Russia intensifies bombardment of Kyiv

KYIV • Russia intensified attacks on the Ukrainian capital yesterday, a day after the city was placed under curfew due to what its mayor called a "difficult and dangerous moment".

Kyiv was subjected to a fresh round of bombardment overnight close to its centre, including on a 12-storey residential building, with columns of smoke rising high into the morning sky.

At least three loud explosions were heard just after dawn in the western part of the city, and thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky.

"Two residential buildings were damaged in an overnight bombardment in the central part of Kyiv, Shevchenkivskyi district. Two people reported wounded, 35 evacuated," the Ukrainian state emergency service said on Telegram.

Images released by the emergency services showed the top corner of one building had been partially destroyed, while the other had damage and scorch marks to its roof and upper part.

It was not possible to immediately visit the scene as journalists are restricted from moving around the city during the curfew, which lasts until this morning.

At least four people were killed and 40 injured in a Russian strike that set a building on fire in Kyiv's Sviatoshynsky district on Tuesday. Several other buildings were also hit.

Nearly three weeks after the invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces hemming in Kyiv on two sides have stepped up their attacks, with many in the capital fearing a full-on assault could come soon.

Battles continue to rage in cities such as Mariupol, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, as well as in suburban towns just outside Kyiv.

Western military experts believe Russia is increasingly turning to aerial bombardments after an initial ground invasion stalled - and as possible leverage in the negotiations.

But Ukraine's armed forces are launching counter offensives against Russian forces "in several operational areas", Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter yesterday.

"This radically changes the parties' dispositions," he added, without giving details.

In an update on the war, the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces referred to the "high intensity of hostilities" but did not say where fighting was heaviest.

Ukrainian officials also made clear that the death toll was rising from the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb 24.

The emergency services in Ukraine's eastern region of Kharkiv region said yesterday that at least 500 residents of the city of Kharkiv have been killed.

Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova said on Facebook that 103 children have been killed so far in the war.

Russian forces have struck more than 400 educational establishments and 59 of them have been destroyed, she said.

Governor Viacheslav Chaus of the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine said there was no electricity in the region's main city, Chernihiv, or in some other settlements in the area. But he said Ukraine's armed forces "are powerful and inflict powerful blows on the Russian enemy every hour".

The conflict has already sent more than three million Ukrainians fleeing across the border, and a peaceful resolution still seems beyond reach.

The conflict has also raised acute fears of Europe-wide fallout if Ukraine's nuclear power stations suffer serious damage.

But Belarus said it was now supplying electricity to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power station, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS