Kyivchoked by Russian bombs, has decreed the curfew for 36 hours. At least two people have died this Tuesday in Russian attacks on residential areas of the capital, before the expected resumption of negotiations started the day before between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict. Partially surrounded by Russian troops, the Ukrainian capital has been awakened by three major explosions. The emergency services later indicated that they corresponded to attacks on residential areas in different districts.
On Svyatoshyn, in western kyiv, a shelling hit a 16-storey building where “the bodies of two people were recovered and 27 people were rescued,” they said in a statement on Facebook. There was also a victimless attack on a house in Osokorky (southeast) and artillery fire that caused an extinguished fire in a residential building in Podilsk (northwest). In that place, covered with glass and debris, a column of smoke came out of the huge hole left by the impact while the neighbors threw the ruins of their houses through the broken windows, an AFP journalist reports.
The attack has been done before planned resumption of talks started by videoconference between the two sides on Monday and which, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, went “pretty well”.
at home for two days
In this context, the Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klichkohas announced a 36 hour curfew on the ukrainian capital starting this Tuesday night due to the “difficult and dangerous” situation in the city. “Today is a difficult and dangerous day (…) That is why I am asking the inhabitants of kyiv to prepare to be at home for two days,” said the official in a statement, explaining that circulation in the city will be prohibited from 8:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday until 7:00 a.m. on Thursday. “Any movement in kyiv without special permits is prohibited. You will only be able to go outside to reach the shelters,” added the mayor of the Ukrainian capital. The authorities had already imposed a similar curfew on February 26, at the start of the Russian invasion.
As for the talks between the opposing sides, the positions are far apart. Moscow requires to Ukraine withdraw from NATO and recognize the pro-Russian breakaway regions in the east of the country, whose independence was recognized by the Russian President Vladimir Putin days before the invasion that began on February 24.
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For its part, Kyiv calls for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces from its territory. Previously, both sides held three face-to-face meetings in Belarus, in addition to a meeting of their respective foreign ministers in Turkey.
Nearly three weeks after Putin launched a full-scale invasion of the former soviet republic, Russian forces have bombed and surrounded many Ukrainian cities and towns. The capital has seen half of its three million inhabitants leave and is surrounded by north and east. Only the roads to the south remain open, where municipal authorities have set up checkpoints and residents are stocking up on food and medicine. kyiv is “a city under siege,” said a Zelensky adviser. The United Nations estimates that more than three million people fled the country and that some 636 civilians died, although the real balance is suspected to be higher.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.