Explosions rock Kyiv again as Russians rain fire on Ukraine
Bombardment boldest attack on capital since forces retreated weeks ago
IRPIN, UKRAINE Russia pounded a wide area of Ukraine on Thursday, including Kyiv, bombarding the city while the head of the United Nations was visiting, in the boldest attack on the capital since Moscow’s forces retreated weeks ago.
At least one person was killed and several were injured in the attack on Kyiv, including some who were trapped in the rubble when two buildings were hit, rescue officials said.
The bombardment came barely an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a news conference with UN Secretarygeneral António Guterres, who said Ukraine has become “an epicentre of unbearable heartache and pain.” A spokesperson said Guterres and his team were safe.
Meanwhile, explosions were reported across the country, in Polinne in the west, Chernihiv near the border with Belarus, and in Fastiv, a large railway hub southwest of the capital.
The mayor of Odesa in southern Ukraine said rockets were intercepted by air defences.
Ukrainian authorities also reported intense Russian fire in the Donbas — the eastern industrial heartland that the Kremlin is bent on capturing — and near Kharkiv, a northeastern city outside the Donbas that is seen as key to the offensive.
In the ruined southern port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian fighters holed up in the steel plant that represents the last pocket of resistance said concentrated bombing overnight killed and wounded more people. And authorities warned that a lack of safe drinking water inside the city could lead to outbreaks of deadly diseases.
The fresh attacks came as Guterres surveyed the destruction in small towns outside the capital that saw some of the worst horrors of the first onslaught of the war. He condemned the atrocities committed in towns like Bucha, where evidence of mass killings of civilians was found after Russia withdrew in early April in the face of unexpectedly stiff resistance.
“Wherever there is a war, the highest price is paid by civilians,” the UN chief lamented, reiterating the importance of investigating alleged war crimes.
Separately, Ukraine’s prosecutor accused 10 Russian soldiers of being “involved in the torture of peaceful people” in Bucha. Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova did not say her office had filed criminal charges, and she appealed to the public for help in gathering evidence. Russia denies it targets civilians.
In the attack on Kyiv, explosions shook the city and flames poured out of windows in at least two buildings — including one residential — in the capital, which has been relatively unscathed in recent weeks. Plumes of smoke could be seen over the city.
The explosions came as Kyiv residents have been increasingly returning to the city. Cafés and other businesses have reopened, and a growing numbers of people have been out and about, enjoying the spring weather. The attack happened in the Shevchenkivsky district, in northwest Kyiv, according to the mayor.
“I was shocked to be informed that two rockets have exploded in the city where I am,” Guterres was quoted as telling the BBC. “So this is a dramatic war, and we absolutely need to end this war and we absolutely need to have a solution for this war.”
Getting a full picture of the unfolding battle in the east has been difficult because airstrikes and artillery barrages have made it extremely dangerous for reporters to move around. Several journalists have been killed in the war, now in its third month.
Also, both Ukraine and the Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east have introduced tight restrictions on reporting from the combat zone.
Western officials say the Kremlin’s apparent goal is to take the Donbas by encircling and crushing Ukrainian forces from the north, south and east.
We absolutely need to end this war and we absolutely need to have a solution for this war. ANTÓNIO GUTERRES UN SECRETARYGENERAL