The Albany Gazette - Kyiv mayor calls for temporary evacuation after Russian strikes

Four people were killed in the capital in a massive missile and drone attack that ripped open apartment blocks and also saw Moscow fire its feared Oreshnik ballistic missile at western Ukraine, drawing condemnation from Europe.

The barrage came hours after Moscow rejected a plan by Kyiv and its Western allies to deploy peacekeeping forces to Ukraine should a ceasefire be reached.

AFP journalists in Kyiv saw residents running for shelter as the air raid siren echoed and heard Russian drones exploding into residential buildings and missiles whistling over the capital.

"A clear reaction from the world is needed. Above all from the United States, whose signals Russia truly pays attention to," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.

"Russia must receive signals that it is its obligation to focus on diplomacy, and must feel consequences every time it again focuses on killings and the destruction of infrastructure," he added.

Zelensky said 20 residential buildings in Kyiv had been damaged, adding that a Russian drone had damaged the Qatari embassy building.

Around half of all apartment blocks in the capital were left without heat due to "due to damage to the capital's critical infrastructure caused by a massive enemy attack," Klitschko said.

He called on "residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city for places with alternative sources of power and heat to do so."

AFP journalists at train and bus stations in the capital saw no signs of large crowds or panic.

- Russia fires rarely-used missile -

Authorities in Kyiv said four people were killed -- including a medic who died at a building that was struck in a repeat attack -- and that 24 people were wounded.

Nina, 70, who lives in one of the buildings hit, told AFP she was angry that the world was talking about a possible deal to end the conflict at a time when Russia was launching such deadly barrages.

"Where is Europe, where is America? It doesn't hurt them the same way," she said.

Her neighbour, 58-year-old Kostiantyn Kondratchenko fought the second-floor blaze from a drone hit with a hose used to water flowers, he told AFP.

The barrage is just the latest to batter Ukraine as diplomats wrangle for a breakthrough in what has been Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.

Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has shown no sign of slowing down its ground offensive or aerial bombardments.

Moscow's defence ministry said it had used the Oreshnik ballistic missile on "strategic targets" -- only the second time the new weapon, which the Kremlin says is impossible to stop, is known to have been used.

Ukrainian authorities said a ballistic missile travelling "at about 13,000 kilometres (8,000 miles) per hour" had struck an "infrastructure facility" near the western city of Lviv.

Ukraine's SBU published pictures of fragments from what it said were the missile, found in the Lviv region, close to Ukraine's border with EU member Poland.

It said Russia had attacked "civilian infrastructure", without specifying the target or extent of any damage.

The regional military administration said that radiation levels were within normal range.

The European Union and Germany condemned the use of Oreshnik.

"Russia's reported use of an Oreshnik missile is a clear escalation against Ukraine and meant as a warning to Europe and to the US," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on social media.

Across the border in Russia's Belgorod, the governor said more than half a million people were without power or heating after a Ukrainian attack targeted the region's utilities.

- ' Quite far' from any deal -

While Zelensky has said an agreement between Kyiv and Washington for US security guarantees was "essentially ready for finalisation", German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged a ceasefire deal was still "quite far" given Russia's position.

In its first response after a summit in Paris, Russia called the plan "dangerous" and "destructive".

Key territorial issues are also unresolved.

Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, has insisted on full control of the Donbas region as part of any settlement, a term Kyiv rejects.

(A.Moore--TAG)