Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – As Russian troops consolidate gains elsewhere in the east, Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital on Sunday morning and hit at least two residential buildings, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Associated Press correspondents in Kiev saw firefighters responding to the fire and rescuing civilians. Klitschko said that four people were hospitalized with injuries and a 7-year-old girl was pulled out of the rubble alive.
“According to preliminary data, 14 missiles were fired in Kiev and in the Kyiv region,” Ukraine’s People’s Deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote to the Telegram messenger.
Prior to the Sunday morning attack, Kyiv had not experienced a similar Russian airstrike since June 5th.
Klitschko told reporters he thought it was “probably a show-off attack” ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid this week.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko made a statement to the press at the scene of the explosion of a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sunday, June 26, 2022. In the early hours of Sunday morning, several explosions occurred in the west of the Ukrainian capital. According to Klitschko, two houses were damaged. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofti)
Later, two more explosions erupted in Kiev, but their causes and possible victims were not immediately clear.
Meanwhile, Russian forces are racing to engulf the last remaining stronghold in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast, accelerating the trend after fully controlling the remnants of a fire in Severodonetsk and a chemical factory where hundreds of soldiers were hiding and Ukrainian civilians on Saturday. .
Sergei Gaidai, governor of the Lugansk region, which includes Severodonetsk, said on Sunday that Russia had carried out heavy airstrikes on the nearby city of Lysichansk, destroyed the television tower and seriously damaged a bridge in the road.
“There was so much destruction – Lisichansk was almost unrecognizable,” he wrote on Facebook.
Residential building damaged by explosions in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, June 26, 2022. According to Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy, several explosions occurred in the west of the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Sunday morning, and at least two residential buildings were destroyed. Klitschko. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofti)
Also Sunday, US President Joe Biden said the US and other leading G7 economies are aiming to ban gold imports from Russia. They hope this measure will further isolate Russia economically for its aggression towards Ukraine.
Senior officials of the Biden administration said that gold is Moscow’s second largest export after energy, and that the import ban will make it harder for Russia to participate in global markets.
Biden’s Twitter account says Russia “earned tens of billions of dollars” from the sale of its gold, which is the second largest export after energy.
On Saturday, Russia also launched dozens of rockets into parts of the country far from the center of the eastern war. The Ukrainian Air Force Command reported that some of the missiles were fired from Russian Tu-22 long-range bombers deployed for the first time from Belarusian territory.
Birds fly over an apartment building after explosions in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, June 26, 2022. Several explosions on Sunday morning shook the western Ukrainian capital, damaging at least two residential buildings, according to the mayor of Kyiv. Vitaly Klichko. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofti)
The case preceded a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in which Putin said Russia plans to supply Belarus with the Iskander-M missile system.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said late Saturday that separatist forces backed by Russia and Moscow now control Severodonetsk and surrounding villages. He said attempts by Ukrainian forces to make the Nitrogen plant “a center of stubborn resistance” were thwarted.
On Saturday, Gaidai confirmed that it had been captured by Russian militants and separatists, which Severodonetsk said was trying to block Lysychansk from the south.
Police and firefighters work at the scene of the explosion of a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, June 26, 2022. In the early hours of Sunday morning, several explosions occurred in the west of the Ukrainian capital, and at least two residential buildings were destroyed. This was stated by the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofti)
According to Russia’s Interfax news agency, spokesman for separatist forces Andrei Marochko said that Russian troops and separatist fighters entered Lisichansk and clashes continue in the city center. Ukraine has not yet made a statement regarding the claim.
Lisichansk and Severodonetsk were the focus of Russia’s offensive, aimed at capturing all of Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian army defending it – the most combat-ready and formidable part of the country’s armed forces.
The capture of Lisichansk would give Russian troops control of every major population center in the province and would be an important step towards Russia’s goal of capturing all of Donbas. The Russians and separatists control almost half of Donetsk, the second district in the Donbas.
Source: Breitbart
