By ADAM SCHRECK and HANNA ARHIROVA
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a deadly barrage of strikes in opposition to a number of Ukrainian cities Monday, smashing civilian targets together with downtown Kyiv the place at the least six folks have been killed amid burnt-out automobiles and shattered buildings that introduced again into focus the grim actuality of battle after months of easing tensions within the capital.
Police stated a complete of at the least 10 folks have been killed and round 60 others have been wounded within the morning assaults throughout Ukraine. The nation’s Emergency Service stated 9 folks have been killed. The conflicting numbers couldn’t instantly be reconciled.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose navy invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, stated the strikes have been in retaliation for what he known as Kyiv’s “terrorist” actions — a reference to Ukraine’s makes an attempt to repel Moscow’s invasion forces and cripple their provide strains.
The actions he referred to incorporate an assault final weekend on a key bridge, prized by the Kremlin, between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Putin vowed a “tough” and “proportionate” response ought to Ukraine perform additional assaults that threaten Russia’s safety.
“No one should have any doubts about it,” he stated.
Monday’s intense, hours-long assault by Russia marked a sudden navy escalation in its assault on Ukraine. It got here a day after Putin known as the explosion Saturday on the massive bridge connecting Russia to its annexed territory of Crimea a “terrorist act” masterminded by Ukrainian particular companies.
Putin, talking in a video name with members of Russia’s Security Council, stated the Russian navy launched “precision weapons” from the air, sea and floor to focus on key vitality and navy command services.
The missile strikes marked the most important and most widespread Russian assaults in months. Putin, whose partial mobilization order earlier this month triggered an exodus of a whole bunch of 1000’s of males of preventing age from Russia, stopped in need of declaring martial regulation or a counterterrorism operation as many had anticipated.
But the sustained barrage on main cities hit residential areas and demanding infrastructure services alike, portending a significant surge within the battle amid a profitable Ukrainian counteroffensive in current weeks and elevating questions on how “precise” Russia’s concentrating on is.
Moscow’s battle in Ukraine is approaching its eight-month milestone, and the Kremlin has been reeling from humiliating battlefield setbacks in areas of jap Ukraine it’s making an attempt to annex.
Blasts struck within the capital’s Shevchenko district, a big space within the heart of Kyiv that features the historic outdated city in addition to a number of authorities workplaces, Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated.
Some of the strikes hit close to the federal government quarter within the symbolic coronary heart of the capital, the place Parliament and different main landmarks are positioned. A glass tower housing workplaces was considerably broken, most of its blue-tinted home windows blown out.
Residents have been seen on the streets with blood on their garments and fingers. A younger man carrying a blue jacket sat on the bottom as a medic wrapped a bandage round his head. A girl with bandages wrapped round her head had blood everywhere in the entrance of her shirt. Several automobiles have been additionally broken or utterly destroyed. Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly throughout the nation and in Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Russian forces launched dozens of missiles and Iranian-built drones in opposition to Ukraine.
The General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces stated 75 missiles have been fired in opposition to Ukrainian targets, with 41 of them neutralized by air defenses.
The targets have been civilian areas and vitality services in 10 cities, Zelenskyy stated in a video tackle. “(The Russians) chose such a time and such targets on purpose to inflict the most damage,” Zelenskyy stated.
The morning strikes despatched Kyiv residents again into bomb shelters for the primary time in months. The metropolis’s subway system stopped practice companies and made the stations obtainable as soon as extra as locations for refuge.
While air raid sirens have continued all through the battle in Ukraine’s main cities throughout the nation, in Kyiv and different areas the place there have been months of calm many Ukrainians had begun to disregard their warnings and go about their regular enterprise.
That modified on Monday morning. The assaults arrived in Kyiv firstly of the morning rush hour, when commuter site visitors was starting to choose up. At least one of many automobiles struck close to the Kyiv National University gave the impression to be a commuter minibus, often called a “marshrutka” and which is a well-liked albeit typically crowded various to the town’s bus and metro routes.
Nearby, at the least one strike landed within the in style Shevchenko Park, leaving a big gap close to a youngsters’s playground.
Among the targets hit was a pedestrian bridge often called the Klitschko bridge — a landmark in central Kyiv with its glass panels. Closed-circuit tv footage shared by an adviser to Ukraine’s inside minister confirmed an enormous explosion because the bridge was apparently focused. A person seen on the bridge simply earlier than the explosion is seen working away after the blast.
Lesia Vasylenko, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, tweeted a photograph exhibiting that at the least one explosion occurred close to the principle constructing of the Kyiv National University in central Kyiv.
Elsewhere, Russia focused civilian areas and vitality infrastructure as air raid sirens sounded in each area of Ukraine, besides Russia-annexed Crimea, for 4 straight hours.
Associated Press journalists in Dnipro metropolis noticed the our bodies of a number of folks killed at an industrial web site on the town’s outskirts. Windows within the space had been blown out and glass littered the road. A telecommunications constructing was hit.
Ukrainian media additionally reported explosions in a variety of different areas, together with the western metropolis of Lviv, which has been a refuge for many individuals fleeing the preventing within the east, in addition to in Kharkiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr and Kropyvnytskyi.
Kharkiv was hit thrice, Mayor Ihor Terekhov stated. The strikes knocked out the electrical energy and water provide. Energy infrastructure was additionally hit in Lviv, regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi stated.
Three cruise missiles launched in opposition to Ukraine from Russian ships within the Black Sea crossed Moldova’s airspace, the nation’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nicu Popescu complained.
A day earlier, Putin had known as the assault on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea a terrorist act carried out by Ukrainian particular companies. In a gathering Sunday with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Putin stated “there’s no doubt it was a terrorist act directed at the destruction of critically important civilian infrastructure.”
The Kerch Bridge is vital to Russia strategically, as a navy provide line to its forces in Ukraine, and symbolically, as an emblem of its claims on Crimea. No one has claimed duty for damaging the 12-mile (19-kilometer) -long bridge, the longest in Europe.
Amid the onslaught, Zelenskyy stated on his Telegram account that Russia is “trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth.”
The assaults appeared set to convey a recent bout of worldwide condemnation for Russia.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, stated the Group of Seven industrial powers will maintain a videoconference Tuesday on the scenario which Zelenskyy will tackle. Germany at present chairs the G-7.
The assaults introduced a refrain of concern in Europe. French President Emanuel Macron expressed “extreme concern, as the strikes caused civilian casualties” and renewed his pledge of extra navy help for Ukraine.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted that “Russia’s firing of missiles into civilian areas of Ukraine is unacceptable.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba broke off his Africa tour and headed again to Ukraine, tweeting that the assaults represented “terror on peaceful Ukrainian cities.”
Some feared Monday’s assaults may be the primary salvo in a renewed Russian offensive. Ukraine’s Ministry of Education introduced that every one faculties in Ukraine should swap to on-line courses at the least till the tip of this week.
In an ominous transfer, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko introduced Monday that he and Putin have agreed to deploy a joint “regional grouping of troops” amid the escalation of preventing in Ukraine. He supplied no particulars as to the place the grouping shall be deployed, when and what for.
Lukashenko repeated his claims that Ukraine is plotting an assault on Belarus, sparking fears the stage is being set for preemptive motion by Minsk.
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Sabra Ayres in Kyiv, Vasilisa Stepanenko in Kharkiv, and Justin Spike and Yesica Fisch in Dnipro, contributed to this story.
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Follow the AP’s protection of the battle at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Source: www.bostonherald.com”