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 US President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian counterpart 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 demonstrates through his actions, not words, that he does not respect any peace efforts and only wants to continue the war," Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media, also slamming Moscow's "maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw" from more of its territory as a condition of peace.
"Putin shows only a desire to kill," Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, added.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said Russia had "terrorised Ukrainian cities throughout the night."
"Cruise and ballistic missiles, drones, air bombs. Russia is cruelly and cynically firing missiles at Ukrainian cities, killing people while the world is making efforts to establish peace," he said in a post on social media.
- 'Phone calls under rubble' -
Loud blasts had sounded over the Ukrainian capital at around 1:00 a.m. (2200 GMT) after air raid sirens rang out across Kyiv warning residents to head to shelters, AFP journalists on the ground said.
Through the night, rescue workers were scouring through the rubble of destroyed buildings and tackling blazes in apartment blocks. The interior ministry said damage was recorded at 13 separate locations across the capital.
At least nine people were killed and more than 60 wounded, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.
Six children were among 42 people hospitalised, it added.
"Phone calls can be heard from under the rubble -- the search will continue until we are confident that we have found everyone," Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said, adding that two children were unaccounted for.
In the Sviatoshinsky district in the west of Kyiv, an AFP journalist saw a body bag with one of the victims lain out on a strip of grass.
Construction equipment was being used nearby to clear piles of debris from a destroyed building, and roofs and windows had been blown off an apartment block.
A woman sat on a small folded-out chair stroking the arm of another person killed in the attack, the body covered in a striped blue sheet.
Nearby an AFP journalist saw a first responder talking to a woman wounded in the attack, her face bloodied and bruised as she clutched a dog in her arms.
Kyiv was last hit by missiles in early April when at least three people were wounded, and the capital has been targeted in sporadic attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Moscow's army 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.
And 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.
- 'Killing field' -
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 aides met European and US officials in London.
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.
Russia also launched a large-scale attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv overnight, firing at least seven missiles and hitting a "densely populated residential area," city mayor Igor Terekhov said.
Separately, Russia's defence ministry reported downing 87 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 45 over Crimea.
Russia launches Kyiv missile attack, hours after Trump blames Zelensky
Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) April 24, 2025 -
Russia launched a missile attack Thursday on Kyiv, killing at least two and wounding dozens hours after US President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for refusing to accept Moscow's occupation of Crimea as a peace deal.
The Ukrainian capital was attacked "by enemy missiles" in the early hours, with flights of drones heard across the city by AFP journalists as residents hid in bomb shelters.
City mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were killed and 54 others wounded so far in the attack.
Of these, "38 of them, including six children, were hospitalised," he said, adding that the rest of the wounded were treated at the scene.
In Ukraine's east, the city of Kharkiv was hit by seven missiles, said city mayor Igor Terekhov, who later warned that "a massive drone attack on the city continues".
"Stay safe!" Terekhov said on Telegram.
Hours earlier, 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."
Ahead of Trump's broadside, Vice President JD Vance laid out the US vision for a peace deal where Russia would get to keep already occupied swaths of Ukraine, which include Crimea.
Zelensky has rejected this as a violation of Ukraine's constitution.
That in turn prompted an outburst from Trump, in which he accused Zelensky of being "inflammatory" and taking a position "very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia."
Zelensky "can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said Crimea -- a lush Black Sea peninsula with longtime major Soviet and Russian naval facilities -- "was lost years ago" and "is not even a point of discussion."
Zelensky responded by posting on social media a 2018 "Crimea declaration" by Trump's then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo, which said Washington "rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea."
As Kyiv was bombarded with a Russian missile attack, Zelensky's top aide took to Telegram, saying "Russia is attacking Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities with missiles and drones right now".
"Putin shows only a desire to kill," said Andriy Yermak. "The fire must stop. The attacks on civilians must stop."
- 'Freeze' Russia's gains -
Weeks into a US-initiated process, Trump's patience was "running very thin," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
Intense US pressure on Ukraine to accept a deal comes after Trump regularly boasted on the campaign trail that he would resolve the conflict in 24 hours.
He has put no equivalent visible pressure on Russia, while dangling a lifting of massive US economic sanctions against Moscow if the fighting stops.
Meanwhile, on a trip to India, his deputy Vance gave the fullest public explanation of the US plan so far, saying the deal would "freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today."
"The Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own," Vance said.
Freezing the frontlines would mean Ukraine losing large areas to Russia.
The vice president did not explain what territory Russia -- which seized Crimea in 2014 -- would have to give up.
It was time for Moscow and Kyiv "to either say 'yes,' or for the United States to walk away from this process," Vance said.
Growing speculation over Washington being ready to recognise Russian rule over Crimea has alarmed European capitals.
French President Emmanuel Macron's office said "Ukraine's territorial integrity and European aspirations are very strong requirements for Europeans."
A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters "it has to be up to Ukraine to decide its future."
Top Ukrainian officials wrapped up a round of talks in London on Wednesday with representatives from Britain, France, Germany and the United States.
US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Moscow this week and Trump said he would likely meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly after his trip to the Middle East in mid-May.
The diplomatic wrangling and strikes on Kyiv came after a fresh wave of Russian air attacks that shattered a brief Easter truce, killing nine and wounding at least 30 more in the southeastern city of Marganets.
In light of the attacks, Zelensky has called for an "immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire."
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