KYIV | A residential area in northwestern Kyiv was the target Wednesday morning of a Russian bombardment which left four people slightly injured and damaged several homes, we learned from concordant sources.
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Artillery fire fell in the early morning on the Nyvky district, in the part of the Ukrainian capital closest to the front line about five kilometers away, AFP noted.
A house was completely destroyed and burned, several buildings were pockmarked with shrapnel and their windows blown, it was noted.
Windows of neighboring businesses were also smashed and trees in this residential area decapitated.
The strike injured four people, according to a Kyiv city administration statement.
“The enemy shelled again. (…) Shevchenkivskyi district came under fire in the morning. Rescuers are currently on site attempting to extinguish several fires in private homes and high-rise buildings,” the city said.
“I was coming in from smoking a cigarette outside when all of a sudden, boom, the ceiling collapsed,” Volodymyr Okhrimenko, resident of one of the affected houses where firefighters were busy with people, told AFP. fire hoses to put out the flames.
“I lost consciousness for a few moments before I could get up. There were three of us, with my sister and her husband, in the house shared by two families. (…) No one died”, explained this pensioner, still stunned, but happy to get out of it with a simple scratch on the forehead.
“I just had time to take some documents and get out, before the house caught fire,” testified her sister, shocked and her eyes reddened by the smoke.
The Ukrainian capital has been the target of several bombardments since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24 and the arrival of troops from Moscow on the northwest and eastern outskirts of the capital. Their advance has since been halted by Ukrainian forces, particularly around the town of Irpin (north-west), now off-limits to journalists.
A total of 228 people, including 65 civilians (including 4 children), have been killed in Kyiv since the start of the invasion, according to the town hall.
In recent days, Russian bombardments in the city have remained sporadic and appeared to be focused on military objectives, such as the missile that hit a shopping center in another northwestern district on Sunday evening, where Ukrainian forces were hiding coins and artillery ammunition according to Moscow.
Parts of missiles shot down by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses, however, damaged buildings and caused civilian casualties. Suicide drones or bombs are also used by the Russian army above the capital, bristling with checkpoints, trenches and combat posts set up on every street corner.
The daily life of the inhabitants remaining in the city, for many of the men, most of whom are mobilized in the army and volunteer units, is punctuated by the alarm sirens, more often in the early evening or early morning, calling for take shelter.