(CNN) Russia unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on cities across Ukraine on Wednesday as Chinese leader Xi Jinping left Moscow after talks with President Vladimir Putin.
Xi left the Russian capital with a promise to deepen ties with Putin, but the meetings failed to bring a breakthrough in Ukraine.
As Xi flew back to Beijing, the Russian military launched a spate of attacks using Iranian-made Shahed drones on Ukraine’s Kiev region, killing at least eight people, according to Ukrainian authorities. Andrii Niebytov, the police chief of the Kyiv region, said seven others were injured when a drone hit a dormitory building in the city of Rzhyshchiv.
In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, at least one person was killed and 34 injured – including two children – after Russian missiles hit apartment blocks in what was described as a “deliberate strike” to “kill civilians,” according to senior Ukrainian official and presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak.
Video of the attack shows an explosion punching through the side of two nine-story apartment buildings.
Prosecutors of Ukraine said in a statement at least six rockets hit the city, causing extensive damage.
“One of the rockets fell between two high-rise buildings, partially destroying apartments and balconies, damaging roofs and shattering windows,” the statement said. “The blast and debris also damaged other nearby residential buildings, cars and other civilian infrastructure in the city.”
A residential building damaged by a Russian missile attack in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, on March 22.
‘We are not afraid’
A 20-year-old student, Kyrylo Chorniy, was in the block of flats a few meters from where the blast hit.
He used a flashlight to point out his apartment and told CNN outside the complex that he “heard an explosion and saw a fire.”
Inside, all the windows are blown out. Chorniy said his father was standing by a window when the blast took place and narrowly avoided being killed. Despite this, Chorniy and his parents say they will not be evicted from their home.
“We’re mostly angry. We’re not scared. Why should we be? It’s our home,” he said. “I’ll sleep in my bed. My parents will sleep in their beds. It’s going to be a bit cold because we don’t have windows, but we’re not going anywhere.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “bestial ferocity” on social media app Telegram and later said Wednesday’s wave of Russian attacks would be met with a response from Ukraine.
“All Russian attacks will be answered militarily, politically and legally,” he said. “Russia will lose this war.”
The Biden administration on Wednesday did not accuse Russia of targeting civilians with rocket attacks in Zaporizhia, but said it was “certainly” consistent with previous such attacks.
“It’s obviously totally out of Russia’s playbook to target civilian infrastructure with no regard for avoiding targeting civilians,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications.
A look at CCTV footage from the moment of a rocket attack in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on March 22, in this screenshot taken from a social media video.
Zelensky visits front lines
Ukraine’s Air Force said Wednesday’s attacks included a volley of 21 drones fired from the north into Ukraine, of which it shot down 16.
The attacks came as Zelenskyy made an unannounced visit to Ukrainian troops on the front lines in the eastern Donbass region, where some of the fiercest fighting with Russian forces is raging.
Video released by the Ukrainian Presidential Office shows Zelenskyy presenting medals to soldiers in Kharkiv and visiting wounded soldiers in a hospital near the frontline in the Donetsk region.
Some of the injured helped defend the city of Bakhmut in a month-long struggle to deter Russian troops from the strategically important city. According to the Ukrainian military, Moscow forces are using large numbers of men to recapture Bakhmut and the offensive capacity of Russian troops in and around the city is decreasing.
“It is staggering to look at the cities of Donbass, to which Russia has brought terrible suffering and ruin,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Wednesday.
“Right there, in the Donbass, in the Kharkiv region – wherever the Russian evil came from, it is obvious that the terrorist state can only be stopped by one thing – our victory.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes hands with a Ukrainian soldier during his visit to the Bakhmut front in Donetsk region, Ukraine March 22.
Xi’s journey does not create a path to peace
Wednesday’s wave of attacks in Ukraine came as Putin hosted his Chinese counterpart in Moscow after a three-day state visit touted by Beijing as a peacekeeping mission, but failed to make any breakthrough in resolving the conflict.
Both leaders called for a cessation of actions that “increase tensions” and “prolong” the war, according to their joint statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry. The statement failed to recognize that the Russian invasion and military attack was at the root of the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
In recent weeks, China appeared to be positioning itself as a peace broker for Ukraine, revealing its position on a “political solution” to the conflict and calling for a ceasefire and peace talks.
But the proposal was viewed as a failure in the West and in Kiev because it contains no provision for Moscow to withdraw its troops from Ukrainian lands.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said a ceasefire would “simply freeze” the conflict and give Russia time to “prepare and come back with its only wish, the wish of its leader — to occupy our country.”
CNN’s Ivan Watson, Vasco Cotovio, Victoria Butenko and Simone McCarthy contributed coverage.