At least 9 killed, several injured as Russian barrage destroys residential buildings in Ukraine

russian federation on th unleashed a thirdly square daylight of massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, killing nine people and injuring dozens while levelling buildings in the capital Kyiv.

The attack struck civilian infrastructure and residential buildings across multiple cities, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said, though Kyiv was seen as enduring the heaviest losses. Ukraine's Energy Ministry said that electricity supplies ⁠in 11 regions across the country were disrupted due to the Russian attacks.

The death toll, given by Tymur Tkachenko, head of the military administration in Kyiv, climbed throughout the day.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Moscow had launched more than 1,560 drones against Ukrainian population centres since the start of Wednesday.

"These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end," he said, urging partners not to stay silent and calling for continued support for Ukraine's air defences.

Among the dead was a 12-year-old girl, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Klitschko declared Friday to be a day of mourning for the victims.

More than 30 people were injured in the apartment building collapse, while emergency workers rescued 28 residents, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. Some 18 buildings were destroyed, officials said.

Resident Lyudmila Hlushko, 78, said she heard a lot of explosions and the sound of rockets flying around 3 a.m. Local time. "Then the house shook violently and there was a loud bang, breaking the glass in my house," she said.

Damage was recorded across six districts of the capital from Russian ballistic missiles and drones, according to head of Kyiv's Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko. He said part of a residence ​had collapsed in the eastern Darnytskyi district.

In the Dnieper district, a drone hit the roof of a five-storey residential building, Tkachenko said. Another building in the Dniprovskyi district was also damaged.

The attack came hours after a rare daytime attack on Kyiv that killed at least six people. The Wednesday attack began midmorning and lasted for hours in the capital Kyiv, the western city of Lviv near Poland, and the port of Odesa on the Black Sea, among other population centres, Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.

"Our soldiers are defending Ukraine, but Russia's obvious goal is to overload air defences," Zelenskyy said.

The barrage Wednesday also rattled Ukraine's neighbours. Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said his new government has summoned the Russian ambassador over a drone attack near Hungary's border, in a significant shift from his predecessor Viktor Orbán's friendly relations with Moscow.

Hungary's foreign affairs minister will ask "when Russia and Vladimir Putin plan to finally end this bloody war," Magyar said.

The attacks came after recent comments by both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that the war could be approaching an end.

"The end of the war in Ukraine I really think is getting very close," Trump said as he left the White House for his summit with China's Xi Jinping in Beijing. "Believe it or not, it's getting closer."

Putin said in a speech last weekend that his invasion of Ukraine is possibly "coming to an end."

Neither leader elaborated on what persuaded them about the possibility of peace in Europe's longest conflict since the Second World War. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts over the past year to end the war have fizzled after making no progress on key issues, such as whether Russia gets to keep Ukrainian land it has seized and what can be done to deter Moscow from invading again.

With Trump meeting with Jinping, Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on the two world leaders to apply their leverage.

"Only pressure on Moscow can make him stop," Sybiha said of Putin of X.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Wednesday that Moscow's fundamental terms are unchanged, with Putin insisting that Ukraine pull its troops from the four regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but hasn't fully captured.

The correlation of forces in the war has shifted in recent months. Ukraine has gone from pleading for international help with its defence to offering foreign countries its expertise on how to counter attacks, thanks to its domestically developed drone technology.

Ukraine's long-range drone and missile attacks have disrupted energy facilities and manufacturing deep inside Russia, with three regions reporting strikes on Wednesday.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that its forces intercepted and destroyed 286 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula, the Azov Sea and the Black Sea.

On the front line, the advance of Russia's bigger and better-equipped army has been slowing every month since October, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Russia's spring offensive has floundered, with Russian forces recording a net loss of territory last month for the first time since 2024, the Washington-based think-tank said.

Ukrainians train Canadian troops as drone warfare moves to the ground

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