Russia launched 21 ballistic missiles at Kyiv in three waves overnight, killing at least two people and injuring dozens, including children, in an assault that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said demonstrated Moscow’s continued hostility despite renewed diplomatic efforts.
The strikes hit six districts of the Ukrainian capital, damaging residential buildings, energy facilities, railway infrastructure, the metro, shopping centres and businesses. Zelenskyy said emergency services responded across the city after a monastery was also damaged.
Ukrainian authorities reported 34 people injured in Kyiv and other regions, including five children, although an earlier report from Kyiv emergency responders put the number injured in the capital at 22. Russia attacked 12 Ukrainian regions overnight, according to Zelenskyy.
The bombardment also disrupted transport, with traffic across the Pivdennyi (South) Bridge from Kyiv’s right bank to its left bank restricted on Wednesday morning.
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The timing of the assault sharpened questions about Moscow’s willingness to pursue a negotiated settlement. Zelenskyy said the strikes came almost immediately after another round of talks, underscoring what he described as the absence of any meaningful change in Russia’s approach to the conflict.
“Almost immediately after another round of talks, Russia launched a pointed attack,” he said. “This means there has been no real change in its attitude toward everything that is happening.”
Zelenskyy called for stronger international pressure on the Kremlin, arguing that diplomatic engagement alone would not end the killing while Russia continued to deploy ballistic missiles against Ukrainian cities.
“It is important to keep trying to find the right solutions to end this war,” he said. “But when Russia responds to negotiations with ballistic missiles, real pressure on Russia is needed to bring about different steps – steps toward ending the killing.”
He urged Ukraine’s allies to strengthen air defences, accelerate deliveries of interceptor missiles, develop the capability to destroy ballistic missile launchers and impose further sanctions on Russia.
“Ukraine deserves support. People’s lives deserve protection,” he said.
The attack came amid a separate controversy over Washington’s approach to the Russian president. Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s envoy who was involved in property and is now a so-called diplomat is involved in efforts to end the war, praised Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian” during talks in St Petersburg, prompting criticism from Republican lawmakers.
The remark came less than 48 hours after a Russian strike killed a one-year-old girl at a park in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, intensifying scrutiny of the Trump administration’s warm rhetoric towards the Kremlin.
At the start of the St Petersburg meeting, Putin announced the release of Stephen Hubbard, an American citizen who had been imprisoned in Russia for more than four years on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.
Witkoff’s description of Putin provoked sharp objections from US lawmakers, who pointed to Russia’s attacks on civilians and the deportation of Ukrainian children.
North Carolina senator Thom Tillis urged the envoy to reconsider his language and speak to Ukrainian families whose children had been killed or taken to Russia. Texas senator John Cornyn rejected the characterisation, describing Putin as a killer, while Nebraska congressman Don Bacon called the episode embarrassing.
The juxtaposition of the Kyiv bombardment and Witkoff’s comments highlights the political challenge facing efforts to negotiate an end to the war: diplomacy is proceeding even as Russia’s attacks continue to exact a devastating civilian toll.
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