He also insisted that Kyiv would not change its position on Crimea -- after US President Donald Trump criticised him for not agreeing to cede the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Zelensky is visiting South Africa but has said he will cut his trip short to return to Kyiv -- hit at dawn by the biggest Russian attack since last summer -- after his talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
"Russia understands that Ukraine is standing up, defending its rights and (it) is putting pressure on our people. It is also putting pressure on America," Zelensky told journalists in South Africa. "This is what I also link today's attack with."
At least eight people were killed in Kyiv on Thursday, Zelensky calling the attack "one of the most sophisticated, most brazen" during Russia's three-year invasion.
Thursday's attack came hours after US President Donald Trump said a Ukraine peace deal was "very close" and effectively closed with Moscow.
Zelensky insisted that Kyiv would not accept Crimea as part of Russia.
Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and backed a pro-Russian rebellion in eastern Ukraine, leading to years of conflict with Kyiv.
"We do everything that our partners have proposed, only what contradicts our legislation and the Constitution we cannot do," Zelensky said, answering a question on Crimea.
Trump said a day earlier that Kyiv had lost Crimea "years ago".
Zelensky also said he did not see enough pressure from Kyiv's allies on Moscow to halt its invasion.
"I don't see any strong pressure on Russia or any new sanctions packages against Russia's aggression," Zelensky told journalists during a visit to South Africa.
He did however acknowledge that Trump had previously warned of repercussions if Moscow did not agree to a ceasefire.
'They want to destroy us': Kyiv hit in biggest Russian attack in months
Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) April 24, 2025 -
As Russian missiles rained on Kyiv overnight in Moscow's biggest attack on Ukraine's capital in months, Anna Balamutova grabbed her children and ran to a shelter, saying they were saved by a "miracle".
Outside their home in Kyiv's Sviatyshynsky district, rescuers worked through the rubble of heavily destroyed buildings. A woman sat on a stool, caressing a body covered in a blue sheet that lay on the grass.
Officials said at least eight people were killed in the attack and that Moscow had launched 70 missiles and 145 drones at Ukraine.
Balamutova, who left the city of Pavlograd further east earlier in the war as it increasingly came under attack, said her family was lucky to have made it to a nearby shelter.
"If I lived further, I would not have been able to physically manage with two children... To pick them up in the middle of the night and run from ballistic missiles," the 36-year-old said.
"It was just a miracle that we were saved by the fact that the alarm was raised and we came down immediately."
She ran with her five-year-old and 14-year-old during a wave of explosions.
"People ran in blood, some were carried, screaming, children, it was very terrible... I don't have any explanation how this can happen in the modern world," she said.
Ukraine has been pounded incessantly by Russia since Moscow invaded in February 2022, with Thursday's attack the latest in a spate of deadly strikes on civilian areas over recent weeks.
It came hours after US President Donald Trump criticised Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky for not ceding Crimea -- annexed by Russia in 2014 -- to Moscow as part of a peace deal.
Olena Davydiuk, who was woken up by explosions and ran outside as "windows and doors started falling out", said she had no doubt about Russia's aims.
"Why is Russia doing this? Well, it wants to destroy us, that's all," the 33-year-old lawyer said, with rubble in the street behind her.
"It wants to destroy the boys at the front, and us in the rear."
Moscow said it had fired on military targets and that the "objectives of the strike have been achieved".
- Bodies in the street -
As rescuers worked through the rubble of Soviet-era blocks of flats, residents -- mostly elderly people and many families with children -- sat on benches outside, some holding their belongings.
One woman, blood and bruises on her face, clutched her small dog as she told a rescuer someone was under the rubble.
Another body lay on the grass outside, covered by a white sheet.
Nearby, a psychologist tended to a woman in a white T-shirt who held both hands over her mouth crying.
Zelensky cut short a visit to South Africa on Thursday and said more than 80 people had been wounded in the attack.
Officials warned the death toll may rise, with more people believed to be trapped under the rubble.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 31 people were hospitalised, including five children. He declared a day of mourning in the city for Friday.
Emergency services released footage of rescuers searching for people through the rubble in high-rise apartment blocks in the dark, winding with stretchers through tight, destroyed staircases.
One woman, carried on a stretcher, screamed out that her leg was hurt as she was put into an ambulance.
A group of rescuers in red jackets covered a body with a gold sheet under floodlights.
Kyiv has been attacked throughout Moscow's more than three-year invasion, but strikes with large death tolls are rarer.
Balamutova said she had hoped Kyiv would be a safer place for her family than her native Pavlograd, because the city "has shelters, at least the metro".
"As it turned out, you can't escape the war anywhere. No matter where you go."
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