KYIV: Russia launched dozens of drones and missiles at Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and wounding dozens of others, as negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow break down. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the latest overnight barrage as "one of the most horrific attacks” on Kyiv since the Kremlin launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. Zelensky said a total of 440 drones and 32 missiles were launched in the strikes nationwide and urged the international community not to "turn a blind eye”.

Russian President Vladimir "Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on,” he said. AFP journalists saw smoke billowing over the capital’s skyline at dawn and a multiple-storey housing block gutted by the attack. Rescue workers were scrambling to find any survivors buried beneath the rubble. "It was probably the most hellish night in my memory for our neighborhood,” 20-year-old student Alina Shtompel told AFP.

"It is indescribably painful that our people are going through this right now.” More than three years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has stepped up attacks despite efforts by the United States to broker a ceasefire. Talks have stalled. Moscow has rejected the "unconditional” truce demanded by Kyiv and its European allies, while Ukraine has dismissed Russia’s demands as "ultimatums”.

Diplomatic ‘facade’

Zelensky had been hoping to speak with US leader Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, but the US leader cut short his visit, amid the escalating conflict between Zionist entity and Iran. Russia hit some 27 sites in Kyiv overnight and some residents were left without electricity, officials said. Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration updated an earlier toll of 14 dead, saying two people had been pulled from the rubble at the scene of one strike. "The search continues, as there may still be people under the ruins,” he said. One person was also killed and 10 wounded in the southern port city of Odesa, while attacks on the Sumy and Kherson regions later in the day killed two others, authorities said. The Russian defense ministry said it had carried out precision strikes on "military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv region,” in a statement similar to those releases after major attacks.

US citizen dead

Dozens of residents took shelter in a metro station in central Kyiv, sleeping on mats, exchanging information on attack or reassuring pets, AFP journalists reported, while drones buzzed and explosions echoed out over the city. "I was asleep. There was a loud bang. The window was smashed, and glass rained down on me,” Sergii, another Kyiv resident, said. Residential buildings, educational institutions and "critical infrastructure facilities” were all hit, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko.

Kyiv’s mayor reported earlier that a 62-year-old US citizen had died in a Russian strike on the capital’s Solomyansky district. Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the new attacks showed Moscow was "continuing its war against civilians”. Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to independent monitors and Western intelligence agencies. Russian forces have been steadily advancing across the sprawling front line even since the inauguration of Trump brought about an uptick in US efforts to secure a halt in fighting.

1,245 bodies returned

Meanwhile, Russia has returned 1,245 bodies to Ukraine, Kyiv said on Monday, the final stage of a deal to repatriate more than 6,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers agreed at peace talks this month. Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement on a large-scale exchange of prisoners and the bodies of killed soldiers—the only visible result from two rounds of direct talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul. "Another 1,245 bodies returned to Ukraine—repatriation part of Istanbul agreements has been completed,” the government agency coordinating the repatriation said. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on Facebook that Kyiv had received more than 6,000 bodies in total over the past week. The Russian defense ministry gave a slightly different figure of 1,248 for the number of bodies returned in the final stage of the accord—three more than Kyiv said it had received. Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko on Monday accused Russia of "deliberately complicating the identification process”. "Bodies are returned in an extremely mutilated state, parts of (the same) bodies are in different bags,” Klymenko said on Telegram. Ukraine also "received bodies of Russian soldiers mixed with those of Ukrainians” during the previous stages of the repatriation last week, he added.

‘Madness’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Moscow had offered Kyiv to swap captured Russian soldiers for Ukrainian children under its jurisdiction. Kyiv says that hundreds of Ukrainian children were forcibly taken by Russia during its invasion and handed a list with the names of some of them to Moscow’s delegation at the talks in Istanbul. "Russians proposed this: we give them their soldiers, and they give us children,” Zelensky told reporters in Vienna, without elaborating on the proposal.

"It is simply beyond comprehension and beyond international law, but it is in their spirit,” he added, calling the idea "madness”. Moscow’s defense ministry on Monday confirmed the latest handover of bodies, saying it had "fulfilled the agreement”. Russia also said it was ready to "hand over another 2,239 bodies of fallen servicemen”. Moscow said it had received the bodies of 51 dead Russian soldiers in return, taking the total number handed over by Ukraine in the latest exchanges to 78. Kyiv initially said the two sides had agreed to "exchange” the bodies of 6,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers for as many Russians, though Moscow has always presented the deal as a unilateral decision to repatriate Ukrainians. Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to independent monitors and Western intelligence agencies.— AFP