A Russian missile swooped past a shopping centre in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia before pummelling a residential apartment block.
A seven-storey flat complex was left a smoking wreck after the attack this morning in the southeastern city, which is where the Russia-controlled largest nuclear plant in Europe is also situated.
In stunning footage shared on social media, a missile darts past a building which is supporting a sign reading "CITY MALL" before a sudden explosion erupts from the second or third floor. In another video from an alternative angle, local residents look bewildered as they look up at their destroyed building.
Captioning one of the videos, President Volodymyr Zelensky said: "Zaporizhzhia. Right now, residential areas where ordinary people and children live are being fired at.
This must not become "just another day" in [Ukraine] or anywhere else in the world. The world needs greater unity and determination to defeat Russian terror faster and protect lives.
Russian state TV war reporter Andrey Rudenko said: “If it was our tactical missile, the building would have been destroyed.”
Andriy Yermak, who is the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, confirmed earlier that Zaporizhzhia is under attack this morning.
He wrote on Twitter: "Russians are barraging Zaporizhzhia.
"Residential buildings and Khortytsia island are under enemy fire."
The 12.5km-long island sits along the Dnieper River and is part of the Khortytsia National Park.
As Zaporizhzhia burned, Russia launched another series of attacks across the country, including on towns near Kyiv just hours after Japan's Prime Minister left the capital following a diplomatic visit to show Ukraine support.
A high school and two dormitories were partially destroyed in an overnight drone attack in the city of Rzhyshchiv, south of the Ukrainian capital, local officials said. It wasn't clear how many people were in the dormitories at the time.
The body of a 40-year-old man was pulled from the rubble on a dormitory's fifth floor, according to regional police chief Andrii Nebytov.
More than 20 people were hospitalized, Nebytov said, and a few others were unaccounted for.
Ukrainian air defenses downed 16 of the 21 drones launched by Russia, the Ukraine General Staff said. Eight of them were shot down near the capital, according to the city's military administration. Other drone attacks struck central-western Khmelnytskyi province.
The drone barrage and other Russian overnight attacks that struck civilian infrastructure drew a scathing response from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a day after Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed China's proposals for negotiating an end to the war.
"Over 20 Iranian murderous drones, plus missiles, numerous shelling occasions, and that's just in one last night of Russian terror," Zelenskyy wrote in English on Twitter.
"Every time someone tries to hear the word `peace' in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes," he wrote.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is the current chair of the Group of Seven countries, made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, throwing his support behind Zelenskyy's government as his Asian rival Xi sided with Putin.
After returning to Poland Wednesday morning, Kishida said he had expressed the "unwavering determination of solidarity" of Japan and G-7 to Ukraine during his talks with Zelenskyy.
Kishida's visit to Ukraine was "very meaningful" for Japan's future support for that country, Japan's top government spokesman said Wednesday.
"Through Prime Minister Kishida's visit to Ukraine, Japan was able to show not only to other members of the G-7 but also the international society including the Global South (nations) its determination to defend the rules-based international society," Hirokazu Matsuno said.
Kishida's visit snatched away some of the attention from Xi's trip to Moscow where he promoted Beijing's peace proposal for Ukraine, which Western nations had already dismissed as a way to consolidate Moscow's gains. Xi left Moscow early Wednesday.
The visits by Xi and Kishida, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) apart, highlighted how countries are lining up behind Moscow or Kyiv during the nearly 13-month-old war.
In a joint statement, Russia and China emphasized the need to "respect legitimate security concerns of all countries" to settle the conflict, echoing Moscow's argument that it sent in troops to prevent the U.S. and its NATO allies from turning the country into an anti-Russian bulwark.
Kishida, by contrast, called Russia's invasion a "disgrace that undermines the foundations of the international legal order" and pledged to "continue to support Ukraine until peace is back on the beautiful Ukrainian lands."
Ukraine's finance ministry said Wednesday said it has agreed with the International Monetary Fund on a $15.6 billion loan package aimed at shoring up Kyiv's finances.
Russia's invasion has crippled the economy, and Ukrainian officials hope the IMF deal will encourage their allies to provide financial support, too.
