Zelensky condemns ‘ruthless attack’ after Russia hits main government building in Kyiv

Ukraine’s main government building in Kyiv has been hit for the first time in the war during Russian attacks, the Ukrainian prime minister has said.

Yulia Svyrydenko said the building’s roof and upper floors were damaged and a fire ignited “due to an enemy attack”.

At least four people were killed in strikes across the country, including a baby and a young woman who died after a nine-storey residential building was hit in Kyiv’s Svyatoshynsky district, officials said.

Ukraine’s air force reported that a record number of drones and missiles were launched by Russia in the latest nightly attack – more than 800 in total.

According to the air force, nine missiles and 56 drones hit 37 locations, and the downed wreckage fell at eight locations.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the barrage caused damage in the cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih and Odesa, as well as in the Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

“Such killings now, at a time when real diplomacy could have started a long time ago, are a deliberate crime and an attempt to prolong the war,” Zelensky said on social media, urging political will from the world to stop the attacks.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had carried out strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and transport infrastructure, inflicting damage on weapons and military equipment warehouses.

The Kyiv government building that was hit is also known as the cabinet of ministers building, as it houses the offices of Ukraine’s main ministers.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko suggested a drone may have accidentally hit the cabinet building after being intercepted, although the details remained unclear on Sunday.

“In Pechersk district, a fire broke out in a government building as a result of an UAV possibly being shot down,” he wrote on Telegram.

This is a new twist in Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. Until now, no government building has been hit – the centre of Kyiv is very heavily defended, it has been since the start of the full-scale invasion. So this will shake people.

It is a symbolic strike. It also shows clearly that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talk about being ready for peace is all posturing. He is not stopping. Instead, Russia is intensifying its attacks.

The BBC’s team was not allowed close to the cabinet building. The whole area is behind a checkpoint, because all the main official buildings are there – government, parliament and the presidential palace.

But earlier on Sunday, the team saw a large column of smoke rising into the sky from just behind the Maidan, Independence Square.

Then they heard and saw two Russian cruise missiles moving at very high speed, before another explosion.

At a block of flats in Kyiv that was hit, one woman, Valentina, and her husband were asleep when the strike shattered their windows and covered them in glass.

“At least we’re alive,” she said, deeply saddened by the death of a young woman neighbour with her baby.

People say the family had only just moved into the apartment and that the woman’s husband is in hospital, badly hurt.

Ukraine footballer Georgiy Sudakov’s flat in Kyiv was also left severely damaged after a Russian drone struck while his wife and children were inside, the 23-year-old said on Instagram.

Sudakov is away on international duty with Ukraine but posted pictures and videos of the aftermath. It was not clear whether Sudokov’s family was hurt in the attack.

Kyiv officials said several multi-storey residential buildings in the Svyatoshynkyi and Darnytskyi districts were partially destroyed after direct hits.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, 17 people were injured in a strike on the city of Zaporizhzhia, where several buildings including homes and a nursery were hit, regional administration head Ivan Fedorov said.

Outside the city, a woman was killed and a man was missing after a Russian glide bomb hit the Novopavlivka village, Fedorov added.

Another person was killed in Safonivka, in the Sumy region, and another in the Chernihiv region, Zelensky said.

Russia also attacked Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown in central Ukraine, where three infrastructure facilities were hit. Air raid warnings were activated overnight for all of the country’s regions.

There were also strikes from Ukraine into Russia. The Russian defence ministry said its air defence forces shot down or intercepted 69 Ukrainian drones in a number of Russian regions.

At least three civilians were killed and buildings were damaged in the Belgorod region, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Sunday.

Ukrainian drones hit the key Russian oil pipeline Druzhba, Ukrainian unmanned aerial forces commander Robert Brovdi said. He said a pumping station in Russia’s Bryansk region was struck.

Earlier this week, Putin rejected Western proposals for a “reassurance force” in Ukraine the day after any ceasefire comes into place, following a Paris summit aimed at finalising plans for security guarantees.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned Sunday’s attack in Ukraine, saying they showed that “Putin believes he can act with impunity” and “is not serious about peace.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 of Ukraine’s allies had formally committed to deploying troops “by land, sea or air” to help provide security the moment fighting was brought to a halt. He gave no further details.

Putin sought to quash the allies’ initiative, warning that any troops deployed to Ukraine would be “legitimate targets”.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory – including the southern Crimea peninsula illegally annexed in 2014.

Additional reporting by Vitaliy Shevchenko