At least nine people have been killed in a massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight, which also injured 70 people including six children.
Russia launched 215 drones and missiles in a huge overnight attack, Ukraine's air force said. At least one person has been pulled alive from under the rubble, with searches ongoing for survivors, according to the State Emergency Service.
Volodymyr Zelensky has now cancelled part of his trip to South Africa, and will return to Kyiv after meeting with president Cyril Ramaphosa.
The attack came hours after president Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Mr Zelensky, claiming he has been “harder” to deal with than Russia.
“I think Russia is ready... I think we have a deal with Russia,” Trump said to reporters. “We have to get a deal with Zelensky, I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelensky but so far it's been harder.”
Mr Trump said he does not have any “favourites” in the conflict and that he just “[wants to] save the lives”.
On Tuesday, Mr Zelensky ruled out ceding territory to Russia as part of any US-proposed deal. "There is nothing to talk about. It is our land,” he said.
Key Points
- Nine killed in a massive Russian strike on Kyiv
- Breaking: Zelensky to cut South Africa trip short after massive attack on Kyiv
- Man pulled alive from rubble in Kyiv as search for survivors continues
- Zelensky harder to deal with than Russia, says Trump
- US wants to sign economic partnership with Ukraine ‘as soon as possible’
Zelensky refusing to make peace concessions, claims Moscow
09:52
,
Alex Croft
Volodymyr Zelensky is refusing to make any concessions in peace talks and is only open to a ceasefire on its own terms, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
Ms Zakharova accuse the Ukrainian president of derailing consultations on the peace process held this week in London with US, Ukrainian and European officials, accusing him of being ready to torpedo the settlement process at any price.
Russia has repeatedly said it will not move forward with ceasefire negotiations until a number of its own issues are addressed.
On Wednesday, Mr Zelensky said the London talks had been marked by emotions and expressed hope that future joint work with Kyiv's Western allies would lead to peace.
Watch: Trump Complains Zelensky Harder To Deal With Than Russia In Peace Talks
09:35
,
Alex Croft
In pictures: Huge explosions in Kyiv as drone and missile attack injures dozens
09:24
,
Alex Croft
Russia launches 215 drones and missiles in massive overnight attack
09:11
,
Alex Croft
Russia launched 215 drones and missiles in a massive overnight attack on Ukraine, Kyiv’s air force said.
Air force units shot down 48 missiles and 64 drones, while 68 drones were redirected by electronic warfare, the air force said in a post on Telegram.
Breaking: Zelensky cuts South Africa trip short after massive attack on Kyiv
08:50
,
Alex Croft
Volodymyr Zelensky will cancel part of his programme in South Africa and return to Ukraine following a massive Russian attack on Kyiv, which has killed nine and injured dozens more, with many feared to be under the rubble.
Mr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that he will fly back to Kyiv after meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The Ukrainian leader had hoped to recruit further South African support in efforts to end his country's war with Russia, which is now in its fourth year.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha will conduct all meetings in South Africa to inform leaders about the situation in Ukraine, Mr Zelensky said.
Man pulled alive from rubble in Kyiv as search for survivors continues
08:36
,
Alex Croft
A man has been pulled alive from the ruins of a destroyed house in Kyiv following the massive Russian drone and missile attack overnight, emergency services have said.
Reported to be under 30 years old, the survivor was trapped for more than six hours before he was found under the rubble in the Sviatoshynskyi district, Kyiv’s State Emergency Service spokesperson Pavlo Petrov told Ukrainian media.
"Rescue workers have found a man alive. He is reported to be under 30 years old. He had been trapped under the rubble for over six hours."
The man was conscious, which allowed rescuers to locate him, Mr Petrov said according to Ukrainska Pravda.
"We took a moment of silence, and he responded to the rescue workers’ voice," Mr Petrov said.
The emergency service said on Telegram that the “search is continuing for people under rubble” following last night’s “destruction”.
Trump on Crimea: 'Why didn't Ukraine fight for it in 2014?'
08:19
,
Alex Croft
After Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back against the idea of ceding Crimean territory to Russia, relations between Kyiv and Washington look close to collapsing once again following Donald Trump’s response.
"There is nothing to talk about. This violates our Constitution. This is our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine," Mr Zelensky told reporters in a briefing in Kyiv - comments which the US president subsequently described as “very harmful” to peace talks.
