One person was killed and at least six were injured in a Russian missile strike that hit an apartment building in Kyiv. The city’s deputy mayor, Volodymyr Bondarenko, said four of the injured were taken to hospital as search and rescue operations continued.
Bondarenko also said that a kindergarten was hit in the missile strike but no one was hurt, and a video clip from Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs showed a massive crackdown by missiles in the kindergarten’s backyard.
He explained that among the injured in the apartment building is a 7-year-old girl. Her mother, a 35-year-old woman named Katrina, was rescued from the rubble and put into an ambulance. She is a Russian citizen, but has lived in Kyiv for a long time.
A CNN team on the ground spoke to the injured girl’s grandmother, Natalia Nikitina, who discovered the attack online and rushed to the apartment building, where she cried as teams tried to rescue her daughter-in-law.
“There is nothing worse than losing loved ones. Why do we deserve it?” She said. A plume of smoke continued to billow from the building two hours after the raid, while nearly every window on the upper floor was shattered, covering the floor with debris and twisted metal.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Henat said “strategic launchers” were used to hit the capital, firing “four to six missiles”. He added that Russia used, on Saturday, long-range Tu22M3 bombers from Belarusian airspace for the first time in a Ukrainian air raid.
“There are people trapped under the rubble. Some residents have been evacuated and two victims have been hospitalized. Rescuers are continuing their work,” he said.
Speaking to CNN on the site, Klitschko said Russia’s war on Ukraine was “meaningless” and that thousands of civilians had been killed, adding: “We have to do everything to stop this war.”
The Ukrainian State Emergency Service said the fire was caused by “enemy bombing” and was on an area of 300 square metres, in a “9-storey apartment building with partial destruction of the seventh, ninth and ninth floors.”
The same neighborhood was hit by a missile strike in early May, and it was also targeted in March.
Vadim Denisenko, an advisor to the Minister of the Interior, said on Ukrainian television that there are “a number of military infrastructure facilities located in the Shevchenkivsky district of the Ukrainian capital. That is why the Russians bombed this area.”
US President Joe Biden described Sunday’s attack as “more than… [Russian] barbarism.” He declined to respond when asked if the strikes were a deliberate provocation during the G7 summit.
The Russian offensive continues in eastern Ukraine
On Sunday, the head of the military administration of the neighboring Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, said that Russian forces are gathering to launch new attacks in the region, about half of which is under Ukrainian control.
“Now we are witnessing a build-up of manpower, heavy armored vehicles and artillery in the direction of Sloviansk,” Kirilenko told Ukrainian television.
“The enemy uses its well-known tactics, trying to get close to our line of defense in order to fire artillery at cities. Enemy artillery is already reaching certain parts of Slovensk. This is another confirmation of the need to evacuate people.”
During the offensive in the east, Russian forces used intense artillery and missile bombardment before attempting to gain ground. They attack the Donetsk regions from three sides.
Kirilenko said a missile attack and rocket attacks targeted the southern front-line town of Kurakhov in Donetsk, which has been the target of Russian attacks for more than two months. He said Avdiivka was also hit by missiles.
With Russian forces stepping up their offensive momentum in eastern Ukraine, the city of Kharkiv and its surroundings came under increased artillery fire once again.
A video clip published by the RIA Novosti news agency shows Shoigu getting off a helicopter at an unknown location and meeting officers inside what appears to be a command post.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s Telegram channel said Shoigu “heard reports from commanders about the current situation and the movements of the Russian armed forces in the main operational areas of command posts.”
Shoigu was also seen awarding medals to several soldiers, including the “Golden Star Medals of the Hero of the Russian Federation and the Order of Courage,” according to Telegram. It is not clear exactly which sites Shoigu visited and whether they are inside Ukraine.
Putin says Russia will provide Belarus with nuclear-capable missiles
“In the next few 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. .
In the transcript of the meeting, Lukashenko expressed to Putin his “concern” and concerns about what he claimed were flights of US and NATO planes “training to carry nuclear warheads” near the Belarus border.
Lukashenko asked Putin to consider a “reverse response” to the flights or converting Russian Su-35 fighter jets, currently deployed in Belarus, so that they “could carry nuclear warheads.”
Putin replied that while US flights could be matched, “there’s no need,” and suggested that because the Belarusian military had a large number of Su-25s that could be converted to nuclear-capable planes instead.
The Iskander-M is a Russian-made short-range ballistic missile system that can carry conventional or nuclear warheads with a range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles), according to Guinness Defense.
The Group of Seven announces a ban on the import of Russian gold
Biden tweeted on Sunday’s announcement in Germany, “The United States has imposed unprecedented costs on Putin to deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war against Ukraine. Together, the G7 will announce that we will ban the import of Russian gold, a major export that brings in tens of billions of dollars for Russia.”
Biden also commented on G7 and NATO unity over Ukraine and the Russian invasion, telling German Chancellor Olaf Schulz that the G7 and NATO would stay together, not “dissidents.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the price of allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to “continue his program of invasion” is much higher than the current cost.
“The price of retreating, the price of letting Putin succeed, infiltrating large parts of Ukraine, and continuing his program of invasion, that price will be much higher. Everyone here understands that,” Johnson said. Interview on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Germany.
CNN’s Ally Malloy, Maria Knight, Johnny Hallam, Josh Pennington and Tillie Rayban contributed to this report.
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