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KYIV/ Moscow — Russia's army said Tuesday it hit "military-industrial" sites near Kyiv, after Ukrainian officials said at least 14 people were killed in one of the largest drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
Russia "launched a group strike with high-precision air, ground and sea-based weapons, as well as strike drones on military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv region," the defence ministry said in a statement, which was similar to those it puts out after most major attacks.
Russia fired scores of missiles and drones at Kyiv on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens in what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called "one of the most horrific attacks" on the capital.
The strike was one of the deadliest on Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and came as direct peace talks between the two sides appeared to stall.
Zelensky said "an entire section of an apartment block" was destroyed and rescuers were searching under the rubble for possible survivors.
Some 27 locations in Kyiv were hit, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said.
One person was also killed and 10 wounded in a strike on the southern port city of Odesa, while attacks on the Sumy and Kherson regions later in the day killed two others, authorities said.
A total of 440 drones and 32 missiles were used in the strikes nationwide, Zelensky said.
Russian President Vladimir "Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on," he said.
US citizen dead
Another Kyiv resident, Sergiy, said his windows were shattered during the strikes.
"I was asleep. There was a loud bang. The window was smashed, and glass rained down on me," he said.
Residential buildings, educational institutions and "critical infrastructure facilities" were all hit, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
A total of 114 were wounded in the attack on Kyiv, 68 of them hospitalised, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.
He reported earlier that a US citizen had died in a Russian attack on the capital's Solomyansky district.
"During the attack on Kyiv... a 62-year-old US citizen died in a house opposite to the place where medics were providing assistance to the injured," Klitschko said on Telegram.
Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the new strikes showed Moscow was "continuing its war against civilians".
More than three years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has kept up its 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".
Zelensky had been hoping to speak with his US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, but the US leader cut short his visit, amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.