Russia struck targets from almost one end of Ukraine until the other Thursday, including Kyiv, bombing the city while the UN chief was visiting, in the boldest attack on the capital since Russian forces withdrew weeks ago.
Several people were injured in the attack on Kyiv, including one who lost a leg and others who were trapped in the rubble when two buildings were hit, 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 Polina in the west, Chernigov near the Belarusian border, and in Fastov, a major railway junction southwest of the capital. The mayor of Odessa in 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.
In the center, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stands by the mass grave in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Ephraim Lukacki / Associated Press)
“One second and you’re left with nothing”
In Zaporozhye, a crucial road station for tens of thousands fleeing Mariupol, an 11-year-old boy is among at least three people injured in a rocket attack that authorities say is 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.”
Men wearing protective equipment exhume the bodies of civilians killed during the Russian occupation of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on April 13. (Ephraim Lukacki / Associated Press)
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.
“Wherever there is war, the highest price is paid by civilians,” the UN chief complained.
Separately, Ukraine’s 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 his 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. “
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In the attack on Kyiv, explosions shook the city and flames erupted from the windows of at least two buildings – including a residential one – in the capital, which has been relatively unharmed in recent weeks. Streams of smoke could be seen above the city.
The blasts in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv’s northwestern district have come as residents return to the city. Cafes and other businesses have reopened and more and more people are coming out and enjoying the spring weather.
It was not immediately clear how far the attack was from Guterres.
“I was shocked to learn that two rockets had exploded in the city where I am,” the UN chief told the BBC. “So this is a dramatic war, and we absolutely have to end this war, and we absolutely have to have a solution to this war.”
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.
A fire after a Russian missile attack was observed in Kyiv on Thursday. (Ephraim Lukacki / Associated Press)
Experts see Donbass in Russia’s sights
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.
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.
As Russia pushes this offensive, civilians are once again taking the brunt.
“It’s not just scary, it’s when your stomach shrinks in pain,” said Tatiana Pirogova, a resident of the northeastern city of Kharkiv. “When they shoot during the day, it’s still OK, but when the evening comes, I can’t describe how scary it is.”
A Ukrainian soldier stands guard at an anti-tank barrier in central Kyiv on Thursday. (Gleb Garanic / Reuters)
The Ukrainian military said Russian troops had subjected several places in the 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.
The Russians leave Mariupol
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.
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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. It 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.
An injured man is waiting for emergency services after a Russian bombing in Kharkov on Wednesday. (Felipe Dana / Associated Press)
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