Russian barrage kills 10 in Kyiv

KYIV, Ukraine: Russia fired dozens of drones and missiles at Ukraine on Monday, ripping open a housing bloc in Kyiv, killing 10 civilians and burying others beneath the rubble.

A flurry of diplomatic efforts to end the three-year-long war have stalled, with the last direct meeting between Kyiv and Moscow coming almost three weeks ago and no follow-up talks scheduled.

AFP journalists heard drones over the capital and explosions ringing out during the barrage. Kyiv resident Natalia Marshavska was awake during the attack and described how the buzzing of a drone grew louder until it was directly overhead. “I realised it was right above us. And then there was an explosion -- all in a matter of seconds,” she said.

The blast threw her across the room and shattered the windows in her flat before smoke began billowing everywhere, she said.“It was horrible.”The Russian army said it had used precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles to strike Ukrainian military facilities.

“All the designated targets were destroyed,” it claimed.Prosecutors in Kyiv said nine people were killed in the capital’s Shevchenkivsky district, including an 11-year-old girl. Another person was killed in Bila Tserkva just outside the capital, officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had launched 352 unmanned aerial vehicles -- including Iranian-designed drones -- and 16 missiles at Ukraine, adding that some of the munitions were provided by North Korea.

“Everyone in countries neighbouring Russia, Iran and North Korea should be thinking carefully about whether they could protect lives if this coalition of murderers persists and continues spreading their terror,” he added.

He landed in the United Kingdom -- one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies -- on Monday for a surprise visit, where he said he would be discussing defence issues and sanctions on Russia.Zelensky met with Britain’s King Charles III at Windsor Castle and a Ukrainian source also said that he would meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The visit comes ahead of a Nato summit later this week in The Hague.Zelensky is set to attend on the sidelines but his involvement is being kept to a minimum to avoid a confrontation with US President Donald Trump.

Since returning to office, Trump has upended the West’s approach towards Russia’s war on Ukraine by undercutting Kyiv and opening the door to closer ties with Moscow.The latest strikes came less than a week after another attack on Kyiv killed at least 28 people.

Separate Russian attacks on Monday in the southern Odesa region left two people killed and another dozen wounded, local authorities said.

Zelensky said a school was hit.“Sadly, some people may still be trapped under the rubble,” he added.In Moscow, the defence ministry said its air defence systems had downed 23 Ukrainian drones over western regions of Russia.

Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions since invading in 2022. It captured Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging a peace deal in order to prolong its full-scale offensive and to seize more territory.