Russia confirmed this Friday that it bombed kyiv, with “high-precision” missiles, during the visit on Thursday to the Ukrainian capital of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.
Producer and journalist Vera Gyrych, from the radio station financed by USA Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, after his home was hit by a missile.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it launched a “high-precision long-range” airstrike against the workshops of the space and missile manufacturing company. Artyom.
The first bombardment of the capital since mid-April came after Guterres visited Bucha, where dozens of bodies were found earlier this month after Russian troops withdrew, and other cities on the outskirts of kyiv.
the ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskydenounced the attack as an attempt to “humiliate the UN”.
AFP journalists saw a building on fire in a residential area, with a thick plume of black smoke escaping from broken windows.
“I heard the sound of two rockets and two explosions. It was a sound similar to that of a plane in flight and then two explosions with an interval of three or four seconds,” Oleksandr Stroganov, 34, told AFP.
More than 8,000 alleged war crimes
The UN Secretary General condemned the attack by Kyiv and asked Moscow to “cooperate” with the International Criminal Court in order to “establish responsibility” for the alleged crimes committed against civilians in Bucha.
The Attorney General of UkraineIrina Venediktova said that “more than 8,000 cases” of suspected war crimes have been identified.
He also pointed out that there is an ongoing investigation against ten Russian soldiers suspected of committing atrocities in Bucha, where dozens of bodies dressed as civilians were found after the withdrawal of troops from Moscow.
The facts under investigation, according to Venediktova, include “murders of civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, torture”, as well as “sexual crimes” reported “in the occupied territory of Ukraine“.
Hours before the bombing in kyiv, the US president Joe Biden asked Congress for $33 billion in additional aid to support Ukraine against Russian “atrocities and aggression.”
“The cost of this fight is not cheap. But giving in to aggression is going to be more expensive if we allow it to happen,” he argued.
Biden affirmed that the United States will send ten anti-tank weapons for each Russian armor, but the commander of the Air Force of Ukraine Mikola Olechchuk pointed out that the country’s anti-aircraft system is unable to hit the bombers at a high altitude.
“We need medium and long-range anti-aircraft systems” and “modern fighters,” said the military man.
Diplomatic battle around the G20
The United States criticized the presence of the Russian president, Vladimir Putinat the next G20 summit of industrialized and emerging powers, scheduled for November on the Indonesian island of Bali.
“You cannot act as if nothing happened regarding the participation of Russia within the international community and international institutions,” said State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Jalina Porter.
The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, reported that he invited both Putinwho has already confirmed his participation, like Zelenski.
The spokesman for the United States Department of Defense, John Kirbyattacked Putin’s “depravity” and questioned whether someone with “ethical and moral sense” could justify the bombings of hospitals and the summary executions of innocents.
Bombing in Mariupol
Russia failed to take kyiv after invading Ukraine on February 24, but then concentrated its troops in the east and south of the country, around the port of Mariupolcontinuing to bombard western and central areas with long-range missiles.
The authorities try to evacuate the civilians of Mariùpol, trapped in the gigantic iron and steel plant of Azovstalwhere the last pockets of resistance are concentrated.
the ukrainian battalion Azov indicated on Telegram that a military field hospital located in that industrial complex was bombed.
The operations room sank and soldiers being treated were killed or wounded, the report added, without giving a casualty count.
The Ukrainian government admitted that Russian forces have captured several towns in the region of donbasin the East.
Ukrainian forces, armed by Western powers, also claimed some front-line victories.
A senior official of Pentagonwho spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that the Russian offensive is progressing slowly, “several days behind schedule” compared to the planned plan.
“They are far from having made the connection” between the troops that entered through the Kharkov region (east), to the north of that region, and those that come from the south of the country, he said.
In the region of Kharkivthe Ukrainians claimed to have recovered Ruska Lozova, a town “important to Russian strategy”.
So far, the conflict has forced 5.4 million Ukrainians to leave their country and more than 7.7 million fled are internally displaced, according to an estimate by the UN.