Writing on Truth Social, the US president hit back at Kyiv’s refusal to accept Russian control of the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
"Nobody is asking Zelensky to recognise Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn't they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?" he wrote on social media.
Mr Zelensky can choose peace or "he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country”, Mr Trump said, adding that his comments "will do nothing but prolong the 'killing field,' and nobody wants that!"
Russia reserves right to use nuclear weapons if West attacks - Moscow official
08:01
,
Alex Croft
Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons if it faces Western aggression, Moscow's top security official, Sergei Shoigu, told Tass state news agency on Thursday.
Mr Shoigu's comments come as US president Donald Trump and vice president JD Vance warn that Washington could walk away from trying to negotiate a peace settlement in Ukraine if there is no progress on a deal soon.
The former Russian defence minister - before moving to head its powerful security council in a government reshuffle last year - cited amendments to Moscow's nuclear doctrine approved by president Vladimir Putin last November.
Under the new terms, Russia could consider a nuclear strike in response to a conventional attack on Russia or its ally Belarus that "created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity."
"...in the event of foreign states committing unfriendly actions that pose a threat to the sovereignty and territory integrity of the Russian Federation, our country considers it legitimate to take symmetric and asymmetric measures necessary to suppress such actions and prevent their recurrence," Mr Shoigu added.
Pictures: Kyiv pummeled by deadly Russian drone and missile strikes
07:49
,
Namita Singh
Zelensky's envoy says Kyiv attack shows Russia, not Ukraine, is the biggest obstacle to peace
07:45
,
Namita Singh
Ukrainian officials are reacting to the devastating attack on Kyiv overnight, which included both missiles and drones and triggered fires, smashed buildings and buried residents under rubble in at least four regions of the capital.
The attack comes at a critical moment in the war, that began with Russia's invasion in 2022, as both Kyiv and Moscow are under pressure from the United States to show progress towards a peace deal.
"Yesterday's Russian maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw from its regions, combined with these brutal strikes, show that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace. Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied," Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.
Interior minister Ihor Klymenko said that apart from Kyiv and the surrounding region, seven other regions were under the "mass" attack.
Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city in the northeast, endured overnight waves of Russian missiles and drones, mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
Terekhov said the city was attacked 14 times with drones and 10 times with missiles.
Multi-storey residential buildings, a city polyclinic, a school building, private yards, industrial enterprises, and a hotel complex were damaged and one person was hospitalised, he said.
Witnesses describe 'very scary' Russian attack on Kyiv
07:33
,
Namita Singh
More details are emerging from Kyiv, where rescue teams are still working to reach people trapped under the rubble and take dead bodies away.
Oksana Bilozir, a student, was receiving medical care for a head injury near one impact site. She said that she heard a loud explosion after the air alarm blared and began to grab her things to flee to a shelter when another blast caused her home's walls to crumble and the lights to go off.
"I honestly don't even know how this will all end, it's very scary," said Bilozir, referring to the war against Russia's invasion.
"I only believe that if we can stop them on the battlefield, then that's it. No diplomacy works here."More fires were reported in the Shevchenkivsky and Holosiivskyi districts.
Anastasiia Zhuravlova, 33, a mother of two, was sheltering in a basement after multiple blasts damaged her home. Her family was sleeping when the first explosion shattered their windows and sent kitchen appliances flying in the air. Shards of glass rained down on them as they rushed to take cover in the corridor.
"After that we came to the shelter because it was scary and dangerous at home," she said.
Pictures: Rescue workers evacuate victims as 9 killed and many injured in Russian attack
07:24
,
Namita Singh
Drone, missile attack on Kyiv kills nine, injures more than 70, says State Emergency Service
07:15
,
Namita Singh
An overnight Russian combined missile and drone attack triggered fires, smashed buildings and buried residents under rubble in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, killing nine people and injuring more than 70, the State Emergency Service said this morning.
Six children were reported to be among the injured."There has been destruction. The search is continuing for people under rubble," the State Emergency Service wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The most serious incident was at an apartment building destroyed in the Sviatoshynskyi district west of the city centre.
Pictures posted on Telegram showed rescue teams working with floodlights, moving cautiously through piles of rubble and clambering up ladders extended along the facades of buildings. Police were calling from apartment to apartment to determine whether residents were safe.
