April 24 (UPI) -- Russia unleashed the largest airborne assault in almost a year against Ukraine overnight, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 70 in the capital, Kyiv, which was hit by dozens of missiles and drones, authorities said.
Most of the casualties in Kyiv were believed to be in two residential buildings destroyed by a missile in the Sviatoshynskyi district, with two children still unaccounted for, but 12 other districts were also targeted, sparking at least 40 blazes across the capital, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a social media post.
Klymenko said missile fragments had been found at the scene of the strike in Sviatoshynskyi where other civilian infrastructure also sustained severe damage, including a kindergarten and a school.
"Experts have removed the remains of this missile, handed them over to the relevant services, which will conduct an appropriate examination and give the final result of what kind of missile it was, what was the warhead of this missile," he said.
"And I want to repeat once again that this is a densely populated area. Unfortunately, there are still, with a high degree of probability, the bodies of the dead under the rubble," Klymenko said.
Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia provinces were also targeted with the Ukrainian Air Force saying that Russian forces had launched 70 ballistic, cruise and air-to-surface missiles and 145 drones in total.
The Air Force claimed it had downed more than 110 of the missiles and drones, with its aircraft, particularly U.S.-made F-16 and French-made Mirage fighter jets, mounting a major defense of Ukrainian airspace.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cut short a visit to South Africa, saying in a post on X that he would return to Kyiv immediately after meeting President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday, leaving Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha behind to stand in for him for the remainder of the visit.
"It is extremely important that everyone around the world sees and understands what is really happening. I instructed the Minister of Defense of Ukraine to immediately contact our partners regarding our requests to strengthen air defenses.
"I will brief President Ramaphosa of South Africa, who currently holds the G20 Presidency, on the situation and our need to intensify global diplomatic efforts. The strikes must be stopped immediately and unconditionally. We also count on support in humanitarian matters -- in the return of our prisoners and Ukrainian children abducted by Russia," said Zelensky.
The deadly wave of attacks came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump accused Zelensky of being the biggest hurdle to his efforts to secure peace in the conflict, in response to Zelensky rejecting a proposal for Kyiv to recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
Sybiha took to X to condemn what he called Russia's "brutal" strikes and point out that, together with the land-for-peace demands in its so-called "terms sheet," released Wednesday, showed that Russia, not Ukraine, was the obstacle to peace.
"Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied. Putin demonstrates through his actions, not words, that he does not respect any peace efforts and only wants to continue the war. Weakness and concessions will not stop his terror and aggression. Only strength and pressure will."
The Trump administration has been intensifying its efforts to get a deal over the line as a self-imposed 100-day deadline set by Trump approaches in the middle of next week, with his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, being dispatched to Moscow for a fourth round of negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
At least nine people were killed and 30 injured on Wednesday when a Russian attack drone struck a bus in the city of Marhanets in the southern Dnipro region.
