UK summons Russian ambassador over deadly Kyiv strikes

The British government summoned the Russian ambassador on Thursday after Moscow's strikes on Kyiv killed at least 15 people and damaged the British Council building, UK foreign minister David Lammy said.

"Putin's strikes last night killed civilians, destroyed homes and damaged buildings, including the British Council and EU Delegation in Kyiv.... We have summoned the Russian Ambassador," Lammy said in an X post.

Read more: Russia rejects EU peacekeepers in Ukraine

Earlier today, Russian missiles and drones ripped through apartment blocks in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least 15 people, including three children, in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky said showed Moscow's rejection of peace negotiations.

Russia has rained down aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities despite US President Donald Trump's push for a ceasefire and even as it talks up the importance of ending the war since its full-scale “special operation” in February 2022.

The attack -- one of the deadliest on Kyiv -- blasted a five-storey crater in one apartment block, ripping the building in two.

AFP reporters saw rescuers carrying victims away in body bags as they sifted through the smouldering rubble.

Heavy construction machinery was deployed to scoop up mounds of debris. Officials warned that several people were believed to be still trapped under the collapsed building.

"Glass was flying ... we were screaming when the bombs went off," Galina Shcherbak, who was at a parking lot close to one of the strike hits, told AFP.

Ukraine's air force said Moscow fired 629 drones and missiles. This is the second largest of any overnight barrage, according to AFP analysis of Kyiv's data.

"They're just bombing residential buildings. What kind of target is there in the centre of Kyiv?" said Valery Savenko, whose apartment was damaged in the strike.