Twelve people were reported killed when a five-storey residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district was struck in the middle of the night, said Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko.
The victims included three children aged two, 14 and 17, one of whom died at the scene and two others in hospital. Ten more people were missing at the site as searches continued, the minister added.
A 13th person died in Kyiv’s central Shevchenkivskyi district, where an attack damaged buildings and offices near the railway station, including those housing the EU delegation to Ukraine and the British Council. The council in Ukraine announced on social media that its office had been “severely damaged” and would be closed to visitors until further notice.
The location of the 14th fatality was not immediately known.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the onslaught showed that Russia had no intention of negotiating an end to the war.
“These Russian missiles and attack drones today are a clear response to everyone in the world who, for weeks and months, has been calling for a ceasefire and for real diplomacy,” the president wrote on social media.
“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” he added.
Aerial bombardment of Kyiv had been relatively muted during August, when Trump made a failed attempt to bring about an end to the war by meeting Putin in Alaska.
But the overnight attack indicated Russia was ready to return to its deadly campaign of bombing cities, even though Trump has previously complained about such attacks and threatened to impose sanctions on Russian oil if they continued.
The Kremlin announced on Thursday it was “still interested” in diplomacy but would continue to launch strikes on Ukraine
