Russian air strikes have killed 16 people and wounded more than 40 in Kiev and the surrounding region, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a failure by Ukraine's allies to replenish its stock of air defence missiles was costing lives.
Zelenskyy called Thursday's strikes one of the most "cynical, calculated, and large-scale" of the four-and-a-half-year-long war.
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched dozens of cruise missiles, as well as ballistic and hypersonic ones, and 168 drones, in the massive overnight attack.
The air force said that nearly 90 percent of the drones and most of the cruise missiles were downed. It did not specify how many ballistic missiles were launched and whether any were intercepted.
The upper floors of a nine-storey residential block were destroyed in Kiev's Solomianskyi district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
He called for Friday to be observed as a day of mourning.
Overall, 30 residential buildings, a school, a children's hospital, and a kindergarten were damaged in the capital and the surrounding areas, Zelenskyy said.
Private energy company DTEK said it had restored power to some 90,000 households that lost the supply after the attack.
The Russian defence ministry said Moscow attacked Kiev and the surrounding region with air strikes and drones, hitting facilities producing drone components, a military depot and a logistics hub, as well as other targets.
Patriot interceptors
The Russian strikes also targeted a border crossing with Moldova in the Black Sea region of Odesa, where repeated attacks on ports and ships have brought Ukraine's vital agricultural exports to a virtual halt in recent weeks, pressuring global food prices.
As Russia has escalated its ballistic strikes in recent months, Zelenskyy has pleaded with allies to replenish Ukraine's stock of Patriot interceptors, the only weapon in its arsenal capable of downing a ballistic missile.
"The interceptors for Patriot systems have not yet been replaced, and they are needed every day," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app.
"Each additional missile saves the lives of our people."
Moscow, he said, would not seriously negotiate for peace as long as Ukraine had no missile defences to defend its cities.
US-mediated talks to end the war stalled earlier this year as Kiev refused to yield to Russian demands to cede more territory.
"Unfortunately, the world's response to such attacks is not always adequate," Zelenskyy said.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X, in response to Zelenskyy's message, that she was working with member states and partners to provide Ukraine with anti-ballistic capabilities as "the most urgent of priorities".
