A devastating night there, one of the worst nights for the capital since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Now we are hearing from Kyiv that 20 people were killed overnight in a wave of Russian drone and missile attacks.

Damage and fires were reported in several districts.

The city's mayor says more than 30 people have been taken to hospital after a drone damaged the top floor of an apartment building.

That overnight attack, one of the largest bombardments since the beginning of the full-scale invasion more than three years ago.

Joel Gunter reports now from the Ukrainian capital.

A wave of attacks against the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, among the worst since the full-scale invasion began.

Ukraine's air defence is overwhelmed by the sheer number of drones.

For nine hours, Russia pounded the city, through the night and into the morning.

Across the city, residents awoke on Tuesday to scenes of destruction.

This is the scene of one of the worst strikes on Kyiv last night.

A ballistic missile slammed into the building behind me at 4am, destroying a huge section of it.

Residents here told us the impact felt like the entire building was shattering to pieces.

Just one of many scenes like this across the capital this morning.

Student Ilya was asleep inside when the missile hit.

He escaped the burning building in a panic, he said, only wearing his underwear and T-shirt.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko was at the scene of the strike this morning to see the destruction.

He told the BBC the attacks amounted to terrorism against civilians.

Russia needs to be stopped from carrying out these terrorist attacks.

We need to set conditions for Russia so that it cannot wage this war.

As world leaders meet today at the G7, for Ukraine, the intensity of these strikes will underscore the desperate need for ongoing support.

Jogun Tuzarin, Kyiv.

We're with me now is our news reporter Olga Malcheska.

She's from Kyiv and she's been talking to the city mayor's office along with locals in the part of the city which has been affected.

What's the mayor's office been telling you, Olga, after this devastating night?

Well they're trying to count obviously the people who are not with us anymore and they just told me that they managed to pull out from under the rubble five more bodies but it's not really clear if it adds to the total dust or if it is just a part from...

We have some live pictures that we've been showing our viewers and you can see an operation underway there and what has been really heartbreaking, Olga, throughout the morning is to see the families of people who have been killed or might be buried just standing there watching to see what is going on.

Just an awful day for the city.

Absolutely.

I was just seeing a couple, a mother and a father who were sitting right next to the scene and trying to wait for their child who was still under the rubble.

Obviously such images are quite devastating.

But I've also been talking to the locals and my classmates sent me a couple of images.

That is something people woke up to today in the morning, well to be fair they didn't really sleep but that's what they saw from their windows and if we can show those stills right now I can talk around them.

Basically you can see that there is not a filter, that is how Kiev looked like in the morning and that is created by the smoke from the missiles attack and drone attack and that is somewhere very close to where I used to live and as you know my home had been bombed earlier around that area as well.

Someone, a small child there sleeping in a corridor, this is where people go to stay safe?

Yes, there is a boy, primary school boy, his name is Zahar and his parents put him in the corridor because they thought that if there is a drone attack then people believe in Kiev that it is possible to survive if you sleep between two walls as they say, that is the so-called rule of the two walls.

So people try to put their children to the bathroom or in the corridor because they say if the drone is attacking then it blows up while it is approaching or during the first contact with any surface so if someone is hiding between two walls it is still possible to survive because as you see those buildings it is quite difficult to go down to the basement.

Well there is not time either, often is there, you only have a few minutes and sometimes a shelter can be 15 minutes or less.

Exactly, so if you are somewhere on the 10th floor you have no chance really to go down to the basement, even if there is a basement but in those old Soviet blocks of flats or quite new blocks of flats they don't really have those basements where people can hide so that is the only opportunity they have is to hide in the corridor.

And Olga, no one slept obviously, it was such a horrible noisy night, everyone is sleep deprived.

Are people also thinking of leaving Kiev, is that an option?

Well I have a shadow of those attacks as my friends told me so the attack started at 9pm then it lasted till 6am, you can imagine that it is not possible to get any sleep but people do try to sleep because it happens pretty much every night.

Then there were two hours of sort of relative peace and then from 8am it started again and then they just had to get up and go to work or do whatever they need to do.

And Olga, people will be hearing of course in Ukraine that President Trump has left early from the G7, he has gone back to deal with the Middle East so he is not meeting with President Zelensky so this puts President Zelensky again in a really difficult position that he is not able to have an incredibly important meeting with President Trump to ask for more support, to ask for Patriot missiles.

Yes, exactly and obviously everyone in Kiev and across Ukraine are watching it quite closely but also people understand that there is very little chance that the help is coming and they have to sort of adjust to that reality and the reality is that you can't take out three million people even just from Kiev and imagine Ukraine is over 40 million people so where would all those people go and you asked me earlier if people are considering leaving that place, well some of them do consider but also they consider where would they go and how would they manage to survive, they also have their children, they have their jobs so even if they would consider there is not really much chance to go somewhere so they have to stay.

Difficult day, difficult one for you too Olga, thank you.

Thank you so much.