Russian missiles and drones ripped through apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least 14 people, including three children, and wounding 48, in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky said showed Moscow’s rejection of peace negotiations.

It was the first major Russian attack on Kyiv in weeks as US-led peace efforts to end the three-year war struggled to gain traction. Ukraine’s air force said Moscow fired 629 drones and missiles. It was the second-largest of any overnight barrage, according to AFP analysis of Kyiv’s data.

The attack blasted a five-story crater in one apartment block, ripping the building in two.

Among the dead were three children ages 2, 14 and 17, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration. The numbers are expected to rise. Rescue teams were on site to pull people trapped underneath the rubble.

AFP reporters saw rescuers carrying victims away in body bags as they sifted through the smoldering rubble.

Heavy construction machinery was deployed to scoop up mounds of debris. Officials warned that several people were believed to be still trapped under the collapsed building.

Russia launched decoy drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, said Tkachenko.

At least 20 locations across seven districts of Kyiv had impacts. Nearly 100 buildings were damaged, including a shopping mall in the city center, and thousands of windows were shattered, he said.

“Glass was flying… we were screaming when the bombs went off,” Galina Shcherbak, who was at a parking lot close to one of the strike hits, told AFP.

“They’re just bombing residential buildings. What kind of target is there in the center of Kyiv?” said Valery Savenko, whose apartment was damaged in the strike.

Emergency responders searched for survivors and pulled bodies from the destruction. Crowds of residents stood nearby waiting for relatives to retrieved from the rubble, including a man who was waiting for........

© The Times of Israel