Russia said its forces hit what they called military plants in retaliation against attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure. Ukraine accused Moscow of targeting civilian areas and said it would be wrong to equate the actions of the “aggressor and a country defending itself”.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 74 missiles and 496 drones overnight, mainly targeting the capital.
While the country’s air defences were able to repel most of these, 25 ballistics missiles and 12 drones struck 33 locations.
Children were among the “significant number” of casualties, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said.
“The enemy is once again deliberately targeting residential areas and killing civilians,” he said early on Thursday. Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed it targeted energy facilities in response to recent Ukrainian strikes.
Among those hit by the strikes was a high-rise apartment building with part of the building blown off in south-east Kyiv.
In a video posted on Telegram, Klitschko said rescuers are trying to find, among others, a 15-year-old girl and her family.
Russia also hit military bases in central and eastern Ukraine, according to the Ministry of Defence, quoted in Russian media.
It claimed to have targeted Ukrainian defence and energy infrastructure in response to recent attacks on Russian power stations from Moscow to the Black Sea.
The attacks led to a rare confession by Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country was facing fuel shortages.
On Wednesday, Zelensky cut short his visit to Dublin after he said fresh intelligence had emerged suggesting that Moscow was planning to strike Ukraine.
“I urge our people to be especially careful, to protect themselves, their children, and, of course, their families,” he said.
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has been preparing this massive strike against Ukraine for some time now”.
Russian troops recently advanced into the city of Kostyantynivka, one of Ukraine’s last key bulwarks in the east. If Moscow secures the city, it would provide a gateway to the entire Donbas region.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian commanders say they have recaptured more territory this year than they have lost, disrupting Moscow’s crucial supply lines between the Russian border and occupied Crimea.
The ground war has otherwise stalled for months with each side’s troops largely entrenched in their positions.
Russia controls approximately one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, mostly seized in the first few months of its full-scale invasion in February, 2022.
