Sawt Falasteen - Russian attack killing 23 in Kyiv unleashes international fury

Russia has rained down aerial strikes on Ukrainian cities despite US President Donald Trump's push for a ceasefire and even as Moscow 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.

Trump "was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised," his press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

The European Union mission, a British government cultural building and 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 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."

A "rare" maritime drone attack by Russia on a Ukrainian naval forces vessel in the Black Sea also claimed at least one life while leaving several people wounded or missing, a Ukraine navy spokesperson said Thursday.

- 'Diplomacy ruined' -

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack on Kyiv "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 fresh sanctions against Moscow.

"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.

Zelensky's top aides are set to meet with Trump's team Friday in New York.

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 meanwhile summoned Russia's ambassadors after the barrage damaged 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", saying on X: "This is Russia's idea of peace."

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 following 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 Putin meeting with Zelensky any time soon.

Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to France, insisted in an interview with a French television station that Trump has made progress on ending the war while the Europeans "have accomplished nothing."

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.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, following the Kyiv attack, said on X that "we need to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself & secure a lasting peace."

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

B.Khalifa--SF-PST