Russian strike kills 25 amid Zelensky Turkey bid

TERNOPIL:

A Russian strike in western Ukraine on Wednesday killed at least 25 people including three children, ripping the top floors off a block of flats, as an attempt by President Volodymyr Zelensky to revive the peace process with talks in Turkey fell flat.

US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff did not travel to Turkey and Zelensky walked away from talks he had hoped would "reinvigorate" diplomacy with little to show.

The attack on the city of Ternopil was the deadliest for weeks and the worst in the west of the country — far from the front line — since Moscow invaded in 2022.

AFP saw dozens of rescuers searching through rubble after cruise missiles slammed into apartment blocks, using cranes to get to the destroyed building. Thick grey smoke engulfed the streets just after explosions were heard at 7:00 am.

Ternopil officials reported the fires had caused chlorine levels in the air to spike to six times the norm, and called on the city's 200,000 residents to stay home and close their windows.

Rescuers dangled on cabins hanging from cranes trying to reach the top of the stricken Soviet-era apartment block.

Wrapped in a pink blanket, 46-year-old Oksana waited for news of her 20-year-old son, Bohdan.

"I went to work, and my son stayed at home. I called him from the minibus and said 'Bohdan, get dressed and come out'," she said. "He said: 'Mum, don't worry, everything will be fine.' But it was too late. That's it," she told AFP.

Her sister, Natalia Bachinska, said the family lived on the ninth floor.

"Their apartment is completely gone... He still has not been found."