Rescue teams, the emergency service said, were operating at 13 sites in the capital with climbing specialists and sniffer dogs. Forty fires had broken out.
"Mobile telephones are heard ringing beneath rubble. The search will continue until it become clear that they have got everyone," it said.
Fires had broken out in garages, administrative buildings and falling metal fragments had struck vehicles.
An air raid alert was in effect in the capital for six hours.
Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city in the northeast, endured two overnight waves of Russian missiles, injuring two people and smashing windows, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
There was also damage in Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, where emergency services said Russian forces launched a repeat strike on rescue teams attending a fire, injuring one worker.
Ukrainian state railway Ukrzaliznytsia said that railway infrastructure had come under attack and two railway workers were hurt.
In Kyiv and Kharkiv regions the shelling damaged track and administrative and technical buildings, but trains were operating normally.
Trump’s ‘patience is running very thin’
06:54
,
Namita Singh
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters Donald Trump is "frustrated" with the pace of talks and that Volodymyr Zelensky "seems to be moving in the wrong direction”.
Several sources have said proposals from Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff include not only recognising Russia's annexation of Crimea, but accepting Russia's control of the 20 per cent of Ukraine's territory it has gained in the war, ruling out Ukrainian membership of Nato and lifting Western sanctions.
Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said on X that there were positive talks in London with Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and added: "It's time to move forward on President Trump's UKR-RU war directive: stop the killing, achieve peace, and put America First."
Trump raised the pressure on Sunday when he said he hoped Moscow and Kyiv would make a deal this week to end the conflict.
At the heart of Wednesday's talks was an attempt to establish what Kyiv could possibly accept after Witkoff presented proposals to a similar session in Paris last week.
Three diplomats said those proposals appeared to demand more concessions from Ukraine than Russia.
Video: Firefighters battle Odesa blazes after Russian drone attack
06:39
,
Namita Singh
Trump and Zelensky clash again as US warns it could abandon Ukraine talks
06:32
,
Namita Singh
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky clashed publicly again on Wednesday, almost two months after their explosive bust-up in the Oval Office.
The US leader slated Zelensky for refusing to recognise Russia's occupation of Crimea as part of a peace agreement – a position that appears to have scuttled a potentially crucial peace summit that was due to be held in London on Wednesday.
Trump's vice president JD Vance said it was time for Russia and Ukraine to either agree to a US peace proposal "or for the United States to walk away from this process," echoing a warning from Trump last week.
Speaking to reporters in India, Vance said the proposal called for freezing territorial lines "at some level close to where they are today" and a "long-term diplomatic settlement that hopefully will lead to long-term peace".
"The only way to really stop the killing is for the armies to both put down their weapons, to freeze this thing," he said.
Trump slates Ukraine for not ceding land to Putin as he warns Zelensky to accept peace deal
06:28
,
Namita Singh
Donald Trump has lashed out at the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, warning that if he does not accept a peace deal he will lose his country.
Mr Trump said a Russia-Ukraine agreement was very close – but accused his Ukrainian counterpart of prolonging the “killing field” after he refused to cede Crimea to Vladimir Putin as part of a potential peace plan.
Claiming the territory had been lost for good in 2014 and was not up for discussion, Mr Trump accused Mr Zelensky of making an end to the war harder to achieve.
Report:
Massive Russian strike on Kyiv kills 9 overnight
06:14
,
Namita Singh
A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack hit Kyiv overnight, killing nine people and injuring another 63, including six children, Ukrainian authorities said this morning.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said on its Telegram channel that Russia struck Kyiv with drones and ballistic missiles. At least 42 people were hospitalised, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. Rescue operations were still underway early morning to find bodies under the rubble.
Fires were reported in several residential buildings said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city military administration.
The attack, which began around 1am, hit at least four neighborhoods in Kyiv. In Sviatoshynkskyi district, a fire broke out in a residential building that was damaged in the attack.
People were trapped under rubble in the building, the Kyiv City Administration said.
More fires were reported in the Shevchenkivsky and Holosiivskyi districts.
Trump says Zelensky prolonging war
06:08
,
Namita Singh
President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Ukraine's president, saying Volodymyr Zelensky is prolonging the "killing field" after pushing back on ceding Crimea to Russia as part of a potential peace plan.
Zelensky on Tuesday ruled out ceding territory to Russia in any deal before talks set for Wednesday in London among US, European and Ukrainian officials.
