "And then, unfortunately, a bomb is loaded up into Kyiv or someplace, and then I get very angry about it."

Trump said he still believed that "we're going to get the war done," but acknowledged that "it's tough."

With the White House continuing its diplomatic efforts, Zelenskyy said Wednesday that his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and the head of the country's security council, Rustem Umerov, would meet with Trump's team on Friday in New York. They will discuss security guarantees to be included in any future peace agreement, according to Zelenskyy.

On Thursday, fires and falling debris were reported in at least 23 locations around Kyiv overnight, and missiles and drones could still be heard flying overhead at dawn. An official with the city's emergency service said people had been rescued from the rubble of the destroyed apartment building.

Referring to the damage to the EU mission, Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Russia had targeted diplomats in violation of the Vienna Convention.

The EU ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, said on the social platform X: "Russia's 'peace' last night: a massive strike on Kyiv with drones and ballistic missiles. This is Moscow's true answer to peace efforts."

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on social media that the EU delegation was safe.

Britain's prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the Kyiv building housing the British Council, an international cultural and educational institution sponsored by his government, had also been damaged.

"My thoughts are with all those affected by the senseless Russian strikes on Kyiv," he wrote on X.

In the hours after the strikes, residents of the destroyed apartment building stood around on the grass outside it, wrapped in blankets. Six black plastic body bags lay among poplar trees beside the blasted-out entrance to the building.

Svitlana Lytvynenko, 21, a sales manager, said she had jumped out of bed with her boyfriend after hearing an explosion nearby about 3 a.m. and had run to the building's basement. Another strike, this one directly on her building, followed, raising a cloud of dust.

"It started burning and the water pipe broke and the water started pouring on us," she said. "We ran toward the exit when another explosion hit the building and the rubble fell and people started screaming that we are stuck."

They managed to climb out, though her boyfriend's leg was injured, she said, and the couple made it to another bomb shelter. She said she could not speak there because of her panic and the dusty air.

Her neighbor, Denys Otstavkin, 27, did not make it to the shelter in time and was running out of a doorway when a blast came. He and Lytvynenko both said they saw many cars burning and big clouds of smoke.

At least 500 emergency workers were deployed to help people around Kyiv, according to Svitlana Vodolaha, a spokesperson for the city's emergency service. When emergency workers arrived at the five-story apartment building, she said, people were screaming for help from under the rubble. Three of them were rescued, she added.

Earlier, on Wednesday evening, air-raid warnings and reports from social media sites that track Russian attacks had prompted some residents to head to subway stations to spend the night. Others only came after hearing explosions.

Tetyana Ivashchuk, 64, went to a subway station in central Kyiv at 3 a.m. and spent hours sitting on a bench. "I always come when it's scary," she said.

At first, only about a dozen people came to the station, but others arrived as the attacks continued. By 6 a.m., more than 100 people were sleeping or resting on the floor there, even as the first trains began taking others to work.

People stared at their phones, reading updates about the victims. "I see someone died," said a woman sitting across from Ivashchuk. They both nodded sadly and returned to their screens.