Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

Image source, EPA

For the first time since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, a government building in Kyiv has been struck by a Russian drone.

The damage - which led to a fire breaking out in the cabinet of ministers building - was part of a wave of 805 drones and 13 missiles sent to Ukraine overnight, according to the country's air force.

Although the air force says it shot down 751 of these, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that four people were killed, and a further 44 injured.

After the so-called "coalition of the willing" met to finalise security guarantees for Ukraine this week, Zelensky urged his allies to "implement everything agreed" at the summit.

Russia says it only targeted military and related infrastructure in the strikes, but local police say a 32-year-old-mother and her two month-old son died after a residential block was hit in Kyiv.

On the ground, our correspondent in Kyiv has been speaking to residents of a block that was hit, who say they didn't have time to shelter before the strike.

We're closing our live coverage there, but our news story will be kept updated with any developments.

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, four people have been killed in Ukraine following Russia's overnight strikes. In Kyiv, that includes an infant, who was killed alongside his mother after a drone strike hit residential buildings.

And, speaking in a translated interview with Reuters news agency, 24-year-old Roman describes how he was woken up by explosions.

"Then the second or third Shahed drone hit the building where I live. And the building was severely damaged," he explains.

While his section was not directly hit, Roman says his windows face the side of the building that the drone struck. "So I could see and hear everything", he recalls.

Image source, Reuters

Oleksii, who lives in the same building, tells Reuters that the "first Shahed drone hit somewhere close which made me nervous. So I went to check on my wife and baby. And that was when Shahed drone hit a building nearby."

"I heard it descending which was then followed by an explosion, spark, and glass shards and curtains fell on us," he says.

"I was very scared," he recalls. "We packed and went to the corridor. It all happened very unexpectedly. It was very hard to get over it."

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region says at least three civilians were killed in Ukrainian strikes on Saturday.

In the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, a civilian died as a result of a drone detonation, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov writes in a Telegram post, adding that four more people were injured.

The attack damaged houses, an outbuilding and an administrative building in various areas across the region, he says.

It's just passed 16:00 in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned the wave of Russian strikes across the country that has killed four people and left more than 44 injured.

The latest images from the country show rescuers and residents inspecting the damage after residential buildings were targeted.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

Image source, Facebook/Reuters

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko shares a photo from inside the government building gutted by fire.

"For the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion, the Russians have hit the cabinet of ministers building, where all our team works. Thankfully, no one has been injured. The fire has been put out. I thank the rescuers. Russian terror will not stop the government's work," she says.

"It is obvious that russia does not want peace," she says, deliberately writing the country's name in lowercase. Many Ukrainians have done this in written speech since the start of the invasion as a sign of disdain for Russia.

The prime minister calls for "more air defence systems" and further sanctions on Russia to "reduce resources available for the Russian military machine".

"All this is realistic - you've got the leverage in your hands," she concludes.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he is "appalled" by Russia's "brutal" overnight attack on Kyiv.

"For the first time, the heart of Ukraine's civilian government was damaged," Starmer says. "These cowardly strikes show that Putin believes he can act with impunity. He is not serious about peace."

"Now, more than ever, we must stand firm in our support for Ukraine and its sovereignty," he adds.

Starmer is one of several European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who are condemning the attacks.

Sarah Rainsford
Eastern Europe correspondent

Image source, Reuters

This was a massive Russian attack: the biggest of the war so far.

Hundreds of drones were launched at Ukraine in waves and then followed up with missiles.

We saw and heard two of those roaring overhead, in the city centre. It’s the best defended space in this country but for the first time, a government building was hit – probably by a drone.

The fire on the top floors sent a big plume of smoke up over the city.

Further out, in a residential area, another drone hit a block of flats, killing a young woman and her two-month-old son.

I met her neighbours - in shock among the ruins – and they described being woken by multiple blasts. They had no time to reach shelter. Russia’s attacks have escalated in recent weeks, which is why people here get angry when you mention Vladimir Putin and peace talks.

Donald Trump calls him a good guy, one pensioner told me today… If he really were good, she said then this war to destroy Ukraine would never have started.

