Residential buildings impacted when Russian missiles struck Kyiv
Russia attacked the capital of Ukraine in the early hours of Sunday morning and hit at least two residential buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi district, said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Emergency services said a fire broke out in a nine-story residential building, which had been partially damaged in the attack, as a result of the Russian bombing.
Klitschko said residents are being rescued and evacuated from two buildings.
“There are people under the rubble,” Klitschko told Telegram’s messaging app. He added that several people had already been hospitalized.
“They (the lifeguards) have taken out a seven-year-old girl. She is alive. Now they are trying to rescue her mother.”
The sirens of the airstrikes regularly disrupt life in Kyiv, but there have been no major strikes in the city since June 5, when a railway car repair facility was hit on the outskirts, and a bombing at the end of April when a Radio Liberty producer died in a strike. which struck the building where he lived.
The historic district, one of the headquarters of Kyiv, hosts a group of universities, restaurants and art galleries.
The blasts occurred around 6:30 a.m. local time, half an hour after the sirens of the airstrikes sounded in the capital.
Our correspondent, Lorenzo Tondo, tweeted it.
Updated at 08.08 BST
Carl Bildt, former Swedish Prime Minister and co-chair of the European Foreign Affairs Council, sees this morning’s attack as an escalation of the conflict and a signal for today’s G7 summit in Bavaria.
It’s hard to see this morning’s missile attack on residential areas of Kyiv as anything other than a deliberate escalation and a signal for today’s G7 meeting in Elmau. pic.twitter.com/NvTftqyHPd
– Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) June 26, 2022
One person died in a missile attack in Kyiv
One person was killed in the Russian missile attack in Kyiv, according to an unconfirmed update by Yulia Mendel, a former presidential spokeswoman.
Ukrainian MP Lesia Vaylenko said the victim was the father of a seven-year-old girl who was injured in the attack.
The bombed-out area of #Kiev is Lukyanivka. 10 minutes from the historic center. It was a new residential block next to an old unused military production facility. The rocket left a huge hole in the middle of the playground and fires burning in the city pic.twitter.com/GSYrjHepo2
– Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) June 26, 2022
Updated at 09.34 BST
Analysts have been examining Russian news footage of the visit of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s troops to try to determine who is now in command of Russian forces.
Rob Lee, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, tweets: “It seems to confirm that Colonel General Gennady Zhidko is the commander.”
Also in the video are the head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff Sergey Rudskoy and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov. No sign of Colonel General Alexander Lapin or Army General Sergey Surovikin, commanders of the central and southern groupings.2 / pic.twitter.com/5ByDGlgSTB
– Rob Lee (@ RALee85) June 26, 2022
In the picture, however, is Colonel General Gennadiy Zhidko, the commander of the Eastern Military District. It has been speculated that he is now the commander-in-chief of Russian theater in Ukraine after the failures of General Dvornikov. https://t.co/QoJfKq4wCT
– Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) June 26, 2022
Updated at 09.28 BST
Another deputy from Ukraine, Lesia Vasylenko, says seven people may have been injured in the missile attacks in Kyiv. He said at least eight missiles were fired. Earlier, a deputy said 14 missiles were launched.
Euromaidan Press has a video of one of the injured in the Kyiv missile attack that rescuers take away on a stretcher.
At least five people were injured Sunday when a missile hit a building in central Kyiv, Ukrainian police chief Ihor Klymenko told national television.
And Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko has more details about the scale of Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv this morning.
AP quoted him as saying:
According to preliminary data, 14 missiles were launched against the Kyiv and Kiev region.
Russian invaders bomb # Kyiv again.
Since this morning, explosions have been heard in the Shevchenkivsky district of Kyiv. Klitschko stated that there were four arrivals. Deputy Goncharenko said the Russians fired 14 rockets at Kyiv and the region. pic.twitter.com/dcmjeXTOwU
– NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 26, 2022
Updated at 08.50 BST
Matthew Weaver
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has inspected the units of Russian troops involved in Ukraine, Reuters reports, citing the defense ministry.
