Kyiv Mourns Dead After Russia's Deadliest Attack on Capital This Year

Ukraine lowered flags to half-mast on Friday as rescuers searched for survivors beneath the rubble in Kyiv, a day after Russia's deadliest missile and drone attack on the capital this year killed at least 30 people and injured 92.

Forensic experts were also working to identify body parts recovered from the wreckage.

Klitschko said the parents of a 10-year-old boy, who was hospitalised after the attack, and a 15-year-old girl remained missing.

Separately, a Russian drone strike on a house in Ukraine's northern Sumy region killed four people overnight, including a woman and her toddler daughter, the Prosecutor General's Office said.

The attack caused widespread destruction across Kyiv, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying more than 100 residential buildings had been damaged in a level of devastation rarely seen even during the war, now in its fifth year.

"Russia has no argument left for its war other than its ballistic missiles," Zelenskiy said in his evening address on Thursday.

"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin still intends to 'vanquish' residential buildings rather than end this war."

Moscow said the strikes were carried out in retaliation for recent Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia.

After years of enduring long-range Russian bombardments, Ukraine has stepped up strikes deep inside Russian territory, primarily targeting energy infrastructure. The campaign has contributed to a fuel shortage in Russia, forcing the world's third-largest oil producer to import gasoline.

Russia has responded by intensifying its aerial assault on Ukrainian cities. Last month, it struck a 1,000-year-old Kyiv cathedral that holds deep significance for the Orthodox faith in both Ukraine and Russia.

On the battlefield, Ukraine has slowed Russian advances along the 1,200-km front line in recent months and has recaptured territory in some sectors.

(Reuters reported)