Sawt Falasteen - Russia pummels Kyiv, killing three and denting peace hopes

AFP journalists in the capital heard air raid sirens wailing before several hours of thunderous explosions sent Kyiv residents running to shelter in metro stations.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 675 attack drones and 56 missiles mainly at Kyiv, adding its air defence units had downed 652 of the drones and 41 missiles.

"Everything was burning. People were screaming... people were shouting. It was on fire," Andriy, a Kyiv resident still wearing a nightgown and with blood stains on his shirt, told AFP near a collapsed Soviet-era residential building.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 20 locations in Kyiv had been damaged, including residential buildings, a school, a vet clinic and other civilian infrastructure facilities.

"These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end. It is important that partners do not remain silent about this strike," he added.

At daybreak, AFP journalists witnessed chaotic scenes as rescue workers dug through the debris of a residential building gutted in the attack.

Emergency service workers were seen hauling from the site those wounded and killed in the strikes.

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said 40 people were wounded, including two children, while Ukrainian emergency services said three people had been killed.

- Scaled-up attacks after truce -

Russia has fired more than 1,500 drones at Ukraine over the last 36 hours, Kyiv's air force said.

The barrage is the latest major setback for efforts to end the conflict after US President Donald Trump raised faint hopes for peace by brokering a three-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow last week, and Russia's leader Vladimir Putin suggested the war could be winding down.

That ceasefire -- put in place as Putin presided over a scaled-down military parade in Red Square to mark the anniversary of victory in World War II -- was marred by allegations of violations by both sides.

And both Ukraine and Russia launched long-range drone attacks immediately after it ended on Tuesday.

The Kremlin has poured cold water on the idea that Putin's vague comments, issued Saturday, about the war "heading to an end" could mean a softening in Moscow's position.

On Wednesday it repeated its demand that Ukraine fully withdraw from the eastern Donbas region before a ceasefire and full-scale peace talks can take place.

Kyiv has rejected such a move as tantamount to capitulation.

Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities for more than four years, but it usually launches large-scale drone and missile attacks at night.

On Wednesday, an hours-long barrage of at least 800 Russian drones targeting mainly western Ukraine killed six people and wounded dozens of others.

Zelensky has since urged Trump to discuss ending the conflict during his meetings in Beijing this week with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

A senior Ukrainian presidency official told AFP the scale of Thursday's attacks was so large because there had been an earlier pause and linked its timing to the meeting between the US and Chinese leaders.

The official called it "a demonstration during Trump's talks in China", without elaborating.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has spurred the worst conflict in Europe since World War II, killing hundreds of thousands of people and displacing millions more.

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B.Mahmoud--SF-PST