At least 18 dead in Kyiv and Odesa amid Russian missile and drone attacks
About 27 locations in Kyiv hit during several waves of attacks
Russia flattened a section of an apartment block in Kyiv on Tuesday in its deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital this year — part of a barrage of hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles that killed at least 18 people and wounded 151 others.
Ukrainian officials declared a day of mourning on Wednesday for the victims of what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as one of the most horrific attacks on Kyiv since the start of the war. Authorities said 16 were killed in Kyiv and two in Odesa.
"Such attacks are pure terrorism. The whole world, the United States, and Europe must finally respond as a civilized society responds to terrorists. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war," the Ukrainian leader said in a post on X.
Zelenskyy said Russian forces had sent 440 drones and fired 32 missiles at Ukraine.
The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said it was the deadliest attack this year on Kyiv and underscored the dangers of using such weaponry in major cities.
"Last night's attack exemplifies the grave threat posed by the tactic of deploying missiles and large numbers of drones simultaneously into populated areas, which leads to civilian casualties, and profound suffering," Danielle Bell, head of HRMMU, said in a statement.
Russia's Defence Ministry said it had used air-, land- and sea-based missiles and drones to strike "objects of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine" in the Kyiv region and southern Zaporizhzhia province.
Ukrainian officials said about 27 locations in Kyiv were hit during several waves of attacks throughout the night, damaging residential buildings, educational institutions and critical infrastructure facilities.
A missile struck a nine-storey residential building in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district, wiping out a whole section of it, which was flattened into a pile of debris.
Emergency workers combed through the rubble and doused flames with hoses. They used a crane to lower a wounded elderly woman in a stretcher out of the window of an apartment in an adjacent section of the building.
"I have never seen anything like this before. It is simply horrific. When they started pulling people out, and everyone was cut up, elderly people and children ... I do not know how long they can continue to torment us, ordinary people," said Viktoriia Vovchenko, 57, who lives nearby.
Ukraine's State Emergency Services said operations proceeded throughout Tuesday, with three bodies pulled from rubble late in the evening, bringing the casualty toll in Kyiv to 16 dead and 134 injured. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the dead included a 62-year-old U.S. citizen, who died from shrapnel wounds.
Two people were killed and 17 injured in the Black Sea port of Odesa.
Canada pledges more support at G7
Zelenskyy was in Alberta on Tuesday for the G7 summit, where the Canadian government announced $2 billion in military aid for Ukraine — funding that will help buy more drones, ammunition and armoured vehicles, Prime Minister Mark Carney's office said. Canada is also extending a $2.3-billion loan to help Ukraine rebuild infrastructure, the PMO said.
Meanwhile, fellow G7 member Britain, through Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office, announced new sanctions on people and groups it said were linked to Russian finance, energy and military operations.
U.S. President Donald Trump has reoriented U.S. policy away from supporting Kyiv and has so far resisted calls from European allies to impose tighter sanctions on Moscow for rejecting calls for a ceasefire.
At the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., Trump called for the group to readmit Russia, which was expelled in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. Trump then departed the summit earlier than anticipated — and before having the chance to meet with Zelenskyy.
Ukraine has also launched drones deep into Russia, although its attacks have not caused similar damage to civilian targets. Russia's Defence Ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed 147 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, including the Moscow region, overnight.
Moscow has used drones and missiles to hit Ukrainian cities far from the front throughout the war. Its attacks have become more deadly in recent weeks, even as the sides have held their first peace talks in more than three years.
Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian military analyst, said that since the start of June, Russia turned to a new tactic of concentrating drone and missile strikes on a single city at a time to overwhelm Ukraine's air defences. "It is a new challenge that we need to adapt to as soon as possible," he said.
Russia's full-scale invasion is now in its fourth year, and the hostilities have heated up in recent weeks as Kyiv and Moscow failed to reach any agreement during two rounds of peace talks in Istanbul.
Russian troops are pressing on with a grinding advance in eastern Ukraine and have opened a new front in the Sumy region in the northeast, despite calls for a ceasefire from Trump, who promised to end the war quickly.
With files from CBC News