Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday called for Moscow to be punished after laying red roses at the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building where a Russian missile strike killed 24 people, including three children.
Rescue workers ended search operations at the devastated building, which was struck this week during Russia’s heaviest air attack on the Ukrainian capital this year.
“Our first responders ... worked non-stop for more than a day,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app after visiting the site of the attack in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi District, on the left bank of the Dnipro River, placing flowers and talking to rescue workers.
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“The Russians practically leveled an entire section of the building with their missile,” he said.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, launched more than 1,500 drones and dozens of missiles in attacks across Ukraine this week over two consecutive days, Ukrainian officials said.
Six people were killed in the attacks on Wednesday in western Ukraine, far from the front line.
Photo: AFP
“A Russia like this can never be normalized — a Russia that deliberately destroys lives and hopes to remain unpunished. Pressure is needed,” Zelenskiy said, reiterating appeals to allies to help Ukraine strengthen its air defences.
Kyiv yesterday held a day of mourning to honor the victims, with national flags at half-mast across the city of 3 million people. All entertainment events were canceled or postponed.
The Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior said the search-and-rescue operation at the apartment building lasted more than 28 hours and hundreds of rescuers sifted through 3,000m3 of rubble.
Photo: Reuters
City officials said 24 bodies had been recovered from the rubble and about 30 people had been rescued alive. Nearly 50 people were wounded, and about 400 people required psychological support, the ministry said.
Zelenskiy has said that, according to initial analysis, a recently manufactured Russian Kh-101 missile struck the building.
Russia did not immediately comment on the strike on the apartment building. Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, but during more than four years of war it has frequently hit residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in airstrikes across Ukraine.
Photo: Reuters
In other news, Russia and Ukraine yesterday exchanged 205 prisoners of war each, a week after US President Donald Trump announced a large swap would take place between the warring sides.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on social media that “205 Russian servicemen were returned from territory” controlled by Kyiv, adding: “In exchange, 205 Ukrainian armed forces prisoners of war were transferred.”
Zelenskiy said on Telegram most of the Ukrainians handed over had been in Russian captivity since 2022.
Trump last week said that Russia and Ukraine would carry out a mutual swap of 1,000 prisoners as he announced a three-day US-brokered ceasefire that covered Russia’s May 9 parade celebrating the defeat of the Nazis.
Both sides have traded accusations of violating the truce and Ukraine has accused Moscow of ramping up its strikes against civilians after it expired.
“This is the first phase of the 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange,” Zelenskiy said.
He posted pictures of the released Ukrainians, wrapped in national blue-and-yellow flags, smiling and embracing each other.
Zelenskiy said they included troops who fought in the bloody battle for Mariupol’s steelworks Azovtsal and those who defended Chernobyl, which briefly fell to Moscow at the start of its invasion.
The POW swaps remain one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between the two sides.
Moscow’s defense ministry said its troops were brought to its ally Belarus, where “they are receiving the necessary psychological and medical assistance”.
“The United Arab Emirates provided humanitarian assistance during the return of the Russian servicemen from captivity,” it added.
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