Kyiv, Ukraine — A massive Russian drone and missile attack hit Ukraine’s capital early Thursday, including a rare strike in the center of the city, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens more, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. It was the first major Russian combined attack on Kyiv in weeks, and it comes as U.S.-led peace efforts to end the three-year war struggle to gain traction.
“Already 14 people are known to have been killed as a result of the Russian attack, including 3 children. A horrific and deliberate killing of civilians,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post. “The Russians are not choosing to end the war, only new strikes… It is crucial now that the world responds firmly. Russia must stop this war it started and continues. For the spurning of ceasefire and for the constant Russian attempts to weasel out of negotiations, new strong sanctions are needed. Only this can work. The Russians understand only strength and pressure.”
Russia launched 598 strike drones and decoys and 31 missiles of different types across the country, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, making it one of the largest attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukraine’s forces shot down and neutralized all but 41 of the weapons, its Air Force said.
Efrem Lukatsky / AP
Zelenskyy said dozens of buildings, including homes, offices and other civilian enterprises were among those hit by the Russian assault, as well as a building “where the European Union Delegation to Ukraine is located.”
Moscow denies targeting civilians but has increased strikes in the last few months on cities and towns a long way from the war’s front lines.
Russia launched decoy drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration. At least 20 locations across seven districts of Kyiv were impacted. Nearly 100 buildings were damaged, including a shopping mall, and thousands of windows were shattered, he said.
Alina Smutko / REUTERS 
Russian strikes hit the central part of Kyiv, one of the few times Russian attacks have reached the heart of the city since the start of the full-scale invasion. Residents cleared shattered glass and debris from damaged buildings. Smoke billowed from the crumbled column of a five-story residential building in the Darnytskyi district that suffered a direct hit. An acrid stench of burning material wafted in the air as firefighters worked to contain the blaze.
Amid the destruction, emergency responders searched for survivors and extracted bodies. Crowds of residents stood nearby, waiting for relatives to be retrieved from the rubble. Bodies in black bags were placed at the side of the building.
Residents in the neighborhood said it wasn’t the first time their district was targeted.
Oleksandr Khilko arrived at the scene after a missile hit the residential building where his sister lives. He heard screams from people who were trapped under the rubble and pulled out three survivors, including a boy.
“It’s inhuman, striking civilians,” he said, his clothes covered in dust and the tips of his fingers black with soot. “With every cell of my body I want this war to end as soon as possible. I wait, but every time the air raid alarm sounds, I am afraid.”
Next steps unclear as Trump pushes to end Ukraine war
Thursday’s attack was the first major combined Russian drone and missile on Kyiv since President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska earlier this month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
While a diplomatic push for peace appeared to gain momentum shortly after that meeting, few details have emerged about next steps.
Western leaders, along with Zelenskyy, have accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts and avoiding serious negotiations while Russian troops move deeper into Ukraine. This week, Ukrainian military leaders conceded Russian forces had broken into an eighth region of Ukraine seeking to capture more ground.
Zelenskyy hopes for harsher U.S. sanctions to cripple the Russian economy if Putin doesn’t demonstrate seriousness about ending the war — demands that he reiterated following Thursday’s attack.
“All deadlines have already been broken, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy ruined,” Zelenskyy said.
Andrew Harnik/Getty 
Mr. Trump bristled this week at Putin’s stalling on an American proposal for direct peace talks with Zelenskyy. He said Friday that he expects to decide on next steps in two weeks if direct talks — which Moscow has thus far ruled out — aren’t scheduled. The previous day, Mr. Trump hinted that he could change U.S. policy on Ukraine’s use of American-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia.
In a post on his own social media platform, Mr. Trump said it was, “very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invaders country. … There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia.”
He said his predecessor, Joe Biden, “would not let Ukraine FIGHT BACK, only DEFEND,” adding, without any further explanation, that there were, “Interesting times ahead!!!”
In November, just weeks before he handed the presidency back to Mr. Trump, Biden changed the longstanding policy that had effectively barred Ukraine from using U.S.-supplied missiles to strike deep in Russia. While no announcement has been made, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that the Pentagon had “for months been blocking Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.”
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday it shot down 102 Ukrainian drones overnight, meanwhile, mostly in the country’s southwest. A drone attack sparked a blaze at the Afipsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, local officials said, while a second fire was reported at the Novokuibyshevsk refinery in the Samara region.
Ukrainian drones have repeatedly struck refineries and other oil infrastructure in recent weeks in an attempt to weaken Russia’s war economy, causing gas stations in some Russian regions to run dry and prices to spike.