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Kyiv – A series of strikes hit Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday, shattering a sense of relative calm since Russia’s withdrawal from the capital in early April, when the Group of Seven nations began a two-day summit in Germany with the war in Ukraine at the forefront and – central theme.
The attack, which affected an apartment building and a playground, killed at least one person and injured several others, according to authorities. It came after the country experienced an “abnormally large series of missile attacks on later areas of Ukraine” the day before, according to the think tank of the U.S. Institute for the Study of War.
The morning blasts were fired with Russian bombers flying over the Caspian Sea, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said.
Amid the lingering smell of smoke and under a dark cloud hanging over the affected area, rescue workers dug among rubble in the apartment building for hours after the blasts. A first responder told The Washington Post that he saw the hand of a man coming out of a pile of rubble. A seriously injured woman, who had been trapped for several hours under concrete slabs, was taken on a stretcher to an ambulance. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, said he also removed a 7-year-old girl from the rubble. His father was the murdered person.
Gerashchenko showed reporters a damaged Russian passport that he said belonged to the rescued woman, proof, he said, that Russian President Vladimir Putin was hurting his own citizens. “The Russians are shooting at the Russians,” he tweeted.
Oleksii Brazytsky, 55, woke up to the sound of two explosions around 6 p.m. As he watched from his apartment, trying to assess the damage, a third explosion shattered his windows and sprayed glass on his face.
A nearby factory could have been the target of the attacks, Brazytsky said, but he also suspected Russian forces had intentionally struck civilians. In his hometown of Donetsk, from which he fled eight years ago to prevent the spread of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, “the Russians are firing on civilian buildings. They’re probably doing the same thing here. “
President Biden described the strikes as an example of Russia’s “barbarism” during its first day at the G-7 summit in Germany. Summit leaders are moving to further isolate Moscow financially with a ban on new imports of Russian gold, which could result in a tens of billions of dollars in fines.
Russia was due to enter its first foreign default of the century by the end of the weekend, with a deadline for interest payments of $ 100 million on public debt. Although Russia has the resources, sanctions cutting the nation from international payment systems prevent the nation from sending money to creditors. Russia’s finance minister has accused the West of forcing Moscow into “artificial debt.”
In eastern Ukraine, Russia continued to carry out airstrikes on the city of Lysychansk, the governor said on Sunday. The capture of what Serhiy Haidai called the “final fortress” would give Russia almost complete control of the region.
“Lysychansk is almost unrecognizable,” Haidai said, noting the widespread destruction of the Russian bombing.
The country’s Defense Ministry also warned that Russia planned to send military planes to bases in Belarus and lure that country more directly into the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke directly with Belarusians in his Sunday night speech. “The Kremlin has already decided everything for you: your lives are worth nothing to them,” he said. “But you are not slaves or cannon fodder. You don’t have to die. And you can prevent anyone from deciding for you what awaits you next. “
O’Grady reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Sammy Westfall reported from Miami. Kostiantyn Tatarchuk, Julian Duplian, Matt Viser and Ashley Parker contributed to this report.