Four people were killed in a Russian drone attack in the Kiev region as Chinese President Xi Jinping left Russia on Wednesday after a summit with his counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The attack occurred overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday and hit a vocational high school in the kyiv region, according to Ukrainian authorities.
“More than twenty deadly Iranian drones” launched against Ukraine, “as well as missiles, numerous bombardments. All of this is just the last night of Russian terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced on Twitter, condemning “criminal strikes”.
In total, Russia launched 21 drones against Ukraine in an attack that began shortly before midnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that it shot down 16. Russia attacked Ukraine with drones Iranian-made Shahed-136 / 131 fighter jets from the Russian region of Bryansk, located in northern Ukraine, according to the same source.
The strike hit a vocational high school in Rjychtchiv, a town about 80 kilometers south of Kiev, said the State Emergency Service (DSNS), which released images of heavily damaged buildings.
The DSNS had initially provided a balance sheet of three dead and two wounded. Hours later, Kyiv region police chief Andriy Nebytov said on Telegram that the body of a fourth victim, a 40-year-old man, had been discovered at the scene.
Among the dead is the driver of an ambulance that arrived on the scene after the attack, the prosecution said in a statement on Facebook, reporting seven injuries, including an 11-year-old child.
Three people could still be under the debris, according to the prosecution.
The attack “partially destroyed” two floors of two residences for high school students and a building where they were studying, according to the DSNS. The fire that broke out at the site, affecting more than 300 square meters, was extinguished shortly before 7 a.m. local time.
Zelensky on the forehead
The Ukrainian presidency announced at midday that Volodymyr Zelensky went to the front line in the Bakhmout area on Wednesday, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine. “Honored to be there today and to decorate our heroes,” Mr. Zelensky said on Telegram.
On the diplomatic front, Chinese President Xi Jinping left Moscow on Wednesday morning after a two-day trip aimed at strengthening ties between China and Putin’s Russia.
Xi’s plane left Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after being greeted by an honor guard who played Russian and Chinese national anthems, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
During this visit, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on Tuesday praised the entry into a “new era” of their “special” relationship with the West, the Russian president cautiously supporting the Chinese plan to settle the conflict in Ukraine, while accusing Kiev of rejecting it.
The summit aimed above all to demonstrate the solidity of relations between Russia and China, in a context of heightened tensions between these countries and the West.
In a joint statement with Cold War overtones, the two leaders strongly attacked the West, accusing the United States of “undermining” international security to maintain its “military advantage”, and expressed their “concern” at the growing NATO presence in Asia.
Faced with critical comments from Western countries about the summit between MM. Putin and Xi in the middle of the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Wednesday not to be surprised. “As for the reaction of the countries of the collective West, the fact that their reaction on all issues was unfriendly and hostile in nature is not news to anyone,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. .
Mr. Xi’s trip to Moscow was an important support for the Russian head of state, targeted since last week by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC).