The Ukrainian capital, kyiv, was the target of strikes on Thursday evening, in the middle of a visit by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and for the first time since mid-April, AFP journalists noted.
AFP correspondents saw a floor of a building on fire with black smoke billowing from shattered windows, while many police and rescue workers were present at the scene.
“In the evening, the enemy fired on kyiv. Two strikes on the Chevchenkovsky district”, confirmed the mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, adding that “information about the victims is being clarified”.
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“Missile strikes in the center of kyiv during the official visit of Antonio Guterres”, lambasted on Twitter Mikhaïlo Podoliak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Yesterday he was sitting at a long table in the Kremlin and today explosions above his head,” Mr. Podoliak quipped.
Guterres met Putin on Tuesday
“This is proof that we need a quick victory over Russia and that all civilized people must unite around Ukraine. We must act quickly. More weapons, more humanitarian efforts, more help,” added the head of the presidential administration, Andriï Iermak.
He called for stripping Russia of its right of veto in the UN Security Council.
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Guterres spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday. Thursday, he arrived in Ukraine to go in particular to Boutcha and Irpin, in the suburbs of the capital, theaters of atrocities attributed to the Russian army by the Ukrainians.
He also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, regretting that the UN Security Council failed to prevent and stop the war started on February 24 by Moscow.
“The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a violation of its territorial integrity and of the Charter of the United Nations”, he denounced once again.