KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles hit three Ukrainian cities, including the two largest, on Tuesday, killing at least seven people and destroying homes, after Moscow rejected any deal backed by Kiev and its Western allies to end the nearly two-year war.

Officials reported the barrage included more than 40 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and guided missiles. According to the United Nations, it appeared to be the heaviest bombardment since early January, when hundreds of Ukrainian civilians were killed. The Ukrainian Air Force, whose defenses include Western-supplied systems, said it intercepted 21 of the missiles.

The attacks are keeping Ukrainians on tenterhooks while the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line has barely moved. The inability of both sides to achieve major successes on the battlefield has pushed the fighting towards trench and artillery warfare. Analysts say Russia stockpiled missiles late last year to fuel a winter campaign of airstrikes.

The recent Russian bombings are “an alarming reversal” of a trend over the last year that saw a decline in civilian casualties from Kremlin attacks, the United Nations said.

According to the United Nations, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 20,000 injured since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The attack on Tuesday in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, killed six people and injured 57, including eight children, according to the United Nations. The rockets damaged about 30 residential buildings and shattered hundreds of windows in freezing weather, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

Russia used S-300, Kh-32 and hypersonic Iskander missiles in the attack, he said.

A five-story residential building was apparently directly hit by several rockets at dawn, the UN human rights mission in Ukraine said in a statement.

An unknown number of people were trapped in the rubble as the temperature fell to minus seven degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit), Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Kharkiv, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border, often bore the brunt of Russia’s winter campaign with long-range attacks that often hit civilian areas.

Four districts of Kiev were attacked, with at least 20 people injured, including a 13-year-old boy, according to Mayor Vitalii Klitschko. Officials corrected initial reports that a civilian had been killed in the capital, saying the wounded person was hospitalized on life support.

UN staff visited a Kiev neighborhood with a damaged residential building, a school, a sports center and a kindergarten.

A rocket also killed a 43-year-old woman and damaged two schools and eight high-rise buildings in Pavlohrad, an industrial city in the eastern Dnipro region, the country’s presidential office said.

In Balakliia in the Kharkiv region, an 88-year-old man and a 78-year-old woman were rescued from the rubble of a house after Russian shelling, it said.

In the south, Russia attacked the city of Beryslaw with drones, killing a 69-year-old man on a motorcycle.

The prospect of an early end to the war seemed slim. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defied the United States and other Ukraine supporters at a U.N. meeting on Monday, rejecting any peace plan they supported.

Lavrov claimed that Ukrainian forces had “completely failed” on the battlefield and were “incapable” of defeating Russia.

On Sunday, Moscow-deployed officials in eastern Ukraine claimed that a shelling by Kiev had killed 27 people on the outskirts of Russian-occupied Donetsk.

However, the Ukrainian military denied having anything to do with the attack.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday’s attacks should not be seen as Moscow’s response to the attack in Donetsk. He repeated Moscow’s claim that its forces do not attack civilian areas, despite there being substantial evidence to the contrary.

The deaths of Ukrainian civilians have sparked international outrage over the Russian invasion, and Ukrainian officials have pointed to the attacks as a way to secure further military aid from the country’s allies.

NATO signed a $1.2 billion deal on Tuesday to produce tens of thousands of artillery shells to replenish its member countries’ dwindling supplies. The treaty will allow allies to replenish their arsenals and supply Ukraine with more ammunition.

Turkish lawmakers on Tuesday cleared a major hurdle to Sweden’s NATO membership by endorsing Sweden’s entry into the military alliance. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden and Finland abandoned their traditional position of military non-alignment and sought protection under the NATO umbrella.

In a virtual meeting Tuesday with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to secure $11.8 billion for Ukraine, according to a Treasury Department readout of the meeting. The money would be part of a national security amendment before Congress.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday became the latest foreign leader to visit Ukraine, announcing a new aid package that includes a loan to buy major weapons and a commitment to find ways to produce them together.

Ukraine’s allies have recently sought to reassure the country that they are committed to the country’s long-term defense amid fears that Western support may be waning. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and France’s new foreign minister also traveled to Kiev in the new year.

But the USA, Ukraine’s main supplier, is currently unable to send ammunition or weapons to Ukraine. As the US waits for Congress to approve more money for Ukraine’s fight, it is looking to its allies to fill the gap.

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Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine