President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Friday for Moscow to be punished after ‌laying red roses at the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building where a Russian missile strike killed 24 people, including three children.

Rescue workers ended search operations at the devastated building, which was struck this week during ​Russia’s heaviest air attack on the Ukrainian capital this year.

“Our first responders … worked non-stop ​for more than a day,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app after visiting ⁠the site of the attack in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, on the left bank of the ​Dnipro river, placing flowers and talking to rescue workers.

“The Russians practically levelled an entire section of ​the building with their missile,” he said.

Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, launched more than 1,500 drones and dozens of missiles in attacks across Ukraine this week over two consecutive days, Ukrainian officials said.

Six ​people were killed in the attacks on Wednesday in western Ukraine, far from the front line.

“A ​Russia like this can never be normalised – a Russia that deliberately destroys lives and hopes to remain unpunished. ‌Pressure ⁠is needed,” Zelenskiy said, reiterating appeals to allies to help Ukraine strengthen its air defences.

DAY OF MOURNING IN KYIV

Kyiv officials announced a day of mourning on Friday to honour the victims, with national flags at half-mast across the city of three million people.

All entertainment events were cancelled ​or postponed.

The Interior Ministry said ​the search and ⁠rescue operation at the apartment building lasted more than 28 hours, and hundreds of rescuers sifted through 3,000 cubic meters of rubble.

City officials said 24 ​bodies had been recovered from the rubble and about 30 people had ​been rescued ⁠alive.

Nearly 50 people were wounded, and about 400 people required psychological support, the interior ministry said.

Zelenskiy has said that, according to initial analysis, a recently manufactured Russian Kh-101 missile struck the building.

Russia ⁠did not ​immediately comment on the strike on the apartment building. Moscow ​denies deliberately targeting civilians, but during more than four years of war, it has frequently hit residential buildings and other ​civilian infrastructure in airstrikes across Ukraine.