Ukraine’s national police chief Ihor Klymenko said one person was killed and five wounded in a Russian missile strike that hit a residential apartment block in Kyiv.
Among the injured was a 7-year-old girl, he said. Her mother, a 35-year-old woman named Katerina, was pulled from the rubble and taken to an ambulance. She is a citizen of Russia, but lived in Kyiv for a long time.
A CNN team on the ground spoke with the injured girl’s grandmother, Natalia Nikitina, who learned of the attack online and ran to the apartment block, where she cried as she watched crews try 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 was still pouring out of the building two hours after the attack, while almost all the windows on the top floor were broken and the ground was littered with debris and twisted metal.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said “strategic bombers” were used to attack the capital, with “four to six missiles” launched. He added that on Saturday, Russia used Tu22M3 long-range bombers from Belarusian airspace for the first time in a Ukrainian air attack.
“There are people trapped under the rubble. Some residents have been evacuated, with two victims hospitalized. Rescue teams are continuing their work,” he said.
Speaking to CNN on the site, Klitschko said that Russia’s war against Ukraine was “meaningless” and that thousands of civilians had been killed, adding: “We have to do everything we can to stop this war.”
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said the fire was caused by “enemy shelling” and occurred in 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 attack in early May and was also attacked in March.
Vadym Denysenko, 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 bombing this district.”
US President Joe Biden called Sunday’s attack “more than [Russian] barbarism.” He declined to answer when asked if the attacks 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 massing for further attacks in the region, nearly half of which is under Ukrainian control.
“Now we are witnessing the buildup of manpower, heavy armored vehicles and artillery in the direction of Sloviansk,” Kyrylenko said on Ukrainian television.
“The enemy is using their well-known tactics, trying to get closer to our defense line to fire artillery at the cities. Enemy artillery is already reaching certain parts of Sloviansk. This is another confirmation that people must evacuate.”
Throughout the offensive in the east, Russian forces have used heavy artillery and rocket fire before attempting to gain ground. They are attacking areas of Donetsk from three directions.
Kyrylenko said there was a missile and rocket attack on Kurakhove, a town on the southern front line in Donetsk that has been the target of Russian attacks for more than two months. Avdiivka had also been hit by rockets, he said.
As Russian forces increase the momentum of their offensive in eastern Ukraine, the city of Kharkiv and surrounding areas have once again come under increasing artillery fire.
Video released by the RIA Novosti news agency shows Shoigu disembarking from a helicopter at an unknown location and meeting with officers inside what appears to be a command center.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s Telegram channel said Shoigu “listened to commanders’ reports on the current situation and the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in the main operational areas at the command posts.”
Shoigu is also seen awarding medals to various soldiers, including “The Gold Star Medals of the Hero of the Russian Federation and the Order of Valor,” according to the Telegram post. It is unclear exactly which places Shoigu visited and whether they were inside Ukraine.
Putin says Russia will supply nuclear-capable missiles to Belarus
“In the coming months, we will transfer to Belarus the Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which, as you know, can use both ballistic and cruise missiles, both in conventional and nuclear versions,” Putin told Lukashenko, according to the Kremlin. .
In a transcript of the meeting, Lukashenko expressed to Putin his “stress” and concerns over what he says are flights of US and NATO planes “training to carry nuclear warheads” near the border with Belarus.
Lukashenko called on Putin to consider “a reflex response” to the flights or to convert Russia’s Su-35 fighter jets, which are currently deployed in Belarus, so that they “can carry nuclear warheads.”
Putin responded that while it is possible to match US flights, “there is no need,” suggesting that because the Belarusian military has a large number of Su-25s that can be converted to nuclear-capable aircraft.
The Iskander-M is a Russian-built short-range ballistic missile system that can carry conventional or nuclear warheads with a maximum range of up to 500 KM (310 miles), according to Janes Defense.
G7 announces Russian gold import ban
Biden tweeted about the announcement Sunday in Germany: “The United States has imposed unprecedented costs on Putin to deny him the revenue he needs to finance his war against Ukraine. Together, the G7 will announce that we will ban the import of Russian gold, a major export that generates tens of billions of dollars for Russia.
Biden also commented on the unity of the G7 and NATO in Ukraine and the Russian invasion, telling German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the G7 and NATO will stay together and not “split up.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the price of allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to “continue his program of conquest” is much higher than the current cost.
“The price of backing down, the price of allowing Putin to succeed, of cutting off large parts of Ukraine, of continuing his program of conquest, that price will be much, much higher. Everyone here gets it,” Johnson said in a statement. interview on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Germany.
Salma Abdelaziz, Allie Malloy, Mariya Knight, Jonny Hallam, Josh Pennington, CNN’s Teele Rebane contributed to this report.
Reference-www.cnn.com