Russia bombarded Kyiv with a missile and drone attack before dawn on Thursday, killing at least eight people, Ukrainian officials said, in an assault that came soon after President Trump had warned Moscow of new sanctions if such violence persisted.
Rescuers raced to more than two dozen locations around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, to extinguish fires and search for survivors in the rubble of blasted apartment buildings.
Emergency services and local officials said that more than 120 people had also been wounded in the attacks. Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, said in a statement that at least one child had been killed.
The assault came shortly after Mr. Trump threatened new sanctions on Moscow if President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia did not put a halt to the bloodshed in 10 days. Russian officials have dismissed that warning.
The bombardment began around midnight with swarms of drones packed with explosives descending on the city from multiple directions.
Tracer fire from heavy machine guns lit up the sky as air defense crews struggled to keep up with the barrage. Drones exploded over city streets as residents raced to find shelter wherever they could.
At 3:20 a.m., the Ukrainian Air Force issued an all-clear signal, but the threat resumed about an hour later. This time, missiles slammed into the city center, with one striking a nine-story apartment building.
There were direct hits from five missiles and 21 drones at 12 locations around the capital, the air force said in a statement. Debris from downed targets was also recorded at 19 locations — almost all in the capital.
Outside one devastated apartment block, a woman still in her pajamas and a young boy were carried away from the smoldering rubble as crews searched for survivors.
Ihor Klymenko, the minister of internal affairs, watched the search-and-rescue operation outside one damaged apartment building as workers struggled to free a man from the rubble.
Mr. Klymenko said that the rescue crew had to cut a tunnel to free the man, clearing room around his head so that he could breathe.
The man was eventually rescued a couple of hours later, officials said. He was taken away for medical care, but the extent of his injuries was not immediately clear.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said at least one child, a 6-year-old, was killed and nine others injured.
“This is the highest number of children injured in a single night in Kyiv since the start of the full-scale war,” he said.
Other towns and cities were also attacked overnight, but the focus of a vast majority of the 309 drone and eight missiles used in the bombardment was Kyiv, officials said.
“Today, the world once again saw Russia’s response to our desire for peace, shared with America and Europe,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a statement.
The only way to force Russia to make peace, he said, was for the United States and Europe to deploy the full range of diplomatic and military tools at their disposal.
For Ukrainians who have endured years of bombardments, each new deadly attack deepens frustration over what they see as a failure to recognize the aggression at the heart of Russia’s war effort.
A headline in RIA Novosti, an official Russian news agency, was shared widely across Ukrainian social media as reflecting the true Russian position.
“There is no other option: no one should remain alive in Ukraine,” the headline proclaimed only hours before the first Russian drones crossed into Ukrainian airspace.
Mr. Trump entered office promising to quickly end the war, but the Kremlin has refused all calls for a halt to the fighting.
Instead, Moscow has increased the pace of its offensive on the front and expanded the scale of its bombardments directed at towns and cities across the country.
It is unclear what specific measures Mr. Trump will take to pressure Moscow if it fails to meet his deadline next week. Ukrainians hope that, at a minimum, he will target the Kremlin’s main source of funding for its war effort: oil exports.
The Senate has crafted legislation that would impose secondary sanctions on nations that buy Russian oil, including China, but lawmakers have held back voting on the measure despite broad bipartisan support.
Instead, they have deferred to the White House.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump moved to penalize India for continuing to buy Russian oil and weapons and announced that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on the nation, saying he would include additional unspecified penalties for continuing to trade with Moscow.
Mr. Trump also responded to comments made by Dmitri A. Medvedev, a Russian former president and deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, who called Mr. Trump’s deadline a “threat and a step towards war” between Russia and the United States.
“Tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words,” Mr. Trump wrote in a statement posted on social media. “He’s entering very dangerous territory!”
Liubov Sholudko and Anastasia Kuznietsova contributed reporting.
Marc Santora has been reporting from Ukraine since the beginning of the war with Russia. He was previously based in London as an international news editor focused on breaking news events and earlier the bureau chief for East and Central Europe, based in Warsaw. He has also reported extensively from Iraq and Africa.
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