Russian missiles and drones ripped through apartment blocks in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least 17 people, including four children, in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky said highlighted Moscow's rejection of peace moves.

Russia has rained down aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities despite US President Donald Trump's push for a ceasefire and even as it talks up the importance of ending the war launched by its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The attack -- one of the deadliest on Kyiv -- blasted a five-storey crater in one apartment block, ripping the building in two. The European Union mission and a British government cultural building were also damaged, setting off international protests.

AFP reporters saw rescuers carrying several victims away from the apartment block in body bags throughout the day as they sifted through the smouldering rubble.

"Glass was flying ... we were screaming when the bombs went off," Galina Shcherbak, who was at a parking lot close to one of the strikes, told AFP.

Ukraine's air force said Moscow fired 629........

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