KYIV, Ukraine — Russia pummeled Ukraine’s capital with hundreds of drones and missiles early Thursday, the latest in a string of deadly Russian strikes this week. The attacks suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin had little intention of de-escalating his war, after he declared recently that he believed it was “coming to a close.”
Explosions shook Kyiv, the capital, over several hours Thursday morning as Ukrainian forces tried to intercept and shoot down the drones and missiles, some of which evaded overwhelmed air-defense systems. The attack included cruise and ballistic missiles that Moscow often stockpiles for mass bombardments.
Russia launched a total of 1,428 drones and decoys into Ukraine between 8 a.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Thursday, by far the largest sustained daylong drone attack against Ukrainian cities during the war, according to a data set maintained by The New York Times, based on numbers from the Ukrainian air force.
As the sun rose, rescue teams searched for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed residential building in Kyiv, where the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said 18 apartments had been destroyed. At least seven people were killed, including a 12-year-old girl. Dozens of others were wounded, including a month-old baby, Klitschko said.
The early-morning bombardment came after several other deadly Russian attacks across Ukraine this week, including a wave of daytime drone strikes Wednesday that killed at least six people.
“These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media after the strikes.
By afternoon, as more bodies were recovered, teenagers from Kyiv School 237 were still holding out hope that their classmate Masha would be found alive.
The students, in baggy pants and hoodies, took turns hugging each other and wiping away tears as dusty rescue workers sifted through the remains of Masha’s home.
She lived on the seventh floor, her best friend, Laura Cherniavska, 14, said as she leaned on her mother. The girls had known each other since first grade.
Masha is shorter than the rest, and always smiling, the students said. She has long hair and blue eyes. A talented dancer, she was scheduled to perform a special waltz at prom later this month, they said.
The girl’s mother, the students said, was in the hospital in critical condition. She had been rescued with the help of another teenager, Ivan Zakharchuk.
Zakharchuk, 18, lives nearby and rushed to the scene to check on friends just after the strike around 4 a.m. He said he found a pile of smoking rubble where the corner of a nine-story apartment building had been. Even as warnings blared about further strikes, he climbed through the wreckage, putting his ear to the debris to listen for voices of anyone trapped below.
He and other volunteers heard a woman’s screams and frantically tried to dig her out from different angles. When they finally lifted heavy blocks of cement off her legs, she stopped screaming, Zakharchuk said.
An emergency worker instructed him to keep speaking to her to try to keep her conscious, he said. His lungs were filling with smoke. He touched the woman’s legs so she would know that she wasn’t alone, Zakharchuk said. When the workers reached her waist and hand, the sight of her half-buried body made him feel sick, and the workers told him he could leave.
He got some fresh air, then returned to keep clearing debris. He knew that Masha, as well as her father and grandmother, were still missing.
All the while, dogs trained to identify survivors and others trained to find the dead were climbing through the rubble or waiting for their turn. One, wounded from the search, sat in a van shaking with his right paw wrapped.
The scene was painfully familiar to Ukrainians, who already doubted any claims by Putin that the war was close to an end.
Last week, Russia threatened a devastating attack on Kyiv if Ukraine were to disrupt its annual May 9 parade in Moscow, which marks the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.
President Donald Trump then announced a three-day truce between Russia and Ukraine, which briefly halted long-range attacks from either side even as fighting on the front line continued.
Ukraine did not attack the parade in Moscow, which took place as planned, if toned down compared with those in years past. After the commemorations, Putin, referring to the war in Ukraine, told journalists, “I believe the matter is coming to a close.” But he also said Russia “must focus its attention on the final defeat of the enemy” and gave no indication that he would modify his demands with a view toward ending the war.
When the truce expired Monday, widespread strikes quickly resumed.
This story was originally published at nytimes.com. Read it here.