Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of trying to humiliate the United Nations by dropping rockets against Kyiv during a visit to the city by the UN chief, a deadly attack that 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, relatives said, which would be the first known death of an American in a war. The United States did not confirm the report. At least two other foreigners fighting on the Ukrainian side, one from Britain and the other from Denmark, were also killed.
In an apparent reference to the attack in Kyiv, the Russian military said it had destroyed “production buildings” at the Artem defense plant.
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 his “middle finger” to Guterres.
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.
Vladimir Fesenko, a Ukrainian political analyst and head of the Kyiv-based Penta Center think tank, said the attack in Kyiv had a message: “Russia is sending a clear signal of its intention to continue the war despite international pressure.”
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 ruined southern port of Mariupol.
It is estimated that about 100,000 people are trapped in the city with little water, food, heat or electricity. Approximately 2,000 Ukrainian defenders and 1,000 civilians were sheltered in a destroyed steel plant in the city’s last major stronghold of resistance.
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.”
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 the Dnipropetrovsk region of central Ukraine were hit by Russian missiles on Friday, the regional governor said. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
Sirens, artillery fire and explosions are heard from Kramatorsk to Slavyansk, two cities about 18 kilometers (11 miles) apart in Donbass. Pillars of smoke rose from the area of Slavyansk and neighboring cities. At least one person was reportedly injured in the shooting.
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.”
The Marine Corps said Cancelle had served four years but had been fired for misconduct and sentenced to five months in prison for violating orders. Details of the crime are not reported.
Following a rocket attack in Kyiv on Thursday, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reported that the body of Vira Hiric, a journalist living in one of the buildings, had been found in the rubble. Ten people were injured, at least one lost a leg, according to emergency services.
Radio Free Europe President Jamie Fly said the organization was “shocked and angry at the senseless nature of her death at home in a country and city she loved.”
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.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are dealing with people accused of aiding Russian troops. In the Kharkiv region alone, nearly 400 people have been detained under anti-co-operation laws passed after Russia’s February 24 invasion.
In Russia, international sanctions imposed on the Kremlin 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.”
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. “
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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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