Deadly Russian barrage pounds Ukraine capital

Russian missile and drone strikes rocked Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens, after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was preparing a "massive attack".

Russia has routinely launched waves of missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, during its more than four-year war, which has become Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.

The attack came after Ukraine's air force warned that ballistic missiles were headed towards the capital and followed Zelensky cutting short a visit to Dublin Wednesday, citing intelligence reports of an impending Russian strike.

The strikes killed eight people and wounded at least 25, including children, the head of the city's military administration Tymur Tkachenko said, decrying the deliberate targeting of civilians and residential areas.

Five districts of the wider Kyiv region were struck in the attack, according to regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk.

"During the night, the enemy once again launched a massive attack on the Kyiv region using strike drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles," Kalashnyk said on Telegram.

He said emergency crews were battling fires at warehouses and a house in the Bucha district, while the attacks damaged homes, a student dormitory and vehicles elsewhere in the region.

Images released by Ukrainian emergency services after daybreak showed extensive damage to a residential block, with a chunk of a building missing.

“Use shelters”

Zelensky said earlier on Wednesday that he was rushing home from a visit to Dublin due to intelligence reports that Russia was about to launch a massive attack.

"I urge our people to be especially careful, to protect themselves, their children, and, of course, their families; to use shelters and heed air raid alerts in Ukraine -- this is very important," he told a news conference.

He said Russian President Vladimir Putin "has been preparing this massive strike against Ukraine for some time now".

Ukraine has also stepped up long-range drone attacks inside Russia in recent weeks, targeting energy infrastructure and military targets.

Russian officials have reported repeated strikes in border regions, while Moscow has said its air defences had intercepted hundreds of drones from Ukraine in recent days.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused more than two million military casualties, with Moscow's forces bearing the brunt of the losses, according to a study published Wednesday by US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

US efforts to broker an end to the conflict have so far failed.

"Russia's head is completely refusing to end the war," Zelensky said on Wednesday in a post on X.

"And although through all possible official and unofficial channels -- including through people close to him -- we have conveyed that the war can and must be ended, and that we in Ukraine are ready for meetings and meaningful negotiations, he sees only further aggression against Ukraine and against other neighbors and Europe as a whole," he added.