Heavy Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least 26 people, injures nearly 100, officials say

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At least 26 people were killed and many were listed as missing in a Russian drone and missile attack overnight that hit apartment buildings in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, Ukraine's interior minister said on Wednesday.

Ihor Klymenko said 26 people were still missing after the overnight strikes, including three children. He said nearly 100 people had been hurt.

Russia fired 476 drones and 48 missiles at Ukraine, striking energy and transport infrastructure and forcing emergency power cuts in a number of regions in frigid temperatures.

The upper floors of the residential building in Ternopil were torn away in the attack. Black smoke poured upward, while an orange glow burned through the haze from a fire in the tower block.

Burnt cars are seen in front of a residential building that was heavily damaged after a Russian strike on Ternopil, Ukraine, on Wednesday. (Vlad Kravchuk/The Associated Press)

Klymenko, writing on Telegram, said emergency crews were working through the night, combing the site of the shattered apartment building.

"A lot of work lies ahead. The main thing is to find those who could still be under the rubble," Klymenko wrote.

"In the building where two entrances were completely burned out, not a single apartment was left intact. The flames flared up instantly and engulfed the building in a wave. People were terrified and tried to jump out of windows."

Officials said three children were among the dead.

Oksana Kobel hoped her son would be found alive. He had been in a ninth-floor apartment at the time of the attack.

"I went to work, heard the explosions. I called him and said: 'Bohdan, go to the shelter, get dressed.' He answered: 'Mom, I am already up, everything will be fine,'" she said.

Poland, a NATO member state bordering western Ukraine, temporarily closed Rzeszow and Lublin airports in the southeast of the country and scrambled Polish and allied aircraft as a precaution to safeguard its airspace.

Reports of strikes in other cities

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed multi-storey residential buildings had been hit in Ternopil, and said others may be trapped under the rubble.

He urged allies to increase pressure on Russia to end its nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine, including by providing Kyiv with more air defence missiles.

WATCH | Scenes of devastation in Tenopil:Fire crews were on scene on Wednesday in Ternopil, Ukraine, after a deadly overnight attack by Russia left a residential building in flames.

"Every brazen attack against ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient. Effective sanctions and assistance to Ukraine can change this," Zelenskyy said on X.

Energy officials said energy infrastructure had been struck in seven Ukrainian regions. Restrictions were placed on power usage for consumers across the country.

A Reuters witness in the western city of Lviv reported hearing explosions and Kyiv residents took cover in metro stations on Wednesday morning.

The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear but restrictions were placed on power usage for consumers across the country.

Smoke rises over Lviv, Ukraine, on Wednesday morning after Russian missile and drone strikes. (Andriy Perun/Reuters)

Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians, said it had launched airstrikes in response to what it called "terrorist attacks" on Russian territories. It said Ukrainian forces had fired four U.S.-made ATACMS missiles at the southern Russian city of Voronezh.

Ukraine's military said on Tuesday it had attacked military targets in Russia with the missiles.

Zelenskyy engaged in talks

Zelenskyy was holding talks in Turkey on Wednesday and scheduled to meet U.S. army officials in Kyiv on Thursday in a new drive to revive peace negotiations with Russia.

No face-to-face talks have taken place between Kyiv and Moscow since a meeting in Istanbul in July, and Russian forces have pressed on after the invasion began in February 2022.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on Wednesday. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Turkish Presidential Press Office/Reuters)

There were three rounds of talks this year between Russia and Ukraine, and brokered by Turkey, none with the direct involvement of Zelenskyy or Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since then, there have been multiple exchanges of war prisoners and war dead between the two countries.

Putin was invited to Alaska in August by Donald Trump, and the U.S. president last month gave a positive assessment of a telephone conversation with the Russian leader.

The Kremlin on Wednesday played down an Axios report that the United States was working on a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine. When asked directly if it was true that a conceptual discussion had led to new proposals on peace being put down on paper, as reported by Axios, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "No. So far there are no innovations on this that can be reported to you."

Ukraine allies in Europe have since met several times in person and by video to address how to help the country, and shield it from further Russian aggression, should a ceasefire be reached.

WATCH | Russian troop advantage around Pokrovsk could be as high as 5-to-1:Pokrovsk has been nearly cleared of civilians as Russia tries to firmly seize the city that’s strategic to capturing Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

The uncertainties include how they can help fund war-devastated Ukraine, what postwar security guarantees they might be able to provide, and what American commitments to future security arrangements might entail.

The U.S. to this point has ruled out putting American troops on the ground in Ukraine.