Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Sunday morning, hitting at least two apartment buildings, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, while elsewhere Russian troops are consolidating their profits to the east.
Associated Press reporters in Kyiv saw rescue services fighting the blaze and rescuing civilians. Klitschko said four people were hospitalized with injuries and a 7-year-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble. Culture Minister Alexander Tkachenko told the Telegram that a kindergarten had been damaged in the attacks.
The Member of Parliament of Ukraine Alexei Goncharenko wrote in the Telegram news release that “according to preliminary data, 14 missiles were fired against the Kiev region and Kyiv.” Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said the missiles were X-101 cruise missiles fired from planes over the Caspian Sea.
Prior to Sunday’s attack early Sunday morning, Kyiv had not faced similar Russian air strikes since June 5.
Klitschko told reporters he believed “perhaps this is a symbolic attack” ahead of this week’s NATO summit in Madrid.
Two more explosions were heard later in Kyiv, but the cause and possible casualties were not immediately clear.
President Joe Biden, asked about his reaction to Russia’s missile strikes on Kyiv on Sunday, said: “This is more of their barbarism” as he stood with Olaf Scholz as the German chancellor congratulated the leaders arriving for the opening of the Group’s summit. of the seven.
Russian forces, meanwhile, are seeking to engulf the last remaining Ukrainian fortress in the eastern Luhansk region, pushing their momentum after taking full control Saturday of the charred ruins of Severodonetsk and the chemical plant where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were hiding. .
Sergei Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, which includes Severodonetsk, said on Sunday that Russia was launching intense air strikes on the neighboring city of Lisichansk, destroying its TV tower and severely damaging a road bridge.
“There is a lot of destruction – Lisichansk is almost unrecognizable,” he wrote on Facebook.
Also Sunday, US President Joe Biden said that the United States and other leading economies in the Group of Seven intend to announce a ban on gold imports from Russia. They hope that this measure will further isolate Russia economically because of its invasion of Ukraine.
Senior Biden officials said gold was Moscow’s second-largest export after energy and that a ban on imports would make it harder for Russia to participate in world markets.
Biden’s Twitter account says Russia is “making tens of billions of dollars” from selling its gold, the second-largest export after energy.
On Saturday, Russia also fired dozens of missiles at several areas across the country, far from the heart of the eastern battles. Some of the missiles were fired by Russian long-range Tu-22 bombers, deployed for the first time by Belarus, Ukraine’s air command said.
The bombing preceded a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, during which Putin announced that Russia planned to supply the Iskander-M missile system to Belarus.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said late Saturday that Russian and Moscow-backed separatist forces now control Severodonetsk and surrounding villages. He said attempts by Ukrainian forces to turn the Nitrogen plant into a “stubborn center of resistance” had been thwarted.
Haidai confirmed on Saturday that Severodonetsk had fallen to Russian and separatist fighters who he said were now trying to block Lisichansk from the south.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the separatist forces, Andrei Marochko, as saying that Russian troops and separatist fighters had entered Lisichansk and that the fighting was taking place in the heart of the city. There was no immediate comment on the statement from the Ukrainian side.
Lisichansk and Severodonetsk were the focal point of a Russian offensive aimed at capturing the entire Donbass and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it, the country’s most capable and battle-hardened segment of the country’s armed forces.
The capture of Lisichansk will give Russian forces control of every major settlement in the province, a significant step towards Russia’s goal of capturing the entire Donbass. The Russians and separatists control about half of Donetsk, the second province in Donbass.
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