Russia's largest air attack on Ukraine sets fire to main government building

A mass Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Sunday killed at least two people and left smoke rising from the roof of a key government building.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched its largest air attack of the war on Ukraine overnight, setting the main government building on fire in central Kyiv and killing at least four people, including an infant, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the drone and missile barrage killed four people and caused damage across the north, south and east of the country, including the cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih and Odesa, as well as in the Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

“Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have already begun long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X, issuing a fresh appeal to allies to strengthen Ukrainian air defenses.

A woman reacts in front of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv on Sunday.Evgeniy Maloletka / APJust after sunrise, thick smoke could be seen rising into the clear blue sky from the burning top floor of the main government building, located in the historic Pecherskyi district, Reuters witnesses said.

Elsewhere in Kyiv, residential apartments were hit and damaged, with dozens of residents wrapped in blankets gathering on the streets outside to survey the damage to their homes as rescue workers fought to extinguish the flames.