War in Ukraine: Kiev mourning after the death of at least 24 people, including three children, in massive bombings.

In the night of Wednesday to Thursday, Russia launched 675 drones and 56 missiles on Ukraine, most of which were shot down, according to the Ukrainian army. The attack is one of the deadliest to hit Kiev since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

Rescue teams are still working to search the rubble of a building for survivors. Kiev is observing a day of mourning this Friday following massive Russian bombings that struck the Ukrainian capital in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, resulting in 24 deaths, including three children, and 47 injuries.

On the Russian side, Ukrainian strikes on the city of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, killed three people and injured 12, local authorities announced on Friday. The Russian army claimed to have shot down 355 Ukrainian drones from Thursday to Friday, mainly over border regions of Ukraine and Moscow.

In Ukraine, the missile and drone attack from Wednesday to Thursday, occurring 48 hours after the end of a three-day ceasefire for the celebrations of the end of World War II, is one of the bloodiest to hit the capital recently, more than four years after the start of the Russian invasion.

Reaction from Emmanuel Macron

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia targeted Ukraine with 675 drones and 56 Russian missiles in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, of which 652 drones and 41 missiles were reportedly shot down by defense systems.

This attack notably affected a dozen districts of the capital and its region. In the Darnytskyi district, a missile “literally razed a residential building from the first to the ninth floor,” deplored Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday.

He accused Russia of launching “more than 1,560 drones” in less than 24 hours. “These are certainly not the actions of those who think the war is coming to an end,” he wrote in reference to a comment made by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on May 9.

Ukraine’s allies have denounced this latest attack, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling it evidence of Moscow’s “weakness” and its inability to end its aggression war.

“People were screaming”

In the south of the country, a UN vehicle was also struck by Russian drones on Thursday, without any injuries reported, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. “The Russians could not have ignored which vehicle they were targeting,” he denounced.

In Kiev, damage was reported in more than “twenty sites throughout the city,” including civil infrastructure, said the Ukrainian President. “Everything was on fire. People were screaming,” testified Andriy, a resident of the capital with blood-stained shirt.

As rescuers tried to evacuate a victim trapped under the rubble, a woman cried in tears, saying, “It’s probably Macha,” a journalist from AFP reported on the scene.

A senior official of the Ukrainian presidency believed that this new massive attack was “a demonstration” during discussions between Donald Trump in China with his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Talks between Kiev and Moscow, mediated by the United States, have been on hold since the beginning of the war in the Middle East at the end of February. The only concrete progress from previous negotiations has been prisoner exchanges.