The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has blamed Russia for trying to humiliate the United Nations by raining missiles on Kyiv in a visit to the city by the U.N. chief, a deadly attack that has destroyed weeks of relative calm in the capital.
Ukraine’s forces, has meanwhile, fought to hold off Russian attempts to advance in the south and east, Zelenskyy reported. And U.N. backed efforts to arrange safe passage for residents who were trapped in the ruins of Mariupol continued. Several previous attempts to evacuate civilians have fallen through.
On Thursday, Russia pounded targets all over Ukraine, hitting a residential high-rise and another building in Kyiv just as life seemed to be getting closer to normal. The U.S.- funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has claimed one(1) of its journalists was killed.
Meanwhile, a former U.S. Marine was killed while battling alongside Ukrainian forces, relatives mentioned, in what would be the war’s first known casualty of an American in war. The U.S. has not made any confirmation about the report. At least two(2) other foreigners battling on the Ukrainian side, one from Britain as well as the other from Denmark, have also been killed.
At the same time, Russia’s military said it had destroyed “production buildings” at the Artem defence factory.
The bombardment came just an hour after Zelenskyy held a news conference with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who toured some of the destruction in and around Kyiv and condemned attacks on civilians.
“This says a lot about Russia’s true attitude toward global institutions, about attempts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the U.N. and everything the organization represents,” Zelenskyy said late Thursday in his nightly video address to the nation. “Therefore, it requires a correspondingly powerful response.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s way of giving “his middle finger” to Guterres.