Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russia on Thursday practically hit targets from one end of Ukraine to the other, including Kyiv, and bombed the city, while the head of the United Nations visited the capital in a bid to launch the boldest attack on the capital since the withdrawal carried out by the Moscow Armed Forces 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 workers said.
The bombing came barely an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a press conference with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who said Ukraine had become “an epicenter of unbearable heartache and pain.” A spokesman said Guterres and his team are safe.
Meanwhile, explosions were reported across the country, in Polonne in the west, in Chernihiv near the border with Belarus, and in Fastiv, a major railway junction southwest of the capital. The mayor of Odessa in southern Ukraine said missiles had been intercepted by air defenses.
Ukrainian authorities also reported intense Russian fire in the Donbass — the eastern industrial heartland that the Kremlin says is its main target — and near Kharkiv, a northeastern city outside the Donbass believed to be key to the offensive.
In the devastated southern port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian militants entrenched themselves at the steel mill that is the last hotbed of resistance and say more people were killed and wounded overnight by concentrated bombing. And authorities warned that a lack of clean drinking water in the city could lead to outbreaks of deadly diseases like cholera and dysentery.
In Zaporizhzhia, a key stopover for tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Mariupol, an 11-year-old boy was among at least three wounded in a rocket attack that authorities said was the first to hit a residential area in the southern city since met the war started. Shards of glass sliced the boy’s leg to the bone.
Vadym Vodostoyev, the boy’s father, said: “It only takes a second and you have nothing left.”
The new attacks came as Guterres surveyed the destruction in small towns outside the capital, which were experiencing some of the worst horrors of the war’s first onslaught. He condemned the atrocities committed in cities like Bucha, where evidence of mass killings of civilians was found, after Russia withdrew in early April against unexpectedly fierce opposition.
“Wherever there is war, civilians pay the highest price,” lamented the UN chief.
Separately, Ukraine’s prosecutor accused ten Russian soldiers of “participating 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 attacking civilians.
During his late-night video address, Zelenskyy renewed his pledge to hold Russian soldiers accountable for the crimes they committed, saying of the 10 identified earlier Thursday: “Some of them may not make it to trial and just punishment.” Life. But only for one reason: this Russian brigade was transferred to the Kharkiv region. There they will meet vengeance from our military.”
In the attack on Kyiv, explosions rocked the city and flames belched out of windows in at least two buildings – including one apartment building – in the capital, which has remained relatively unscathed in recent weeks. Plumes of smoke could be seen over the city.
The explosions in Shevchenkivsky district, north-west of Kyiv, occurred as residents increasingly returned to the city. Cafes and other shops have reopened and more and more people are out enjoying the spring weather.
It wasn’t immediately clear how far the attack was from Guterres.
“I was shocked to learn that two rockets exploded in the city where I am,” the UN chief was quoted as saying by the BBC. “So this is a dramatic war and we absolutely need to end this war and we absolutely need a solution to this war.”
It has been difficult to get a full picture of the unfolding battle to the east, as airstrikes and artillery fire have made it extremely dangerous for reporters to move about. Several journalists have been killed in the war, which is now in its third month.
Also, both Ukraine and Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east have imposed severe restrictions on reporting from the combat zone.
Western officials say the Kremlin’s apparent goal is to take Donbass by encircling and crushing Ukrainian forces from the north, south and east.
But so far, Russian forces and their separatist allies appear to have made little gains, capturing several small towns while attempting to advance in relatively small groups against steadfast Ukrainian resistance.
Mistreated in a failed attempt to storm Kyiv, Russian military units had to regroup and rearm. Some analysts say the delay in launching a full-fledged offensive may reflect a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to wait until his forces are ready for a decisive battle, rather than step in and risk another failure that would end his rule amidst the evolving Deteriorating economic conditions could shake at home because of western sanctions.
Many observers suspect that Putin is aiming for a major victory in the east by Victory Day, May 9, one of the proudest holidays on the Russian calendar, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
As Russia ramps up its offensive, civilians are once again bearing the brunt.
“It’s not just scary. That’s when the stomach contracts with pain,” said Tatiana Pirogova from Kharkiv. “When they’re filming during the day that’s fine, but when the evening comes I can’t describe how scary it is.”
The Ukrainian military said that Russian troops had “intensely shelled” several locations in Donbass and that Ukrainian forces repelled six attacks in the region in the past 24 hours.
According to the regional governor, four civilians were killed in heavy shelling of residential areas in the Luhansk region of Donbass.
Columns of smoke could be seen rising from various locations in the Donetsk region of the Donbass, and artillery and sirens could be turned on and off.
In Mariupol, a video posted online by Ukraine’s Azov regiment showed people inside the steelworks combing through the rubble to remove the dead and help the wounded. The regiment said the Russians attacked an improvised underground hospital and its operating room, killing an unspecified number of people. The video could not be independently verified.
An estimated 100,000 people remained trapped in Mariupol.
“Deadly epidemics can break out in the city due to the lack of centralized water supply and sewerage,” the city councilor said via messaging app Telegram. It reported decomposing bodies under the rubble and a “catastrophic” shortage of drinking water and food.
Loud popping noises were also reported in Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, but there was no immediate explanation. In recent days, explosions and fires have raged at fuel and ammunition storage facilities on Russian soil, and suspicion has fallen on Ukraine.
Ukraine has urged its allies to send more military equipment to ward off the Russians. US President Joe Biden asked Congress for an additional $33 billion to help Ukraine.
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This story has been corrected to remove a reference to a man killed in the Kyiv attack. He lost a leg in the attack.
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Associated Press journalists Jon Gambrell and Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, Yesica Fisch in Sloviansk, and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine