“With each such attack, the world becomes more certain that the cause of prolonging the war lies in Moscow,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.
The overnight barrage came as Russia and Ukraine are taking part in prisoner swaps agreed after talks between the two sides in Turkey.
Describing a “difficult night”, Zelensky said there had been fires and explosions across Kyiv with homes, businesses and cars damaged by strikes or falling debris.
Four people were killed in the eastern Donetsk Region; five in the southern Odesa and Kherson regions and four in the northeast Kharkiv region.
Olha Chyrukha, a 64-year-old Kyiv resident, told Reuters news agency: “I wish they’d agree to a ceasefire. To bomb people like this – poor children. My three-year-old granddaughter was screaming scared.”
Commenting on the combined use of aerial weapons, Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said: “The enemy is improving its own tactics of using drones, while simultaneously striking with ballistics.”
Zelensky said only “additional sanctions targeting key sectors of the Russian economy” could push Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.
Last week, Russia said Ukraine had launched hundreds of exploding drones at the country, including strikes over Moscow. The Russia’s defence ministry said that 485 drones had been shot down.
