At least two people were killed on Tuesday morning in attacks on residential areas of Kiev, ahead of the expected resumption of negotiations begun on the eve between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict.
Partially surrounded by Russian troops, the capital of Ukraine woke up with three deep explosions. Emergency services later indicated that they involved attacks on residential areas in different districts.
In Sviatoshyn, in western Kiev, a bombardment hit a 16-storey building where “the bodies of two people were recovered and 27 people were rescued,” they said in a Facebook statement.
There was also a victimless attack on a house in Osokorky (southeast) and artillery fire that triggered a fire later extinguished in a residential building in Podilsk (northwest), where one person was hospitalized, they added.
In that place, covered with glass and debris, a column of smoke came out of the huge hole left by the impact while neighbors threw the ruins of their homes through the broken windows, said an AFP journalist.
The attack comes ahead of the scheduled resumption of talks initiated by videoconference between the two sides the day before and which, according to Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, went “quite well”. “But we'll see, they will continue tomorrow (Tuesday),” he added.
On paper, the positions are far apart. Moscow demands that Ukraine depart from NATO and recognize the pro-Russian separatist regions in the east of the country, whose independence was recognized by Russian President Vladimir Putin days before the invasion that began on February 24.
For its part, Kiev calls for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces from its territory.
Previously, both sides held three face-to-face meetings in Belarus, in addition to a meeting of their respective foreign ministers in Turkey.
Almost three weeks after Putin launched a large-scale invasion of the former Soviet republic, Russian forces have bombed and surrounded numerous Ukrainian cities and villages.
The capital has seen half of its three million inhabitants march and is surrounded by north and east. Only roads to the south remain open, where municipal authorities set up checkpoints and residents gather food and medicine.
Kiev is “a city in a state of siege,” said a Zelenski counselor.
The United Nations estimates that 2.8 million people fled the country and that some 636 civilians died, although the actual balance is suspected to be higher.
- Slower than expected -
However, the progress of the Russian armed forces, a priori more powerful than the Ukrainian ones, has been slower and more problematic than expected.
The head of the Russian National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, admitted that the operation “is not going as fast as we would have liked”, but stressed that victory will come step by step.
Vladimir Putin had so far ordered his forces to “contain any immediate assault on large cities,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, although he did not rule out the possibility of putting these large cities “that are already almost surrounded under his total control.”
One of these besieged cities is Mariupol, on the coast of the Azov Sea (southeast), where authorities claimed that nearly 2,200 people were killed.
On the eve, some 210 vehicles were able to leave for the first time in several days through a humanitarian corridor in that city, whose inhabitants have spent days in basements without water, electricity, heating or food.
The General Staff of Ukraine indicated on the night that its troops had repelled an attack by some 150 Russian soldiers against that city and noted that Moscow forces plan to “strengthen the regrouping of troops in the direction of Kharkiv”, the country's second (northeastern) city.
Ukraine's Western allies imposed harsh sanctions on Russia, where dissenting voices from the Kremlin appear despite the repression and censorship imposed.
During the most watched news broadcast in the country, an employee entered the studio with a banner reading “No to War. Propaganda is not created.” The woman was arrested and taken to the police station, according to oenegé OVD-Info.
- A possible nuclear conflict -
The effects of the invasion are expanding to more and more parts of Ukraine, to areas previously considered safe, such as the city of Dnipro, in the center, or the eastern fringe near Poland, which were bombed.
In a village on the outskirts of Rivne (northwest), local authorities reported that nine people were killed and injured in an attack on a television tower.
On the other side, pro-Russian separatists denounced a Ukrainian bombing in Donetsk city center that killed 23 people. The rebels published images of bloody bodies lying in the streets, although the Ukrainian army denied any responsibility.
Following a bombardment that killed 35 people a few kilometers from the border of NATO member Poland, Zelenski renewed his call for the transatlantic alliance to impose a no-fly zone on his country.
But so far, the United States and its European allies have ruled out this option to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, a nuclear power, and have simply supplied Ukraine with different military equipment.
NATO fighting with Russia “is World War III,” US President Joe Biden said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned of the dangers of a conflict between atomic powers, a prospect “once unthinkable” but “now back to the realm of possibility.”
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