Earlier today, Defence Secretary John Healey spoke about Russia's strikes last night in Ukraine and the state of a potential peace deal on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Healey says that despite Putin entertaining peace talks with US President Donald Trump in Alaska, the Russian president continues to intensify his attacks against Ukraine.

The defence secretary was in Kyiv this week and says he saw the "damage" in the city.

But Russia's continuous barrage hasn't deterred Ukrainians who are "determined" to keep fighting Putin's illegal invasion, says Healey, adding that the UK has a role to coordinate with other nations to ensure they "step up military aid" and secure peace for Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says four people were killed across his country due to Russian strikes.

At least 44 others were injured, the Ukrainian president says in a post on X.

Emergency services are still responding to the aftermath of Russia's "ruthless" air attack last night, Zelensky adds.

Image source, Getty Images

Let's turn back to Ukraine's allies, who have reiterated their condemnation of Russia's aggression.

EU Council President António Costa accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of not only having started the war, when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Kyiv in 2022, but also "choosing to continue it".

"We must stay the course: strengthen Ukraine’s defences and step up pressure on Russia through additional sanctions, in close coordination with our allies and partners," Costa adds.

Norway calls on the pressure on Russia to "stop this aggression" to increase. The country's foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, has condemned the overnight strikes, saying that "once again, civilians suffer".

"The attacks highlight the urgent need for a ceasefire," Finland's foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, says.

Spain adds to the widespread condemnation, with foreign minister José Manuel Albares offering his solidarity to the families of those killed and injured, as well as with the Ukrainian government and its people.

Since Russian troops began an incursion on Ukraine in February 2022, fighting for the territory has ground on.

Over the past year, Russia has slowly expanded the amount of territory it controls, mostly in the east of Ukraine.

In the east: Moscow's war machine has been churning mile by mile through the wide open fields of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions - also known as the Donbas - surrounding and overwhelming villages and towns.

It has been trying to gain full control of the area along with two more regions to the west - Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Shortly after the invasion, Russia held referendums to try to annexe all these regions - in the same way it had annexed Crimea in 2014 - but it has never had them under full control.

A Russian summer offensive had been progressing slowly, until troops made a sudden thrust near the eastern town of Dobropillya, advancing 10km (six miles) in a short period of time.

This rapid advance took place just north of the town of Pokrovsk, described as the hottest spot on the front line at this point of the war.

Further north: Russia has been pushing towards Kupyansk in east of the Kharkiv region, as part of its efforts to capture the whole of Luhansk and encircle northern Donetsk.

Recent analysis of the area by the Institute for the Study of War shows Russia has advanced near Vovchansk and Lyptsi as it tries to create a buffer zone inside Ukraine's northern borders and get within artillery range of Kharkiv.

• Our visual journalism team has all the maps tracking the Ukraine conflict here

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

Image source, Na Chasi

Not everything is what it seems in the Russia-Ukraine war.

A 2023 video spread on pro-Russian social media channels apparently showed a drone destroying a Ukrainian tank.

But a video followed soon after with Ukrainian footage showing a laughing soldier pointing at the burning wreckage and exclaiming: "They've hit my wooden tank!"

The tank in question appears to be a plywood decoy used by the Ukrainian forces to deceive the Russians.

It is one of many thousands of full-scale models of military equipment used by both Ukraine and Russia to trick the enemy into wasting valuable ammunition, time and effort.

Among the most popular decoys used by the Ukrainian army are models of the British-made M777 howitzers.

One volunteer tells me that his volunteer group Na Chasi alone has made and supplied about 160 models of M777s - he says they take just three minutes, two people and no tools to assemble on the front line.

• Our BBC Monitoring Russia editor's news story has more on how anything seen on the frontline - even soldiers themselves - may be fake

Russia's defence ministry says that its overnight strikes targeted sites related to Ukraine's military-industrial complex and transport infrastructure.

These included weapon and military equipment warehouses, military airfields, and places where long-range unmanned aerial vehicles are stored and launched, it says.

Sarah Rainsford
Eastern Europe correspondent in Kyiv

I’ve been talking to residents of the building that was hit by a drone this morning and they’re in shock, of course, but they’re also very angry - at Russia.

One woman, Elena, described hearing a drone overhead then multiple explosions before part of the building went up in flames.

