One person died and at least six were wounded in a Russian missile strike that hit a residential apartment block in Kyiv. The city’s Deputy Mayor, Volodymyr Bondarenko, said four of the injured were admitted to the hospital as search and rescue operations continue.
Bondarenko also said a kindergarten was hit in the missile strike but no one was injured, and video from Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs showed a large missile funnel in the backyard of the kindergarten.
A CNN team on the ground spoke to the injured girl’s grandmother, Natalia Nikitina, who found out about the attack online and rushed to the apartment block, where she cried as she watched teams trying to rescue her daughter-in-law.
“There is nothing worse than losing loved ones. Why do we deserve this?” she said. A huge plume of smoke continued to billow from the building two hours after the strike, while nearly every window was blown out on the top floor, and the ground was covered in debris and twisted metal.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said “strategic bombers” were used to hit the capital, with “four to six missiles” launched. He added that on Saturday, Russia had used Tu22M3 long-range bombers from the airspace of Belarus for the first time in a Ukrainian air strike.
“There are people are trapped under the rubble. Some residents have been evacuated, with two victims hospitalized. Rescuers are continuing their work,” he said.
The Ukrainian State Emergency Service said the fire was caused by “enemy shelling” and was over an area of 300 square meters, in “a 9-storey residential building with partial destruction of the 7th, 9th and 9th floors.”
The same neighborhood was hit by a missile strike in early May, and was also targeted in March.
Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs, said on Ukrainian television that there are “a number of military infrastructure facilities located in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the Ukrainian capital. This is the reason why the Russians are shelling this district.”
US President Joe Biden called Sunday’s attack “more of [Russian] barbarism.” He declined to respond when asked whether the strikes were a deliberate provocation during the G7 summit.
Russian offensive continues in eastern Ukraine
On Sunday, the head of the neighboring Donetsk region’s military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said Russian forces were gathering for fresh assaults in the region, nearly half of which is under Ukrainian control.
“We are now witnessing the accumulation of manpower, heavy armored vehicles and artillery in the direction of Sloviansk,” Kyrylenko said on Ukrainian television.
“The enemy is using its well-known tactics, trying to move closer to our line of defense in order to fire artillery at the cities. Enemy artillery is already reaching certain parts of Sloviansk. This is another confirmation that people should evacuate.”
Throughout the offensive in the east, Russian forces have used intense artillery and rocket bombardment ahead of trying to take ground. They are attacking areas of Donetsk from three directions.
Kyrylenko said there had been a missile strike and rocket attacks on Kurakhove, a town on the southern front line in Donetsk that has been a target of Russian attacks for more than two months. Avdiivka had also been hit by rockets, he said.
As Russian forces step up the momentum of their offensive in eastern Ukraine, the city of Kharkiv and surrounding areas have come under increasing artillery fire again.
Video released by the news agency RIA Novosti shows Shoigu disembarking from a helicopter in an unknown location and meeting officers inside what appears to be a command center.
The Telegram channel of the Russian Defense Ministry said Shoigu “listened to reports from commanders on the current situation and the actions of the Russian Armed…
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