Russian strikes yesterday hit fresh civilian targets in central and eastern Ukraine, including a care home for disabled people, as Moscow’s troops edged closer to the capital, Kyiv.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped and under fire in Ukrainian cities, including besieged Mariupol, following Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24.
The first high-level talks between the two sides ended on Thursday without any progress in halting a conflict that the UN says has caused 2.5 million people to flee in one of the worst refugee crisis since World War II.
Photo: AP
Russian strikes continued overnight across the country, including on the central city of Dnipro, which local officials said killed one person.
They hit an area near a chemical plant, leaving a shoe factory completely destroyed, and breaking the windows on a nearby kindergarten.
Elsewhere, a care home for disabled people was hit in the village of Oskil, near Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, in Russian strikes that also destroyed five houses, local officials said.
Photo: AFP
There were no reports of casualties. At the care home, all 30 staff members and 330 mostly elderly patients — 10 of whom require wheelchairs — had been sheltering at the time.
Military targets were also hit early yesterday, with four Ukrainian servicemen killed in strikes on the Lutsk air base in the northwest, local officials said.
Moscow said the airfield had been “put out of action.”
Meanwhile, the advance of Russian forces continued against the capital, which risks being entirely surrounded.
The Ukrainian military warned that Russia was trying to “block” Kyiv by taking out defenses to the west and north of the capital, adding that there was also a risk to Brovary in the east.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko on Thursday said that half the city’s population had fled and the capital “has been transformed into a fortress.”
“Every street, every building, every checkpoint has been fortified,” he said.
The northwest suburbs, including Irpin and Bucha, have already endured days of heavy bombardment, but Russian armored vehicles are also advancing on the northeastern edge of Kyiv.
Ukrainian soldiers described fierce fighting for control of the main highway leading into the capital, and Agence France-Presse reporters saw missile strikes in Velyka Dymerka just outside Kyiv’s city limits.
“It’s frightening, but what can you do?” said Vasyl Popov, a 38-year-old advertising salesman. “There is nowhere to really run or hide. We live here.”
The British Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update that “Russian forces are committing an increased number of their deployed forces to encircle key cities.”
“This will reduce the number of forces available to continue their advance and will further slow Russian progress,” it said.
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