Russia strikes Kyiv as Zelensky wages peace diplomacy in New York

Russia has stepped up its assault on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv even as the UN General Assembly is underway. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been meeting with US President Donald Trump and other world leaders in New York, pressing for greater international pressure on Moscow.

Zelensky said on social media that Russia launched a ballistic missile strike on Kyiv overnight.

Twenty explosions were heard across the capital after Ukraine's air force issued a warning. Civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, a maternity hospital and a logistics facility were among the targets hit, according to officials. Ukraine's air force said the attack involved hypersonic and ballistic missiles as well as drones.

Kyiv authorities said two civilians were killed and eight others wounded. One of the fatalities died in the parking lot of the maternity hospital damaged in the strike. Six more people were killed in a separate Russian attack in the Kharkiv region.

At least seven people were killed across Ukraine in Russian attacks on Wednesday, with fires breaking out in multiple locations. Poland, which shares a border with Ukraine, scrambled fighter jets that day to protect areas near its border from the Russian assault.

"Russia launched its attack at the very moment I was in the United States meeting with members of Congress to discuss the need for tougher sanctions against Russia," Zelensky said.

Zelensky focused his efforts at the UN General Assembly, which opened in New York on Tuesday, on a broad diplomatic push to end the war. He met with Trump, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging stronger pressure on Russia and support for air defense systems. He also pledged political, economic and diplomatic cooperation with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Trump, speaking to reporters ahead of his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to "end the war." Zelensky said on Wednesday that Ukraine was ready for a truce in the Black Sea — a key grain export route — under which both sides would halt attacks, and called on Russia to respond.