Kyiv in mourning after strikes as allies discuss military support

A day of mourning is being observed in Kyiv after the second biggest Russian aerial attack of the war so far killed at least 23 people, including four children, and injured dozens of others.

The city’s mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, said it was to honour the dead, as a massive recovery effort continues at the five-storey block of flats where 22 of the 23 were killed.

The attack has been widely condemned – the White House said President Donald Trump was “not happy” but not surprised, while European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia would “stop at nothing to terrorise Ukraine”.

Meanwhile, EU defence ministers are meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss support for Ukraine.

The drone and missile strikes also damaged the EU’s diplomatic mission and the British Council building in central Kyiv.

Speaking on the way into Friday’s meeting, Lithuania’s Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “cheaply buying time to kill more people”.

“Hopes of possible peace negotiations are at least naïve when we look at what is happening in Ukraine and what just happened [on Thursday],” she added.

Estonia’s Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said the best security guarantee for Ukraine would be membership of Nato.

On Friday, the Swedish government summoned its Russian ambassador to protest the continued attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilians – following a similar action by the UK on Thursday.

Overnight from Thursday into Friday saw less fighting, although both Russia and Ukraine reported shooting down dozens of drones.

Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov said five settlements in his region had been attacked, with one person being killed in Kupyansk.

The Ukrainian military said it had carried out overnight strikes on a facility in Russia’s Bryansk region which it said was responsible for pumping fuel to supply Moscow’s war effort.

Trump had hoped to organise a summit involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin to bring an end to the war, but those efforts have since stalled.

Speaking after Thursday’s attack, Zelensky said Moscow had chosen “ballistics instead of the negotiating table”, and reiterated the need for “new, tough sanctions” on Russia.

Speaking after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said it seemed unlikely now that a meeting between Putin and Zelensky would take place.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Friday that current western proposals for a security guarantee risked turning Ukraine into what she called a “provocateur” on Russia’s border.

Russia has long argued against any western military presence in a post-war Ukraine.