Kyiv, Ukraine - Russia fired dozens of missiles and drones at Ukraine on Wednesday in a "massive" early morning attack that killed at least five people and injured more than 30, officials in Kyiv said.

The latest wave of strikes came as the EU's top diplomat was in Kyiv, with Ukraine calling on its Western allies to ramp up supplies of much-needed military aid, including air defenses.

A strike on the capital city killed four people when a high-rise residential building was hit, triggering a large fire and engulfing its top floors in black smoke.

"Another massive attack against our country," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on social media.

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Missile and drone attacks were also recorded in the northeast and south of the country, as well as in the western Lviv region, hundreds of miles from the frontlines.

At least four people were killed in the hit to the residential building in Kyiv, while one person was killed in the southern Mykolaiv region, officials said.

Ukraine's commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny said Russia used drones, cruise, ballistic, and anti-aircraft missiles in the barrage.

At least 35 people were injured in Kyiv, the city administration said. Another three were injured in the Kyiv region and two in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Russia's defense ministry said later on Wednesday it had launched an aerial attack of missiles and drones against Ukrainian "military-industrial" facilities. It said its objectives had been achieved and all targets hit.

Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilian areas in Ukraine, despite several documented strikes on residential buildings and the United Nations saying at least 10,000 civilians – likely many more – have been killed since Russia invaded in February 2022.

The strike on an 18-storey residential building in Kyiv's southern Golosiivskyi district blew out windows across several floors, and sent dark smoke cascading into the sky from the destroyed facade.

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Some 60 people were evacuated, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said.

"There are probably dead people under the rubble," Klymenko had warned earlier.

As rescuers were working in Kyiv, Zelensky's top aide branded Russian President Vladimir Putin a "criminal" in a post on social media.

"Russian missiles. Kyiv. Again a residential building. This is what they spend their money on. Attacks on civilians. Ukraine needs help," Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said.

Zelensky said Ukraine would "certainly respond" to the strikes.