Russia unleashed a sweeping aerial assault across Ukraine late Wednesday, pounding Kyiv with ballistic missiles and swarms of drones — killing at least 17 people, including four children, and injuring dozens more.

“Many people are under the rubble, [including] children,” Andriy Yermak, top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told The Post.

The barrage began around 9:30 p.m., setting off air raid sirens and prompting urgent shelter notification warnings in nearly every region nationwide.

Missiles, drones, and bombs were spotted throughout the country, particularly in Kyiv, but also in western regions of the country where attacks have been rarer.

At least four Russian MiG-31 jets armed with Kinzhal missiles took off during the attack, the Kyiv Independent reported.

At least 17 people — including four children — in Kyiv were killed and more than 22 were injured, officials said.

The strike was the second-largest aerial attack on the nation’s capital since the war began. It’s the biggest since President Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

“These Russian missiles and attack drones today are a clear response to everyone in the world who, for weeks and months, has been calling for a ceasefire and for real diplomacy,” Zelensky said Thursday on X.

“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table. It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war. And this means that Russia still does not fear the consequences. Russia still takes advantage of the fact that at least part of the world turns a blind eye to murdered children and seeks excuses for Putin.”

Zelensky said that it is “definitely time for new, tough sanctions against Russia.”

The Russian strike damaged residential buildings, schools, and offices across the capital.

Yermak described a harrowing scene on the ground. Photos obtained by The Post show fire erupting from high-rise buildings and rubble littering the ground.

“Rescuers are working everywhere, but drones continue to fly overhead. Isn’t that enough to understand who Putin is and what his words are worth?” Yermak said.

“We extinguish [flames as] buried people are screaming from under the rubble and Shahed [drones fly] over your head,” he recalled.

In the Darnytskyi district, two apartment buildings were hit — one of them, a five-story structure, completely collapsed. A nearby kindergarten and another home also sustained damage, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

A three-story office and a 25-story building caught fire. Debris fell on the grounds of a kindergarten, igniting a blaze that spread to nearby cars, officials added.

The Shevchenkivskyi and Solomyanskyi districts were also hit, causing flames to erupt and damage property.

Yermak is scheduled to arrive in New York on Thursday for the opening of Ukrainian cell service company Kyiv Star’s introduction to the NASDAQ and a brief meeting with Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been handling the Russian side of US negotiations to end the Ukraine War.

The top presidential advisor is currently considering whether he will have to call off the meeting over Russia’s latest attack, he told The Post.

”I’m planning to have a short meeting with just to update and to say that, ‘Look, Putin committed to your president that he is ready to meet. But of course, [there hasn’t been] any signal that he is ready to meet [since,]’” Yermak previously said.

“And every day, [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov and others make statements that are controversial.”

Kyiv has been busy working with world leaders to try to secure Kremlin agreements for a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, as well as a formulation of “NATO-like” security guarantees for Ukraine post-war — as Moscow has walked back its promises.

On July 29, Russian glide bombs and missiles struck a Ukrainian prison and a medical facility overnight, killing at least 21 people.

With Post wires.