Russia pummelled Ukraine Wednesday with its largest missile and drone attack in more than three years of war, hours after US President Donald Trump launched an expletive-filled attack on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
AFP journalists in Kyiv heard explosions ringing out and drones buzzing over the capital during the barrage after air raid sirens sounded.
The air force said Russia fired 728 drones and 13 missiles, specifying that its air defence systems intercepted 711 drones and destroyed seven missiles.
The strike, which officials said killed one civilian in the Khmelnytsky region, beat a previous Russian record of 550 drones and missiles fired at Ukraine on one day last week.
"This is a telling attack -- and it comes precisely at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace, to establish a ceasefire, and yet only Russia continues to rebuff them all," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
Zelensky, who met Pope Leo XIV and US special envoy Keith Kellogg on a visit to Rome, called for Ukraine's allies to step up sanctions on Russia, particularly on its key energy sector.
Following his meeting with Kellogg, the Ukrainian leader urged US lawmakers to pass a bill targeting Russia with tougher sanctions.