Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of trying to humiliate the UN by dropping rockets against Kyiv during a UN chief visit to the city, an attack that has shattered weeks of relative calm in the capital.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have struggled to hold back Russian attempts to advance south and east, Zelensky said. UN-backed efforts to organize the safe passage of trapped residents in the ruins of Mariupol have continued. Numerous previous attempts to evacuate civilians have failed.
Russia hit targets across Ukraine on Thursday, hitting a multi-storey residential building and another building in Kyiv just as life seemed a little closer to normal. The US-funded television station Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reported that one of its journalists had been killed.
Separately, a former U.S. Marine was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, his relatives said in what would be the first known death of a U.S. citizen involved in the war. The United States did not confirm the report.
In an apparent reference to the attack in Kyiv, the Russian Ministry of Defense said it had destroyed “production buildings” at the Artem Defense Factory.
The bombing came just hours after Zelensky held a press conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who toured some of the destruction in and around Kyiv and condemned the attacks on civilians.
“This speaks volumes about Russia’s true attitude towards global institutions, about the Russian leadership’s attempts to humiliate the UN and everything the organization represents,” Zelensky said in a video address to the nation late Thursday. “Therefore, this requires a correspondingly powerful response.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack was a way for Russian President Vladimir Putin to give Guterres “his middle finger”.
The strikes were Russia’s boldest attack on the capital since Moscow’s forces withdrew weeks ago after failing to take the city. Russia is now pushing for Donbass, the country’s eastern industrial region, which the Kremlin says is its main goal.
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. Both Ukraine and Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east have also imposed strict restrictions on reporting from the war zone.
But so far, Russian troops and separatist forces appear to have made little profit, and the British Ministry of Defense has said it has come at a significant cost to Kremlin forces.
One of the purposes of Guterres’ visit was to ensure the evacuation of people from the destroyed southern port of Mariupol, including the destroyed steel mine, where about 2,000 Ukrainian defenders and 1,000 civilians were hidden at the city’s last major stronghold. Previous evacuation attempts have failed.
Soviet-era steelmaking has an extensive underground network of bunkers capable of withstanding air strikes. But the situation became even worse after the Russians dropped bunkers and other bombs.
“Locals who manage to leave Mariupol say it’s hell, but when they leave this fortress, they say it’s worse,” said Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko. “They are praying to be saved,” he said, adding: “There, it’s not a matter of days, it’s a matter of hours.”
It is estimated that about 100,000 people are trapped in the city with little water, food, heat or electricity.
The UN Humanitarian Office did not provide details on the evacuation measures being discussed, citing concerns for the safety of those involved. Ukraine has blamed the failure of previous attempts to evacuate ongoing Russian shelling.
This time, “we hope there is a slight hint of humanity in the enemy,” Boychenko said.
Two cities in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region were hit by Russian missiles on Friday, the regional governor said. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
The governor of Russia’s Kursk region said a border post had come under mortar fire from Ukraine and that Russian border forces had responded to the fire. He said there were no casualties from Russia.
Former US Marine Willie Joseph Cancel, 22, was killed Monday while working for a military company that sent him to Ukraine, his mother Rebecca Cabrera told CNN.
“He wanted to cross because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for,” she said, “and he wanted to be a part of it to keep him there so he wouldn’t come here and maybe our American troops would.” “I shouldn’t be involved in this.”
A rocket attack on Thursday in the Shevchenkivskyi district of northwestern Kyiv shook the city and caused flames from building windows.
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reported that the body of Vira Hiric, a journalist who has worked for television since 2018 and lived in one of the buildings, was found among the rubble on Friday.
Radio Free Europe President Jamie Fly said the cameraman was “shocked and outraged by the senseless nature of her death at home in a country and city he loved”.
Ten people were injured in the attack, including at least one who lost a leg, according to emergency services.
Kyiv has been relatively unharmed in recent weeks, and cafes and other businesses have begun to reopen as more and more people go out and enjoy the spring weather.
The terrible human cost of the war, which has driven more than 11 million Ukrainians from their homes, continues to rise.
In the town of Liman in Donbass this week shells hit the home of Tatiana Matsegora. Matsegora’s 14-year-old grandson, Igor, was pronounced dead after rescuers took him to hospital. Her daughter is in serious condition and her son-in-law was killed.
“Grandma, will I live?” She said, Igor asked her as they were in the basement waiting for help. “I said he would live. But look what happened: I betrayed him. “
Meanwhile, international sanctions imposed on Russia over the invasion are putting pressure on the country. Russia’s central bank has said the Russian economy is expected to shrink by up to 10% this year and the outlook is “extremely uncertain.”
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This story was updated to correct that Thursday’s attack on Kyiv was the boldest attack since Moscow’s withdrawal, not necessarily the first, and to correct the spelling of the last name of the woman who lost her grandson to Matsegora.
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Associated Press journalists John Gambrell and Juras Karmanau of Lviv, Mstislav Chernov of Kharkiv, Jesitsa Fish of Slavyansk, and PA officials around the world contributed to the report.
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