Russian Missile Attack Kills 12 In Kyiv, More Than 30 Injured

Russian ballistic missiles killed 12 people and injured more than 30 in Kyiv early on Thursday, damaging buildings, sparking fires and cutting power to parts of the Ukrainian capital, Ukrainian authorities said.

The attack damaged several parts of Kyiv, with seven people killed after a fire broke out and the upper floors of a nine-storey residential building were destroyed in the Solomianskyi district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. He called for Friday to be observed as a day of mourning.

Russia has stepped up air attacks on Ukraine in recent months, seeking to exploit its smaller neighbour's critical shortage of interceptors to down ballistic missiles. Ukraine has also increased its attacks on Russia, targeting oil facilities and logistics infrastructure to try to undermine Moscow's ability to wage war.

Two other Kyiv districts were damaged, Klitschko said, with non-residential facilities, warehouses, a school and a children's hospital among the sites hit. Power company DTEK said it had restored electricity to more than half of the roughly 90,000 homes left without power in the capital after the attack.

A Reuters witness reported hearing more than a dozen explosions. Ukraine's emergency service showed video of servicemen battling a blaze in a building and helping people escape facilities destroyed during the night in Kyiv.

In the region around the Ukrainian capital, another person was killed, an official said on Telegram. The Russian Defence Ministry said Moscow had attacked Kyiv and the surrounding region with airstrikes and drones, hitting facilities producing drone components, a military depot and a logistics hub, as well as other targets.

A drone crashed into NATO and European Union member Romania during the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Romanian Defence Ministry said. A drone also crossed Moldova's airspace, the country's military said.

Diplomatic efforts have failed so far to yield a lasting ceasefire in the war, which started with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine had handed proposals to US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for a plan to end the war, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this month, and he has also repeatedly asked for interceptor missiles to ward off missile attacks.

Russia did not receive specific proposals for possible new meetings with US negotiators, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Izvestia newspaper, but added that Moscow would be ready to arrange a meeting at short notice, Reuters reported.

Witkoff and Kushner were last in Moscow in January and have not yet visited Kyiv.