Ukraine shows diplomats damage after Russia's largest aerial attack since invasion

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Senior Ukrainian officials led 60 foreign diplomats on a tour of damaged government offices in the heart of Kyiv on Monday, a day after Russia’s largest aerial attack on Ukraine since its all-out invasion began more than three years ago.

Russia’s assault on Sunday involved more than 800 drones and decoys and occurred as months of U.S.-led peace efforts appear to be getting nowhere. Four people were killed, including a mother and her infant, as drones hit apartment buildings. A plume of smoke rose from the capital’s main government building where top officials have their offices.

It's believed to be the first time a Russian attack has struck the 10-story, Soviet-style building, which was built almost a century ago and has an imposing half-circle facade.

During the tour given to the diplomats, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko showed them burnt-out offices littered with charred debris.

Svyrydenko called the attack a “clear signal that Russia does not want peace and is openly mocking the diplomatic efforts of the civilized world.”

Another deadline by U.S. President Donald Trump, set in August, for the Kremlin to change course or face severe consequences has passed. Trump has shrunk from imposing more sanctions on Russia despite its onslaught and has blamed both sides in the war for the ongoing fighting, even though Ukraine is defending itself from the full-scale invasion launched by its bigger neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022.

Trump said Sunday that he expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the next couple of days and acknowledged that the conflict had proved harder to resolve than he anticipated.

Katarina Mathernova, the European Union ambassador to Ukraine who was on the Kyiv government building visit, said it took a direct hit from an Iskander ballistic missile that failed to explode.

“We were shown sizeable remnants of the actual missile. And a multitude of shrapnel coming from the cluster munition embedded in the Iskander,” Mathernova wrote in a Facebook post accompanied by picture of the missile.

Firefighters limited the blaze to three floors of the building, she said.

The Russian army apparently is unable to capture significant ground on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, meanwhile, though it has made creeping advances across rural areas.

Ukraine and European leaders are urging Washington to step up economic sanctions on Russia, whose war economy depends largely on crude oil exports, and on countries which buy its products.

A team of European officials, led by EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan, will visit the U.S. Treasury on Monday to discuss various forms of economic pressure to exert on Russia, including new sanctions, a person familiar with the meeting told The Associated Press. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the meeting.

Ukraine is unlikely to get any relief soon from the overnight bombardments, as Russia tries to grind down Ukrainians’ appetite for the war. Ukrainian officials and analysts have previously warned that Russia intends to escalate its barrages to include more than 1,000 drones per day before the end of the year.

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Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine