Kyiv, Ukraine – Russia has been hitting targets from almost one end of Ukraine to the other Thursday, including Kyiv, bombing the city as the UN chief visits the boldest attack on the capital since Moscow’s forces withdrew weeks ago.
Nearly a dozen people were injured in the attack on Kyiv, including one who lost a leg and others who were trapped in the rubble of two buildings, rescue officials said.
The bombing came just an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a press conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said Ukraine had become “the epicenter of unbearable heartache and pain.” A spokesman said Guterres and his team were safe.
Meanwhile, explosions were reported across the country, in Polona in the west, Chernigov near the border with Belarus and Fastov, a major railway junction southwest of the capital. The mayor of Odessa, southern Ukraine, said the missiles had been intercepted by the air defenses.
Ukrainian authorities also reported intense Russian fire in Donbass – the eastern industrial center the Kremlin says is its main target – and near Kharkiv, a northeastern city outside Donbass that is considered key to the offensive.
In the devastated southern port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian fighters hiding in a steel plant that is the last pocket of resistance said concentrated bombings killed and wounded more people overnight. And authorities have warned that the city’s lack of safe drinking water could lead to outbreaks of deadly diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
Russia strikes the Ukrainian capital Kyiv shortly after a meeting between President Vladimir Zelensky and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday night.AP/Emilio Morenatti
In Zaporozhye, an important stopover for tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Mariupol, an 11-year-old boy is among at least three people injured in a rocket attack that authorities say was the first to hit a residential area in the southern city since the war began. Pieces of glass cut the boy’s leg to the bone.
Vadim Vodostoev, the boy’s father, said: “It only takes a second and you are left with nothing.
The new attacks came as Guterres examined the devastation in small towns outside the capital, which saw some of the worst horrors of the first attack of the war. He condemned the atrocities committed in cities such as Bucha, where evidence of mass killings of civilians was found after Russia withdrew in early April in the face of unexpectedly fierce resistance.
Russians launch a missile attack in Kiev.AP/Efrem Lukacki
“Wherever there is war, the highest price is paid by civilians,” the UN chief complained.
Separately, the Ukrainian prosecutor accused 10 Russian soldiers of being “involved in the torture of civilians” in Bucha. Chief Prosecutor Irina Venediktova did not say her office had filed criminal charges and turned to the public for help in gathering evidence. Russia denies targeting civilians.
During an evening video address, Zelensky renewed his promise to hold Russian soldiers accountable for their crimes, and said of the 10 identified earlier on Thursday: . But only for one reason: this Russian brigade was transferred to the Kharkiv region. There they will receive retribution from our military. “
In the attack on Kyiv, explosions shook the city and flames erupted through the windows of at least two buildings – including a residential one – in the capital, which has been relatively unharmed in recent weeks. Ukrainian emergency services say 10 people were injured in the attack, which sent smoke over the city.
The blasts in the Shevchenkivskyi district of northwestern Kyiv have come as residents return to the city. Cafes and other businesses reopened and more and more people went out and enjoyed the spring weather.
It was not immediately clear how far the attack was from Guterres.
The bombing came just an hour after Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky held a press conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The press service of the Ukrainian president through the AP
It was difficult to get a complete picture of the unfolding battle in the east, as air strikes and artillery shelling made the movement of reporters extremely dangerous. Several journalists were killed during the third month of the war.
In addition, both Ukraine and Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east have imposed strict restrictions on reporting from the war zone.
Western officials say the Kremlin’s obvious goal is to take over Donbass by encircling and crushing Ukrainian forces from the north, south and east.
“Wherever there is war, the highest price is paid by civilians,” Guterres said.AP/Efrem Lukacki
But so far, Russian troops and their allied separatist forces appear to have made little progress, capturing several small towns as they try to advance into relatively small groups against strong Ukrainian resistance.
Russian troops were smeared in an unsuccessful attempt to storm Kyiv and had to regroup and re-equip. Some analysts say the delay in launching a full-fledged offensive could reflect Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to wait until his forces are ready for a decisive battle, instead of rushing in and risking another failure that could shake his rule. the deterioration of economic conditions. at home because of Western sanctions.
Many observers suspect that Putin wants to win a major victory in the East by Victory Day, May 9, one of the proudest holidays in the Russian calendar, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.
People take shelter in the basement of a residential building in Kiev.AP / Emilio Morenatti
As Russia pushes its offensive, civilians are once again taking the brunt.
“It’s not just scary. This is when your stomach shrinks in pain, “said Kharkiv resident Tatiana Pirogova. “When they shoot during the day, it’s okay again, but when the evening comes, I can’t describe how scary it is.”
The Ukrainian military said that Russian troops had subjected several places in Donbass to “intense fire” and that Ukrainian forces had repulsed six attacks in the region in the past 24 hours.
Four civilians were killed in heavy shelling of residential areas in the Luhansk region of Donbass, the district governor said.
Pillars of smoke could be seen rising in various places in the Donetsk region of Donbass, and artillery and sirens could be heard.
Many Russian troops who have been to Mariupol are leaving and moving northwest, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday. The official, who asked for anonymity to discuss the US military assessment, did not have exact figures, but said a “significant number” of the approximately one dozen battalion tactical groups that had been in the city were being exported.
Russian forces are making slow, gradual progress in the Donbass, gaining only a few kilometers each day, the official said. As of Thursday, Russia had launched about 1,900 missiles in Ukraine, most of them fired outside Ukraine. Most are the strikes on Mariupol and Donbass.
In Mariupol, a video posted online by the Azov Ukrainian Regiment at the steel plant shows people combing the rubble to pull out the dead and help the wounded. A regiment said the Russians struck a makeshift underground hospital and its operating room, killing an unspecified number of people. The video could not be verified independently.
Approximately 100,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol.
“Deadly epidemics could break out in the city due to the lack of centralized water supply and sewerage,” the city council said in a statement to the Telegram. He reported decaying bodies under the rubble and a “catastrophic” shortage of drinking water and food.
Ukraine has called on its allies to send more military equipment to fend off the Russians. US President Joe Biden has asked Congress for an additional $ 33 billion to help Ukraine.
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