Sawt Falasteen - Russian attack kills 18 in Kyiv, unleashes new international fury

Russia has rained down aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities despite US President Donald Trump's push for a ceasefire and even as it talks up the importance of ending the war launched by its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The attack -- one of the deadliest on Kyiv -- blasted a five-storey crater in one apartment block, ripping the building in two. The European Union mission, a British government cultural building, as well as two media outlets' offices were also damaged, setting off international protests.

AFP reporters saw rescuers carrying several victims away from the apartment block in body bags throughout the day as they sifted through the smouldering rubble.

"Glass was flying ... we were screaming when the bombs went off," Galina Shcherbak, who was at a parking lot close to one of the strikes, told AFP.

Ukraine's air force said Moscow fired 629 drones and missiles. That would make it the second-largest overnight barrage of the war, according to AFP analysis of Kyiv's data.

Andriy, whose flat was destroyed in the strike, told AFP that he had only just made it out alive.

"If I had gone to the shelter a minute later, I would not be here now, I would have been buried."

"I came out, could not hear anything, there was fog everywhere, and my left eye was completely covered in blood."

- 'Diplomacy ruined' -

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack "a horrific and deliberate killing of civilians".

"The Russians are not choosing to end the war, only new strikes," he said on social media, calling for Moscow to face fresh sanctions.

"All deadlines have already been broken, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy ruined. Russia must feel accountable for every strike, for every day of this war," he said.

"These egregious attacks threaten the peace that @POTUS is pursuing," the US envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said on X.

Zelensky's top aides are set to hold a meeting with Trump's team in New York on Friday.

The Kremlin, which claimed to have targeted military sites, insisted it was still interested in diplomacy, but that its strikes would "continue".

"The Russian armed forces are fulfilling their tasks," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to a question by AFP.

"They continue to strike military and military-adjacent infrastructure facilities."

The European Union and British government summoned Russia's ambassadors after the barrage damaged the buildings of the EU's mission and the British Council in Kyiv.

Offices of local media outlets were also damaged.

Inside the EU mission, AFP reporters saw blown-out windows and partially collapsed ceiling panels.

International condemnation was swift.

French President Emmanuel Macron slammed Russian "terror and barbarism".

"This is Russia's idea of peace," he said in a post on X.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "sabotaging hopes of peace", while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said "Russia showed its true face" with the strikes.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen spoke with both Zelensky and Trump after the attacks, insisting afterwards that "Putin must come to the negotiating table".

- Stuttering diplomacy -

Following a summit between Putin and Trump in Alaska earlier this month, the Kremlin has rebuffed attempts to reach a swift end to the fighting.

It has also ruled out a Putin meeting Zelensky any time soon.

Moscow is demanding Kyiv cede more territory and renounce Western military support as conditions for any peace deal -- ultimatums ruled out by Ukraine.

Putin has rejected multiple ceasefire calls from Zelensky, Trump and European leaders.

Ukraine has long cast Russia as only paying lip service to the idea of halting its invasion.

Russian forces said Thursday they had captured another small settlement in the eastern Donetsk region, the latest in a steady advance.

Moscow has pushed back against any Western military presence in Ukraine.

Kyiv meanwhile said it had hit two large refineries in Russia in its own overnight attacks -- strikes it calls fair retaliation.

R.AbuNasser--SF-PST