Sawt Falasteen - Mass Russian barrage kills 12 in Kyiv

Moscow has intensified its strikes on Kyiv this summer, more than four-and-a-half years into its invasion, with US-brokered talks frozen and the Kremlin not dropping its maximalist demands to end the war.

Kyiv has tightened security following weeks of attacks and AFP journalists in the capital heard around a dozen loud explosions and saw flashes in the sky early Tuesday.

President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced "Russian terror" and said an Indian citizen was among the dead, calling on allies to boost Ukraine's air defence this autumn.

Authorities said eight of the victims were killed within Kyiv and that most of them were railway workers who died after a ballistic missile hit a rail depot.

Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chief executive of Ukrainian Railways, said six of the company's employees were killed.

He said the attack caused "extensive destruction", including the complete devastation of a workshop, while fires continued to burn at some sites.

Another four people were killed in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian prosecutors announced, saying a residential building was damaged in the suburb of Boryspil.

- 'As much destruction as possible' -

Zelensky said 50 people were evacuated from the building in Boryspil.

"Russia always plans its strikes specifically to cause as much destruction to people's lives as possible, and it succeeds only when air defence capabilities are insufficient," he said on social media.

He said it was "very important" that deliveries boosting Kyiv's air defence "increase this fall".

EU defence and foreign ministers are due to gather in Ireland from Tuesday to grapple with how to bolster Kyiv, as the Kremlin escalates its air campaign.

Ukraine's border service also announced that Moscow had hit the Orlivka ferry checkpoint on the frontier with NATO-member Romania with "Shahed-type attack drones".

Romania has shot down Russian drones entering its airspace twice this year.

Ukrainian officials also said Moscow had struck a "fire and rescue vehicle" in Zaporizhzhia, wounding four people, and attacked the southern Odesa region.

- 'Massive strike' -

In Moscow, Russia's defence ministry said its forces had carried out a "massive strike" using long-range weapons and attack drones.

It said the attack targeted military-industrial and fuel and energy facilities in Kyiv and the surrounding region.

The ministry also said it had struck infrastructure in the Odesa region and the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk.

The Ukrainian air force had warned that the threat of "ballistic weapons and other means of attack against Kyiv and the region remains in effect", and urged residents to remain in shelters.

Ukrainian children return to school on Tuesday, and the Kyiv regional military administration has warned there must be no large events in high-risk areas.

Kyiv and its surrounding areas have come under sustained pressure from Russian attacks in recent weeks, with jet-powered drones adding to the threat and triggering as many as a dozen air-raid alerts a day.

One weekend attack on an ammunition depot killed 38 people in the capital's suburbs.

Both sides have escalated long-range strikes in recent months, targeting infrastructure such as warehouses, businesses and oil and port facilities, as well as ships, increasing civilian casualties.

Ukraine faces a shortage of interceptor missiles, particularly US-made Patriot systems for use against ballistic threats.

A.AlHaj--SF-PST