Star Metro - 14 dead as Russia launches new daytime attacks on Ukraine

Moscow has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks it has stepped up daytime attacks.

The Russian military used more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles in its salvo on Friday, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of intensifying attacks ahead of Catholic Easter on Sunday, "turning what should have been silence in the skies into an Easter escalation".

Images from Ukrainian emergency services showed damaged residential buildings, with a block of flats ripped open and rubble strewn on a street.

The attack killed one person and left eight wounded in the capital region of Kyiv, said regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk.

"Unfortunately, animals were also affected by the attack -- approximately 20 animals died due to damage to a veterinary clinic," Kalashnyk added.

Some residents of the capital sheltered in the metro or in basements, AFP reporters saw, but many people sat in cafes unfazed by the attacks and despite blaring air raid sirens.

In the Kyiv region, "a drone struck a residential building in Obukhiv, and another attack occurred between a kindergarten and a school in Vyshneve, damaging homes," said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

Three people were killed in Ukraine's northern Sumy region, while attacks on the northwestern Zhytomyr region and central Dnipropetrovsk regions killed two others, according to the authorities.

Russian strikes on the frontline regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia killed eight people, local officials said.

- Easter truce? -

The barrage prompted emergency power outages in several regions, operator Ukrenergo said.

"This is how Moscow responds to Ukraine's Easter ceasefire proposals -- with brutal attacks," said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga.

Zelensky said earlier this week he was ready for a truce over the Easter holidays, but the Kremlin said it had not received "clearly formulated" proposals.

Ukraine has accused Russia of prolonging the war to capture more territory, and says Moscow is not interested in peace.

Russia denies targeting civilians.

Talks between the two warring parties, mediated by the United States, have been stalled by the war in the Middle East.

In comments to reporters, including from AFP, published on Friday, Zelensky said he had invited an American delegation to Ukraine to relaunch negotiations with Moscow.

"The delegation will do everything possible in the current conditions -- during the war with Iran -- to come to Kyiv," Zelensky said.

"The American group can come to us and, after us, go to Moscow. If it does not work out with three parties, let's do it this way," he added.

US President Donald Trump's envoys have been engaged in three-way shuttle diplomacy with Ukrainian and Russian teams in a bid to end the war.

But these have stalled as Washington has been occupied with the aerial campaign on Iran it launched in late February.

Amid the Middle East war, Ukraine has sought to leverage its expertise in fighting off Russian drones similar to those Iran has been using in retaliatory attacks across Gulf nations.

Last week, Zelensky visited several Middle Eastern countries and signed defence agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

He also suggested Ukraine could help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, whose effective closure by Iran has rattled the global economy.

He did not specify how Ukraine could contribute, but cited Kyiv's experience in restoring passage through the Black Sea, which Russia had blocked at the beginning of its invasion.

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S.Belanger--SMC