Russia admits striking Kyiv during UN chief's visit

Russia confirmed Friday that it carried out an air strike on Kyiv during a visit by the UN's secretary general, the first such attack on the Ukrainian capital in nearly two weeks, and in which a journalist also died.

Vera Gyrych, a producer for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was killed when a Russian missile hit the building where she lived, the media group said.

Russia's defence ministry said it had deployed "high-precision, long-range air-based weapons" that "destroyed the production buildings of the Artyom missile and space enterprise in Kyiv".

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a stronger global response to Thursday's strikes, which immediately followed his talks in the city with UN chief Antonio Guterres.

"It is unfortunate, but such a deliberate and brutal humiliation of the United Nations by Russia has gone unanswered," he said.

Germany said the "inhumane" attack showed Russian President Vladimir Putin has "no respect whatsoever for international law".

The powerful blast ripped out walls and doors, leaving piles of rubble on the ground. 

Ukrainian prosecutors said they had pinpointed more than 8,000 war crimes and were investigating 10 Russian soldiers for suspected atrocities in Bucha, where dozens of bodies in civilian clothes were found following Moscow's retreat. 

Three months into an invasion that failed in its short-term aim of capturing Kyiv, Russia is now intensifying operations in the eastern Donbas region and tightening its stranglehold on the devastated southern port city of Mariupol.

Ukrainian authorities said they planned to evacuate civilians on Friday from the besieged Azovstal steel plant, the last holdout in Mariupol where hundreds are sheltering with Ukrainian troops.