The Japan Times - Russia kills 4 in massive Ukraine attack after vowing retaliation

Multiple rounds of loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital throughout the early hours of the morning, AFP journalists reported, in a barrage the air force said involved 600 drones and 90 missiles.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people had been killed in the capital and 56 wounded, while the head of the surrounding Kyiv region said two people had also been killed there, and nine wounded.

Air defences intercepted 549 of the drones and 55 missiles, the air force said. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russians had fired a nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in the barrage.

"Three Russian missiles against a water supply facility, a market burnt down, dozens of residential buildings damaged, several ordinary schools, and he (Putin) launched his 'Oreshnik' against Bila Tserkva (in central Ukraine)," Zelensky said on Telegram.

"They are genuinely deranged."

The blasts in the capital caused a residential building near the government district to shake, while dozens of people took shelter in an underground metro station in the city centre, AFP reporters said.

Residents were instructed to stay in shelters, as city officials warned fires had broken out.

Ukrainian authorities and the US embassy had earlier warned of a possible significant attack on Kyiv, after Russia said it would "punish" those responsible for deadly strikes in a part of eastern Ukraine under its control.

Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of Kyiv, adding that a strike on a school had sparked a fire and another on a business centre led to people being trapped in a shelter.

Ukrainian authorities said Russian strikes had also wounded 11 in the Cherkasy region and seven in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

- Warning -

Ukraine had been expecting a major attack after its own forces launched a drone barrage on Starobilsk, in the Russian-occupied east of the country, which Moscow said hit a college dormitory and killed at least 18 people.

Launched overnight on Thursday to Friday, the drone salvo -- one of Ukraine's deadliest such strikes in months -- also wounded 42 in the city, located in the occupied Lugansk region.

Ukraine denied targeting civilians, saying it had hit a Russian drone unit stationed in the area.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Friday those responsible would face "inevitable and severe punishment".

On Saturday, Zelensky warned that Ukraine was "seeing signs of preparation for a combined strike on Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv".

Similarly, the US embassy said it had "received information concerning a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next 24 hours".

Ukraine regularly targets Russian-controlled areas of the country with drones, arguing that the strikes are retaliation for Russian attacks.

- Occupied territory -

Russia's emergency ministry said on Saturday it had pulled two more bodies from the rubble of the dormitory in Starobilsk, taking the death toll to 18.

Video shared by the ministry showed dozens of rescuers sifting through what remained of a section of the five-storey building.

Most of those killed and missing were young women born between 2003 and 2008, according to a list of casualties published by the Moscow-backed governor of occupied Lugansk, Leonid Pasechnik.

"The region and the entire country share the fate of these people and the pain of their families," he said on Telegram.

Starobilsk lies about 65 kilometres (40 miles) from the front line in eastern Ukraine. It was captured by Russian forces in the early months of the offensive in 2022.

Kyiv has recently expanded its drone capabilities and stepped up strikes on undisputed Russian territory, including residential areas and oil export infrastructure.

Moscow has hit Ukraine almost daily with barrages of missiles and drones since launching its full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, also hitting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths. It denies targeting civilians.

US-led efforts to negotiate an end to more than four years of war have slowed in recent months, with Washington's attention diverted towards its conflict in the Middle East.

K.Okada--JT