The Ukrainian capital, kyiv, was the target of Russian strikes Thursday evening, in the middle of a visit by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and for the first time since mid-April, leaving at least ten injured according to the emergency services.
Reporters saw one floor of a building on fire with black smoke billowing from shattered windows, while many police and rescue workers were present.
“Five Missiles”
“This says a lot about Russia’s true attitude towards international institutions, about the efforts of Russian leaders to humiliate the UN and everything the organization stands for,” reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He spoke of “five missiles”, which hit the city “just after the end of discussions” with Antonio Guterres.
“It requires a powerful reaction, of the same magnitude,” he added in a video broadcast on Telegram.
“We are safe,” a UN spokesperson wrote to reporters, later adding on Whatsapp that “it’s a war zone but it’s shocking that it happened near there. where we were”.
Five people rescued and ten injured
“A fire broke out following enemy shelling on a 25-storey residential building, the first two floors of which were partially destroyed,” said the Ukrainian emergency services. “According to preliminary data, five people were rescued and ten injured,” they continued on Facebook.
“In the evening, the enemy fired on kyiv. Two strikes on the Chevchenkovsky district,” the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, had previously said.
“Heinous act”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba quickly denounced on Twitter a “heinous act of barbarism”, indicating that the devices fired were cruise missiles. “Russia once again demonstrates its attitude towards Ukraine, Europe and the world,” he added.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov denounced on Twitter an “attack on the security of the Secretary General (of the UN) and on world security”.
“Missile strikes in the center of kyiv during the official visit of Antonio Guterres”, also 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 there are explosions above his head,” Podoliak quipped.
“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 aid,” added the head of the presidential administration, Andriï Iermak. He called for stripping Russia of its right of veto in the UN Security Council.
Visit to Boutcha and Irpin, before kyiv
Antonio Guterres spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he arrived in Ukraine to go Thursday morning in particular to Boutcha and Irpin, in the suburbs of the capital, theaters of abuses attributed to the Russian army by the Ukrainians.
He also spoke with Volodymyr Zelensky, regretting that the UN Security Council had failed to prevent and stop the war started on February 24 by Moscow.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of its territorial integrity and of the United Nations Charter,” he said once again.