Russia kills at least 12 in biggest Ukraine airstrikes in nearly 2 months

Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 12 people and striking a residential building in central Ukraine, officials said.

In the central city of Uman, around 215 kilometres south of Kyiv, firefighters battled a raging blaze at a residential apartment building that had been struck on an upper floor. At least 10 people were killed, including two children, and nine were taken to hospital, regional governor Ihor Taburets said.

"All the glass flew out, everything flew out, even the chandelier fell. Everything was covered in glass," resident Olha Turina told The Associated Press at the scene. "Then there was an explosion. We barely found our things and ran out," she said.

Turina, whose husband is fighting on the front lines, said one of her child's classmates was missing. "I don't know where they are, I don't know if they are alive," she said. "I don't know why we have to go through all this. We never bothered anyone."

It was not clear what Russia was targeting in Friday's attacks though it has regularly struck civilian infrastructure, particularly energy facilities throughout the winter.

Beginning late last year, Russia launched such attacks roughly weekly, though they had tapered off as winter ended, with Western countries saying Moscow had used up much of its long-range missile arsenal in a failed bid to freeze Ukrainian cities.

One of the people killed in the Uman attack was a 75-year-old who was in her apartment in a neighbouring building and suffered internal bleeding from the shockwave of the blast, according to emergency personnel on the scene.

Three body bags lay next to the building as smoke continued to billow hours after the attack. Soldiers, civilians and emergency crews searched through the rubble outside for more victims, while residents dragged belongings out of the damaged building.

Moscow says it does not deliberately target civilians, but its airstrikes and shelling have killed thousands of people and devastated cities and towns across Ukraine. Kyiv says strikes on cities far from the front lines have no military purpose apart from intimidating and harming civilians, making them a war crime.

A 31-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter were also killed in the eastern city of Dnipro in another attack, regional governor Serhii Lysak said. Four people were also wounded, and a private home and business were damaged.

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 21 out of 23 cruise missiles fired by Russia.

"This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post alongside images of the wreckage. "And it will."

The capital Kyiv was also rocked by explosions, with officials reporting that air defence units had destroyed 11 missiles and two drones.

Two people were wounded in the town of Ukrayinka just south of Kyiv, officials said.