Ukraine
According to witnesses, the air raid shelter was not opened in time to prevent the deaths of two women and a girl
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko and other city leaders of negligence after witness reports emerged earlier this week that civilians died because an air raid shelter was not opened on time.
Three were killed, including a nine-year-old girl and her mother, while waiting outside the shelter by falling missile debris in the early hours of Thursday morning. The city’s mayor replied that responsibility for the tragedy must be shared between them.
Zelenskiy said: “It is the duty of local authorities, a very special duty, to ensure that emergency shelters are available and accessible 24/7.” It is painful to see the neglect of that duty. It is painful to see victims.”
Yaroslav, the husband of the second dead woman, Natalya, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster that the door to the animal shelter, a clinic in the north-eastern Desnyanskyi district, remained closed after the alarm went off. “People knocked, for a very long time. There were women and children there, but nobody opened it,” he said.
As a result, her daughter had to witness her mother’s death “with her own eyes,” he said. Other people confirmed the report and said the security guard responsible failed to open the door in the short time between the alarm sounding and the debris falling to the ground.
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Zelenskiy did not directly name Klitschko or any other official, but his emphasis on local authorities made it clear that he believed some responsibility for the failure lay with the capital’s officials.
Kiev has been the target of near-nightly Russian missile and drone attacks since late April, with its residents often waking up around 2 a.m. and having to choose between hiding at home or rushing to a bomb shelter. There has been one airstrike in each of the past six nights, but no one was killed or injured on Friday.
Klitschko fought back on Friday, releasing a statement saying, “This is about shared and fair responsibility.” The mayor lamented that the budget for Kiev’s bomb shelters was exhausted at the end of June, and said ward officials were direct from Zelenskyy appointed, nine out of ten of whom are members of the President’s political party.
Klitschko, who visited the site on Thursday, said an investigation was ongoing and police would be patrolling the city to ensure shelters were open. The Home Office said police are also investigating the circumstances of Thursday night’s deaths.
A spokesman for the city’s military administration chief, Colonel-General Serhiy Popko, appointed by Zelenskyy, told the Kyiv Post on Thursday that some people might have been able to enter the shelter before the three died outside the shelter.
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“The late woman’s husband said they tried to get into this shelter and it was closed. However, according to the state emergency services officer who was at the scene, after the blast, rescuers began taking people out of hiding [in the shelter]. That means some people might have gotten there,” the spokesman said.
Yaroslav said people knocked on the clinic’s doors but were unable to wake the security guard. People feared the bombing, a cruise ship and missile attack, could continue throughout the night and wished for safety, he said.
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