“At the command posts of the Russian units, Army General Sergei Shoigu heard reports from the commanders on the current situation and the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in the main operational areas,” the ministry said in a statement.
It was not immediately known when the visit took place.
Yaroslav Trofimov of the Wall Street Journal considers this to be the first time Shoigu has visited Ukraine since the war began.
Update: Reuters later clarified that in the pictures it was unclear whether Shoigu actually visited Ukraine.
Updated at 09.27 BST
Summary
- Kyiv has been attacked for the first time since June 5, with Russian missiles hitting at least two residential buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people had been taken to hospital and rescuers were working to free people trapped under the rubble. “They (the lifeguards) have taken out a seven-year-old girl. She is alive. Now they are trying to rescue her mother,” Klitschko said.
- The United Kingdom, the US, Canada and Japan will ban imports of Russian gold in the last stage of the effort to paralyze Russia’s economy in response to the war in Ukraine, the Press Association reports. Gold exports were valued at $ 15.2 billion to Russia in 2021 and their importance has increased since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Russian forces are trying to cut the strategic twin city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, after having reduced Sievierodonetsk to rubble. Lysychansk will become the next main focus of the fighting, as Moscow has launched massive artillery bombardments and airstrikes in areas far from the heart of Eastern battles. Ukraine described its withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk as a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets River.
- Russia will send missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Belarus in the coming months, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday while welcoming Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. “In the coming months, we will transfer to Belarus Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which can use ballistic or cruise missiles, in their conventional and nuclear versions,” Putin said.
- Mayors of several European capitals have been tricked into making video calls with a deepfake from their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey took part in a scheduled call on the Webex video conferencing platform on Friday with a person she said looked and sounded like Klitschko. “There were no indications that the video conference was not done with a real person,” his office said in a statement.
- Ukrainian bombings on Saturday forced Russian troops to suspend the evacuation of people from a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, just hours after Moscow forces took the city, Tass news agency Reuters reported. Separately, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that special forces were still in Sievierodonetsk, directing artillery fire against the Russians. The councilor, Oleksiy Arestovych, spoke in a video address.
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged G7 leaders not to “give up” Ukraine, as he promised additional financial support for Ukraine as it tries to fight the Russian invasion. “Ukraine can win and will win. But they need our support to do so. Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine, “Johnson said Saturday. The UK is willing to offer another $ 525 million in loan guarantees, according to a Downing Street statement.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine will regain all the cities it has lost to Russia, including Sievierodonetsk. “All our cities – Sievierodonetsk, Donetsk, Luhansk – we will recover them all,” he said in a video address at night. Zelenskiy also admitted that the war was becoming difficult to handle emotionally.
UK, US, Canada and Japan will ban imports of Russian gold
The United Kingdom, the US, Canada and Japan will ban imports of Russian gold in the last stage of the effort to paralyze Russia’s economy in response to the war in Ukraine, the Press Association reports.
Gold exports to Russia in 2021 were worth $ 15.2 billion, and their importance has increased since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as oligarchs have rushed to buy bullion to avoid the impact of sanctions, Downing Street said.
Officials believe that as London is a major gold trading center, UK sanctions will have a major impact on Putin’s ability to raise funds to fund his war effort. Boris Johnson confirmed the move when he reached the G7 summit in Bavaria, Germany.
The ban will take effect shortly and will apply to newly extracted or refined gold. It will not affect gold of Russian origin that has been previously exported from Russia, the British government added.
Updated at 07.55 BST
Indonesian President to press for peace talks on visit to Ukraine and Russia
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Sunday that he would urge his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to open a space for dialogue during a peacebuilding mission to countries at war, and called on Russian Vladimir Putin to order a ceasefire the immediate fire.
“The war must be stopped and global food supply chains must be reactivated,” Jokowi said.