Kyiv, Ukraine
CNN
—
Russia launched its deadliest wave of attacks against Ukraine’s capital in nine months early Thursday, hours after US President Donald Trump accused Volodymyr Zelensky of harming peace talks in a fresh tirade against his Ukrainian counterpart.
Moscow sent 70 missiles and 145 drones toward Ukraine, mainly targeting Kyiv, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
At least eight people were killed in the bombardment, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said, which emergency services said struck 13 locations in Kyiv, including residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.
It was the costliest attack on the city since July 2024, when 33 people were killed in an aerial barrage that targeted a hospital and residential districts.
More people are likely trapped under rubble, and a search and rescue operation is underway to find them, according to local and national authorities.
Following the attacks, Zelensky announced he was cutting short his visit to South Africa, where he landed late on Wednesday, to return to Ukraine.
“It is extremely important that everyone around the world sees and understands what is really happening” he said, adding that Ukraine would immediately contact its international partners regarding its requests to strengthen air defenses.
“The strikes must be stopped immediately and unconditionally,” Zelensky said.
CNN producers in Kyiv heard air raid sirens blasting across the city for around six hours in the early hours of Thursday. Images provided by the emergency services showed buildings engulfed in flames at some of the sites struck in the attacks.
Engineers, rescue workers and recovery dogs are searching for people believed to be trapped under the rubble of a home destroyed by the strikes in the Sviatoshyn district, said Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
“There is information about two children who still cannot be found at the scene,” he said, adding the situation was “tragic.”
The city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko earlier urged people to take shelter. The Kyiv city military administration has since broadcast an all-clear message.
“Rescuers are doing everything they can to clear the rubble as quickly as possible,” the mayor said on Telegram. “We are currently clearing the rubble manually, we are not using any equipment because there may still be people under the rubble.”
At least 42 people were taken to hospital, including six children, according to Ukraine’s emergency services.
Klymenko said eight regions of the country were targeted in what he called “a massive combined Russian attack” that also hit Zhytomyr, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Poltava, Khmelnytsky, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia.
Five ballistic missiles were among those that made it through Ukraine’s defenses, according to the Air Force.
The Russian attacks hit after Trump and Zelensky became involved in a new public spat, specifically over the future of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
As part of its mission to seal a peace deal to end the three-year war, the US administration has proposed recognizing Russian control of Crimea, officials familiar with the details have told CNN.
Such a move would reverse a decade of US policy and could upset the widely held post-World War II consensus that international borders should not be changed by force.
Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine would not accept that, saying it would go against the country’s constitution.
On Wednesday, Trump said Zelensky’s position was “very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia.”
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s comments came hours after Vice President JD Vance threatened to abandon negotiations, telling reporters during a visit to India that a “very explicit proposal” had been put to both Russia and Ukraine and that it was “time for them to either say ‘yes,’ or for the US to walk away.”
Earlier, ministerial talks between Ukraine, the US, Britain, France and Germany aimed at furthering work toward a ceasefire were downgraded to take place among less senior officials, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio withdrew.
“Emotions have run high today,” Zelensky said on X Wednesday as the day’s developments threw fresh uncertainty over the diplomatic efforts to end the war.
The Trump administration’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to visit Moscow on Friday for discussions with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed reporting.