STORY: Russia unleashed heavy airstrikes on Ukraine, Thursday.Officials say at least two people were killed and 23 wounded in the attacks on Kyiv.It came before the Rome conference on Ukraine's reconstruction,

Kyiv was the main target of an hourslong assault that killed at least two people, officials said. The barrage came hours before the top American and Russian diplomats met.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio emerged from a 40-minute meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday with an acknowledgment that talks between Moscow and Kyiv for peace in Ukraine have not progressed much.

The Russian attack followed President Donald Trump’s increasingly sharp criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and promise to restore arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Russia launched a large-scale aerial assault on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday, marking a second consecutive night of ferocious attacks on the country, as Russia ramps up its bombardment more than three years into the war.

The latest assault included more drones in a single night than Russia used in the entire month of July last year.

The Vatican's embassy in Kyiv was slightly damaged during Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday morning, the embassy said in a statement. "During yet another attack on the city of Kyiv

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, topping previous nightly barrages for the third time in two weeks, part of Moscow’s intensifying aerial and ground assault in the three-year war, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.