Sawt Falasteen - Russian missile attack kills nine in Kyiv

Ukraine has been battered by Russian aerial attacks through the war, but deadly strikes on Kyiv, which is better protected by air defences that other cities, are less common.

The attacks throw yet more doubt on already fraught US efforts to push Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, hours after Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for refusing to accept Moscow's occupation of the Crimean peninsula as a condition for peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is yet to respond to Zelensky's offer to completely halt air attacks on civilian targets, and last month rejected a US-Ukrainian call for a full and unconditional ceasefire.

"Putin shows only a desire to kill," Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, said as Russia unleashed its attack overnight.

"The attacks on civilians must stop," he added.

Loud blasts had sounded over the Ukrainian capital at around 1 a.m. (2200 GMT) after air raid sirens rang out across Kyiv warning residents to head to shelters, AFP journalists on the ground heard.

Through the night, rescue workers were poring through the rubble of destroyed buildings and tackling blazes in apartment blocks.

At least nine people were killed and more than 60 wounded, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.

"Russia has launched a massive combined strike on Kyiv," the agency said on Telegram.

"According to preliminary data, nine people were killed, 63 wounded."

Among 42 people hospitalised, were six children, it added.

Photos published by the agency showed first responders using search dogs to scour through piles of smoking debris, and medics carrying a wounded man into the back of an ambulance on a stretcher.

- 'Search for people' -

Strikes hit five districts across the capital, triggering fires in garages and administrative buildings that have been extinguished.

The attack also damaged residential buildings.

"The search for people under the rubble is underway," the emergency services said.

In a bomb shelter set up in a basement of a residential building, over a dozen residents gathered after the air alert started, an AFP journalist witnessed.

Kyiv was last hit by missiles in early April when at least three people were wounded.

It has been the target of sporadic attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Russia has launched some of its most deadly and brazen aerial strikes at Ukraine over the last month -- defying Trump's push to bring about a rapid end to the bloodshed.

A ballistic missile strike on the centre of northeastern city of Sumy killed at least 35 on April 13.

An attack on Zelensky's home town of Kryvyi Rig in early April killed at least 19 -- including nine children after a missile slammed into a residential area near a children's playground.

The Ukrainian leader had on Wednesday called for an "immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire."

"Stopping the killings is the number one task," Zelensky said on social media, as his top officials met European and US officials in London.

- 'Killing field' -

Hours before the attack, Trump had said a peace deal was "very close" -- and effectively closed with Moscow -- but accused Zelensky of being "harder" to negotiate with.

The Ukrainian president's refusal to accept US terms for ending the conflict -- which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 -- "will do nothing but prolong the 'killing field'," he said.

"I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelensky," Trump told reporters. "I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelensky. So far it's been harder."

Russia also launched a large-scale attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv overnight.

City mayor Igor Terekhov said at least seven missiles had been fired at the city.

"One of the most recent strikes hit a densely populated residential area... Two people were injured there. The inspection of the sites of enemy strikes is underway," Terekhov said, urging the city's residents to "be careful".

Separately, Russia's defence ministry reported downing 87 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 45 over Crimea.

T.Khatib--SF-PST