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Russian missile strike kills one, injures three in Kyiv

A pillar of smoke rises in the Obolonskyi district after a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv, Ukraine
A pillar of smoke rises in the Obolonskyi district after a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kyiv, Ukraine

A Russian missile attack on Kyiv killed one man and injured three other people overnight, causing damage and fires in several districts in the biggest such attack on Ukraine for weeks, Ukrainian officials have said.

The strike was the first large-scale attack using missiles and drones since the US said late last month it had negotiated two ceasefire accords with Russia and Ukraine, including one that would halt strikes on each other's energy infrastructure.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said ongoing attacks showed Russia did not want to end the three-year-old war.

"Such attacks are Putin's response to all international diplomatic efforts.

"Each of our partners - America, the whole of Europe, the whole world - has seen that Russia is going to continue to fight and kill," he said on the Telegram messaging app.

In a separate statement he said that he had instructed the defence and foreign ministers to intensify talks with partners, especially the US, on the supply of air defence equipment.

Russian forces used ballistic and cruise missiles launched from both strategic bombers and naval fleets, as well as drones, during the overnight attack, Ukraine's air force said.

The latest attacks came two days after a missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig killed 18 people including nine children

Mr Zelensky called for increased manufacturing of air defence systems and missiles, suggesting that such production should be established in Ukraine.

Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky's chief of staff, posted a video of firefighters trying to put out fires at badly damaged buildings.

Mr Zelensky said that over the past week, Russia had launched more than 1,460 guided aerial bombs, nearly 670 attack drones and more than 30 missiles of various types against Ukraine.

He said Kyiv was waiting for US reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin's refusal to agree to Washington's proposal to establish a full ceasefire, which Ukraine had previously agreed to.

Russia 'increasing' attacks on Ukraine, warns Zelensky

Mr Zelensky warned that "the number of Russian air attacks is increasing", which he said proved that "the pressure on Russia is still insufficient".

Earlier Russia "launched a massive nationwide attack on Ukraine using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones," said first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

In the capital Kyiv, explosions were heard overnight and a dark plume of smoke rose up from the city early this morning, AFP journalists saw.

"Preliminarily, one person was killed, and three were wounded, two of them were hospitalised," the head of the city's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, wrote on social media.

City mayor Vitali Klitschko said that "the body of a man killed in an enemy attack was discovered in Darnytsia district".

Cars pictured on a road as smoke rises in the distance following the Russian missile attack in Kyiv

"He was on the street, near the epicentre of the explosion. The man's identity is being established," he said.

A missile strike partially destroyed a building housing state foreign-language broadcasters, the Russian-language Freedom television channel reported, saying that its newsroom had been destroyed.

Emergency services said that during attacks, fires broke out in Kyiv in non-residential buildings, damaging a multi-storey business centre, furniture factory and warehouses.

In the nearby Kyiv region a man was burnt when an attack sparked a house fire, the head of the military administration said.

The emergency services posted video of smoke rising from charred debris, a gutted hangar and a large multi-storey administrative building with the roof torn off and windows blown out.

Overnight, Russia attacked Ukraine with 23 cruise and ballistic missiles and 109 drones, the Ukrainian air force said, causing damage to six regions.

The latest attacks came two days after a missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig killed 18 people including nine children

The air force said it shot down 13 of the missiles and 40 drones while 54 others caused no damage.

In the southern Kherson region, a drone killed a 59-year-old man, while in the northeastern Kharkiv region near the border with Russia two were injured in an attack using guided aerial bombs, regional officials said.

In western Ukraine's Khmelnytsky region, authorities said air defences destroyed a missile but falling fragments damaged a house and a woman was injured.

Over the past week, Russia has launched more than 1,460 guided aerial bombs, nearly 670 attack drones, and over 30 missiles of various types on Ukraine, Mr Zelensky said.

Russia's defence ministry said troops liberated the village of Basivka, close to the border with Russia's Kursk region, only the second time it has claimed an advance into the region since 2022.

Russia has said that its troops have taken the village of Basivka in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, and were battering Ukrainian forces at a host of settlements in the area.

More than two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv sent thousands of troops over the border into Russia's Kursk region in August last year though a Russian offensive over recent months has pushed most of Ukrainian forces out of Kursk.

Mr Putin has repeatedly suggested that Russian forces carve out a buffer zone along the border.

Russia's defence ministry said that it had taken the village of Basivka, just over the border from Sudzha, and had struck Ukrainian forces at 12 other points in the Sumy region.

Ukrainian officials later denied the report, saying Russian forces were not in control of Basivka.

"As of today, the Russians do not control Basivka in Sumy region. They are trying to run in there in assault groups and look for cellars in order to gain a foothold, but the enemy is being destroyed," Andriy Kovalenko, an official of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, said on Telegram messenger.

"The fighting in the Sumy region border area is complex and continues daily in several areas, and is also taking place in the Kursk border area," he added.

Russia's defence ministry also said that Russia had defeated Ukrainian units in the Russian settlements of Gornal, Guevo and Oleshnya.

The pro-Ukrainian Deep State war map shows Ukraine in control of about 63 square kilometres of Russian territory, down from as much as 1,400 square kilometres claimed by Kyiv last year.

Another 81 square kilometres of territory along the border -including Basivka - is classed by Deep State as of "unknown" control.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014, and most but not all of four other regions which Moscow now claims are part of Russia - a claim not recognised by most countries.

Russia controls all of Crimea, almost all of Luhansk, and more than 70% of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. It also controls a sliver of Kharkiv region.