Russia's largest air attack on Ukraine sets fire to main government building

Russia's largest overnight send assail of the state of war go under the briny building of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv on fire and left three people dead, including an infant, whose body was pulled from the rubble, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.

"For the first time, the Government building was damaged by an enemy strike — its roof and upper floors," Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, said on the Telegram messaging app.

"Rescuers are extinguishing the fire."

Reuters' witnesses saw the top floor of the main building of the Ukrainian government, located in the historic Pecherskyi district, burning, with thick smoke rising into the clear blue sky just after sunrise.

Ukraine's Air Force said on Telegram that Russia launched 805 drones into Ukraine overnight and 13 missiles, with Ukrainian defence units downing 751 drones and four missiles.

That was the highest number of drones Russia has used to attack the country since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Timur Tkachenko, the head of the capital's military administration, said that the infant's body was pulled from the rubble in the Darnytskyi district where a four-storey apartment building was damaged.

A young woman also died as a result of the attack on the district, which lies to the east of the Dnipro River, Tkachenko said.

State emergency officials said that 18 people were injured in the overnight attack that sowed fires throughout the city.

Moscow did not immediately comment on the attacks. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the strikes, but thousands have died in the war Russia launched with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier, Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said an elderly woman died in a bomb shelter in Darnytskyi and a pregnant woman was among those injured.

Moscow says it hit infrastructure in Ukraine; Kyiv says it struck Russian refineries

State emergency officials said a fire broke out in two of the four stories of a residential building in the district that hit in the drone attack, with its structure partially destroyed.

In the western district of Sviatoshynskyi, several floors of a nine-storey residential building were partially destroyed, Klitschko and emergency officials said.

Falling drone debris set off fires in a 16-storey apartment building and two more nine-storey buildings, the mayor added.

Svyrydenko called for more weapons for Ukraine and for the world to respond to the Russian attacks.

"We will rebuild the buildings," Svyrydenko said. "But lost lives cannot be brought back. The enemy terrorizes and kills our people across the country every day."

Smoke billowed out of apartment buildings, some with floors partially collapsed and facades crumbled, photographs on social media posted by emergency officials showed.

Russia was "deliberately and consciously striking civilian targets", said Tkachenko, the Kyiv military administrator, on Telegram.

Dozens of explosions also shook Ukraine's central city of Kremenchuk, cutting power to some areas and damaging a bridge across the Dnipro River, the city's Mayor Vitalii Maletskyi said on Telegram.

Russian strikes on Kryvyi Rih, also in central Ukraine, targeted transport and urban infrastructure, Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the military administration for the city, said on Telegram, but no injuries were reported.

In the southern city of Odesa, civilian infrastructure and residential buildings were damaged, with fires breaking out in several apartment blocks, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.

With western Ukraine facing the threat of air attacks, Poland activated its own and allied aircraft to ensure air safety, the operational command of the Polish armed forces said.

Sunday's attack is the second mass Russian drone and missile attack to target Kyiv in the span of two weeks, as hopes for peace talks wane.

The attack comes after European leaders pressed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to work to end the war after 26 of Ukraine's allies pledged to deploy troops as a "reassurance force" for the war-torn country once the fighting ends.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to meet Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to put punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.

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