“The blasts all came quickly, one after another. We didn’t have time to get to shelter. We weren’t ready for this. We thought it would pass over us. But not this time,” she says, watching the rescue workers pick through the rubble of her home.

“This was the biggest drone attack so far,” her partner, Artem, points out. “It’s terrorism. Against civilians.”

Valentina and her husband were fast asleep when the drone strike shattered their windows and covered them in glass.

“At least we’re alive,” the pensioner told me, deeply saddened by the death of a young woman neighbour with her tiny baby.

People here say the family had only just moved into the apartment. The woman’s husband is in hospital, badly hurt.

Valentina wants me to film the destruction. “Show them what the Russians do here, and how they want peace,” she says.

“Trump says Putin is a good guy - but if it weren’t for that “good guy”, there’d be no war here. He wants to destroy Ukraine completely.”

Image source, Reuters

European leaders have rallied around Ukraine following Russia's strike on Kyiv's main government building.

"Solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people," writes French President Emmanuel Macron as he condemns Russia's drone and missile attacks on Ukraine overnight. Macron accuses Russia of "locking itself ever deeper into the logic of war and terror."

Latvia's President Edgars Rinkēvičs accused Russia of continuing to escalate the conflict, "by aggressively attacking civilian infrastructure" in Ukraine.

"The message is clear - Kremlin wants war, not peace," Rinkēvičs says, adding that the response "must be more weapons to Ukraine, more pressure on Russia."

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen accuses the Kremlin of "mocking diplomacy, trampling international law and killing indiscriminately". She reiterated that "Europe stands, and will continue to stand, fully behind Ukraine".

Moldova's leader, Maia Sandu, says Russia is offering the world "tons of lies and thousands of missiles that kill civilians indiscriminately". Sandu condemned the strikes in Kyiv and said Moldova "stands firmly with Ukraine against this terror".

Image source, Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

The circumstances around the hit to Ukraine's main government building amid Russian attacks remain unclear.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko suggested a drone may have accidentally hit the Cabinet of Ministers building after being intercepted.

“In Pechersk district, a fire broke out in a government building as a result of an UAV possibly being shot down,” he wrote on Telegram.

We'll bring you more details as we have them.

Sarah Rainsford
Southern and Eastern Europe Correspondent in Kyiv

In Kyiv, a fire has been put out at a giant block of flats, revealing a blackened, smashed-up section of building where a woman and her baby son were killed this morning.

Emergency workers are up in the ruins, tethered to a crane, trying to make the place safe - possibly still searching for bodies. All around there are residents of the building with just the few belongings they grabbed as the drone hit - along with their pets. I have seen lots of people in their slippers.

In three and a half years of war there have been so many strikes like this, and now the authorities’ response is swift. There are volunteers with tents offering free hot food and psychologists on standby for all those struggling to take in what’s happened and their loss.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko says that 20 people, including a pregnant woman, were injured in the attacks. Seven were taken to hospital, including the pregnant woman, while the others were treated at the scene, he says.

Two deaths have been confirmed so far in the city, Klitschko says - a young woman and her two-month-old son.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing, he adds.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

More details are coming in of Russian attacks across Ukraine overnight.

President Zelensky's home city of Kryvyy Rih was attacked with ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones, says local administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.

"It was a hard night," he says on social media as transport infrastructure, businesses, an industrial facility, an educational establishment and about a dozen blocks of flats were damaged and three people were injured.

In Nikopol, a town south-east of Kryvyy Rih, one civilian was killed and another injured, Vilkul adds.

In Kremenchuk, central Poltava region, a bridge across the Dnieper river was hit and an administrative building was targeted elsewhere in the region, the local authorities say. They add that no casualties have been reported after the attacks.

The southern port city of Odesa and surrounding areas came under a drone attack, too. Civilian infrastructure and residential buildings were damaged, the local administration says.

Image source, Getty Images

After her husband urged allies to act, Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska has condemned last night's "record breaking" attack on her country.

Writing on social media, she says that overnight "a record-breaking 800 drones flew at peaceful cities, residential buildings and infrastructure".

She adds that these strikes "took innocent lives" with shelling continuing into the morning.

"Today, Ukrainians are united in grief and in their strength to support each other," she writes.