Russia launched its largest air attack of the war on Ukraine overnight, setting the main government building on fire in central Kyiv and killing at least four people, including an infant, Ukrainian officials said yesterday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the drone and missile barrage killed four people and caused damage across the north, south and east of the country, including the cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih and Odesa, as well as in the Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
“Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have already begun long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” Zelenskiy said in a post on X, issuing a fresh appeal to allies to strengthen Ukrainian air defences.
Just after sunrise, thick smoke could be seen rising into the clear blue sky from the burning top floor of the main government building, located in the historic Pecherskyi district, Reuters witnesses said.
Elsewhere in Kyiv, residential apartments were hit and damaged, with dozens of residents wrapped in blankets gathering on the streets outside to survey the damage to their homes as rescue workers fought to extinguish the flames.
The attack underlined growing pessimism in Ukraine and among allies that the war can be ended any time soon, with Russian President Vladimir Putin resisting calls for a ceasefire and emboldened by strengthening relations with China.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has expressed growing frustration with Moscow since he met Putin last month.
Yesterday, he said he is ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia, the closest he has come to suggesting he is on the verge of ramping up sanctions against Moscow or its oil buyers over the war in Ukraine.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday that additional economic pressure by the US and Europe could prompt Russian President Vladimir Putin to enter peace talks with Ukraine.
He said on NBC’s Meet the Press that President Trump’s administration was “prepared to increase pressure on Russia”.
Zelenskiy said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, co-ordinating diplomatic efforts, next steps and contacts with partners.
Kyiv’s European allies have condemned the attack and vowed to stand by Ukraine politically and militarily, but concrete offers of assistance, including the possibility of troops on the ground, are still being discussed.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was the first time in the war that the main government building in Kyiv had been hit, a symbolic blow to a well-defended part of the city.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X that the Russian attack on Kyiv’s government showed “again that the continued delaying (of) a strong reaction against Putin and the attempts to appease him made no sense”.
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