"There is nothing to talk about. It is our land, the land of the Ukrainian people," Zelensky said.
During similar talks last week in Paris, US officials presented a proposal that included allowing Russia to keep control of occupied Ukrainian territory as part of a deal, according to a European official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump called Zelenky's pushback "very harmful" to talks."Nobody is asking Zelensky to recognise Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn't they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?" he wrote on social media.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 after sending troops to overrun it. Weeks later, Moscow-backed separatists launched an uprising in eastern Ukraine, battling Kyiv's forces.
Trump also asserted they were close to a deal and that Ukraine's leader can have peace or "he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country," adding that Zelenskyy's statement "will do nothing but prolong the 'killing field,' and nobody wants that!"
In pictures: Russia attacks Kyiv, killing 9
05:54
,
Namita Singh
Nine killed in a massive Russian strike on Kyiv
05:39
,
Namita Singh
A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack hit Kyiv overnight, killing nine people and injuring another 63, including six children, Ukrainian authorities said.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said on its Telegram channel on Thursday that Russia struck Kyiv with drones and ballistic missiles.
Fires were reported in several residential buildings, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city military administration.
Russian journalist dies of wounds suffered in March in Ukraine war
05:37
,
Namita Singh
A Russian journalist caught in a Ukrainian artillery strike last month died of his wounds in hospital, his publication said early this morning.
Nikita Goldin, who worked for the military's Zvezda Television, was part of a group that came under attack in a Moscow-controlled part of Luhansk region in northeastern Ukraine on 24 March.
Six people died in the strike, including two other journalists and their driver.
Goldin, who also wrote for the military daily Krasnaya Zvezda, was taken to a military hospital in Moscow, but died of his wounds nearly a month after the attack.
Russia's foreign ministry accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting the journalists in the attack.
Data provided earlier in the war by the Committee to Protect Journalists counted at least 15 journalists killed since Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian journalist dies of wounds suffered in March in Ukraine war
05:34
,
Namita Singh
A Russian journalist caught in a Ukrainian artillery strike last month died of his wounds in hospital, his publication said early this morning.
Nikita Goldin, who worked for the military's Zvezda Television, was part of a group that came under attack in a Moscow-controlled part of Luhansk region in northeastern Ukraine on 24 March.
Six people died in the strike, including two other journalists and their driver.
Goldin, who also wrote for the military daily Krasnaya Zvezda, was taken to a military hospital in Moscow, but died of his wounds nearly a month after the attack.
Russia's foreign ministry accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting the journalists in the attack.
Data provided earlier in the war by the Committee to Protect Journalists counted at least 15 journalists killed since Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
JD Vance’s bluster over peace in Ukraine shows why Zelensky swerved an American ambush in London
05:18
,
Namita Singh
Marco Rubio cancelled his visit to London for ceasefire talks after it emerged that Volodymyr Zelensky wasn’t coming – and then JD Vance got cross. Ukraine’s president certainly swerved an ambush, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley.
US wants to sign economic partnership with Ukraine ‘as soon as possible’
05:17
,
Namita Singh
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent met Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal and finance minister Sergii Marchenko yesterday and stressed the need to sign an economic partnership between the two countries as soon as possible, the US Treasury Department said.
Washington has said it will walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine unless there are clear signs of progress soon.
After the US and Ukraine reached a memo of understanding on Thursday, US president Donald Trump said he expected to sign a minerals deal with Kyiv this week.
An attempt in February fell apart following Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's Oval Office clash with Trump.
"Secretary Bessent reaffirmed the United States' support for Ukrainian sovereignty and emphasized the United States' dedication to secure a lasting, durable peace for the people of both Ukraine and Russia," the Treasury Department said in a statement.
"Secretary Bessent emphasised the need to conclude technical talks and sign the economic partnership between the United States and Ukraine as soon as possible."
The real truth behind Trump’s latest attack on Zelensky over potential US peace deal
05:14
,
Namita Singh
Donald Trump’s best option now is to walk away from his so-called peace talks, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley.
Zelensky harder to deal with than Russia, says Trump
04:45
,
Namita Singh
US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday he thought Russia had agreed to a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine.
"I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelensky," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelensky. So far it's been harder."
Adding that he does not have any “favourites”, Trump said he just “wanna save the lives” and “see the war end”
