Kyiv, Ukraine - A "massive" Russian missile attack on Kyiv on Thursday killed at least nine and wounded dozens in one of the deadliest strikes on the Ukrainian capital since Moscow launched its invasion more than three years ago.

Ukraine has been battered by Russian aerial attacks through the war, but deadly strikes on Kyiv, which is better protected by air defenses, are less common.

The attacks throw yet more doubt on already fraught US efforts to push Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, hours after President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky for refusing to accept Moscow's occupation of the Crimean peninsula as a condition for peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is yet to respond to Zelensky's offer to completely halt air attacks on civilian targets, and last month rejected a US-Ukrainian call for a full and unconditional ceasefire.

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"It has been 44 days since Ukraine agreed to a full ceasefire and a halt to strikes. This was a proposal from the United States. And it has been 44 days of Russia continuing to kill our people and evading tough pressure and accountability for its actions," Zelensky said on X.

"It is extremely important that everyone around the world sees and understands what is really happening. Nearly 70 missiles, including ballistic ones. And about 150 attack drones."

Loud blasts had sounded over the Ukrainian capital at around 1:00 AM local time after air raid sirens rang out across Kyiv warning residents to head to shelters, AFP journalists on the ground said.

Through the night, rescue workers were scouring through the rubble of destroyed buildings and tackling blazes in apartment blocks. The interior ministry said damage was recorded at 13 separate locations across the capital.

At least nine people were killed and more than 60 wounded, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.

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Six children were among 42 people hospitalized, it added.

"Phone calls can be heard from under the rubble – the search will continue until we are confident that we have found everyone," Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said, adding that two children were unaccounted for.

In the Sviatoshinsky district in the west of Kyiv, an AFP journalist saw a body bag with one of the victims lain out on a strip of grass.

Construction equipment was being used nearby to clear piles of debris from a destroyed building, and roofs and windows had been blown off an apartment block.

A woman sat on a small folded-out chair stroking the arm of another person killed in the attack, the body covered in a striped blue sheet.

Kyiv was last hit by missiles in early April when at least three people were wounded, and the capital has been targeted in sporadic attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Moscow's army has launched some of its most deadly and brazen aerial strikes at Ukraine over the last month, defying Trump's push to bring about a rapid end to the bloodshed.