Russia has launched a heavy drone and missile attack on Ukraine, killing six people in Kiev and two more in the south in strikes on energy facilities, apartment buildings and infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Russian forces used 430 drones and 18 missiles, and Kiev was responding with long-range strikes.
It was one of the biggest attacks on the capital so far.
Ukrainian officials said most of the drones and missiles were shot down, but falling debris and fires damaged high-rise apartments, a school, a medical facility and administrative buildings across nine districts in the city of about 3 million.
City officials said that six people were killed in Kiev, which was the focus of the attacks. Russian drones also struck the Black Sea city of Chornomorsk, killing two people, the regional governor said.
Azerbaijan embassy
"Only pressure, with sanctions and strength, can force Russia to end this war, a war that no one but them ever needed," Zelenskyy said, adding that the Azerbaijani Embassy was also hit by debris from an Iskander missile.
Azerbaijan said it had summoned the Russian ambassador after its embassy in Kiev was hit.
"During the meeting, a strong protest was expressed in connection with the fall of one of the Iskander-type missiles onto the territory of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan," the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said in a statement.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its troops hit Ukrainian energy facilities and a weapons-production complex with high-precision weapons to respond to Ukrainian attacks on Russia.
Ukraine’s response
Flames rose over various sites in Kiev during the night as several waves of Russian drone and missile attacks hit, and photographs also showed people huddled in rubble-strewn streets outside their apartment buildings.
"Ukraine is responding to these strikes with long-range strength, and the world must stop these attacks on life with sanctions," Zelenskyy said.
Kiev has ramped up its drone attacks deep inside Russia, aiming to knock out oil refineries, depots and pipelines.
Two industry sources told Reuters Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk halted oil exports on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack.
Russian officials also said debris from a Ukrainian drone hit a nuclear power plant a day earlier, temporarily causing the station to reduce its output.
"Approximately eight drones were directed, there is no doubt about this, towards the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant," Alexey Likhachev, the head of Russia's Rosatom nuclear agency, said during a press conference.
He added that they were all shot down, but "debris fell and damaged the main switchgear."
