Kyiv rescuers find more bodies as death toll from Russian missile attack climbs

Emergency workers pulled more bodies from the rubble of a nine-story Kyiv apartment building demolished by a Russian missile, raising the death toll from the latest attack on the Ukrainian capital to 28.

The building in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district took a direct hit and collapsed during the deadliest Russian attack on Kyiv this year.

Authorities said that 23 of those killed were inside the building. The remaining five were killed elsewhere in the city.

Workers used cranes, excavators and their hands to clear more debris from the site on Wednesday, and sniffer dogs searched for buried victims.

The blast also blew out windows and doors in neighbouring buildings in a wide radius of damage.

The attack overnight on Monday into Tuesday was part of a sweeping barrage — Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles in what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said was one of the biggest bombardments of the war, now in its fourth year.

Russia has launched a summer offensive on parts of the 620-mile front line and has intensified long-range attacks that have struck urban residential areas.

At the same time, US-led peace efforts have failed to grain traction. Also, Middle East tensions and US trade tariffs have drawn world attention away from Ukraine’s pleas for more diplomatic and economic pressure to be placed on Russia.

The US Embassy in Kyiv said the attack clashed with the attempts by the administration of President Donald Trump to reach a settlement that will stop the fighting.

“This senseless attack runs counter to President Trump’s call to stop the killing and end the war,” the embassy posted on social platform X.

Kyiv authorities declared an official day of mourning. Mourners laid flowers on swings and slides at a playground across the street from the collapsed building.