KYIV, Ukraine, Sept 8, (AP): Senior Ukrainian officials led 60 foreign diplomats on a tour of damaged government offices in the heart of Kyiv on Monday, a day after Russia’s largest aerial attack on Ukraine since its all-out invasion began more than three years ago. Russia’s assault on Sunday involved more than 800 drones and decoys and occurred as months of US-led peace efforts appear to be getting nowhere.

Four people were killed, including a mother and her infant, as drones hit apartment buildings. A plume of smoke rose from the capital’s main government building where top officials have their offices. It's believed to be the first time a Russian attack has struck the 10-story, Soviet-style building, which was built almost a century ago and has an imposing half-circle facade.

During the tour given to the diplomats, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko showed them burnt-out offices littered with charred debris. Svyrydenko called the attack a "clear signal that Russia does not want peace and is openly mocking the diplomatic efforts of the civilized world.”

Another deadline by US President Donald Trump, set in August, for the Kremlin to change course or face severe consequences has passed. Trump has shrunk from imposing more sanctions on Russia despite its onslaught and has blamed both sides in the war for the ongoing fighting, even though Ukraine is defending itself from the full-scale invasion launched by its bigger neighbor on Feb 24, 2022.

Trump said Sunday that he expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the next couple of days and acknowledged that the conflict had proved harder to resolve than he anticipated. Katarina Mathernova, the European Union ambassador to Ukraine who was on the Kyiv government building visit, said it took a direct hit from an Iskander ballistic missile that failed to explode.

"We were shown sizeable remnants of the actual missile. And a multitude of shrapnel coming from the cluster munition embedded in the Iskander,” Mathernova wrote in a Facebook post accompanied by picture of the missile. Firefighters limited the blaze to three floors of the building, she said. The Russian army apparently is unable to capture significant ground on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, meanwhile, though it has made creeping advances across rural areas.