AFP | Devastated neighborhoods, bodies lying in the streets, citizens fleeing by the thousands, patients taken hostage in the hospital; the violence even prompted the capital to declare a curfew on Tuesday.
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“The explosion was huge,” said Alla Rahulina, 64, in tears, whose building was hit early in the morning in a neighborhood near downtown Kyiv. “People were sleeping and shards of glass flew all over the place. I was literally thrown against the wall. »
At least four dead were pulled from the rubble and around 40 were injured on Tuesday at dawn after another of the four strikes that hit residential buildings in the capital in the morning.
Given the escalation of violence, the mayor of Kyiv has announced a 35-hour confinement, until tomorrow. Explosions and aerial sirens were also heard in the night.
“I ask everyone to be prepared for the fact that they will have to stay at home or, in an emergency, in a shelter, for two days,” said Vitali Klitschko.
Unequivocal support
Despite this, the deserted city hosted the Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers on Tuesday evening, who had come from Poland by train to meet President Zelensky in the very heart of his country.
They thus intend to “reaffirm the unequivocal support of the whole of the European Union” for Ukraine and present “a vast package of support measures”, Warsaw said.
Meanwhile, in Mariupol, about 4,000 cars managed to leave the city, carrying about 20,000 people outside the besieged city.
Gasoline being a rare commodity, several of them were immobilized along the way”, told the New York Times Anastasia Kushnir, 21, who finally managed to save herself with her family.
“There was heavy shelling, but we got through it,” she said after five hours on a journey that normally takes 30 minutes. The bodies simply rest where they died. There are a huge number of them. »
But 350,000 civilians remain trapped, holed up in basements and deprived of everything, according to a member of the city council.
So far, more than three million Ukrainians have fled abroad, including nearly 1.4 million children. This equates to “virtually one child per second”, estimated UNICEF.
“On Monday we counted 22 planes bombing our city, and at least 100 bombs they used […] The damage is appalling,” said Sergei Orlov, deputy mayor of Mariupol.
The Ukrainian army has also destroyed at least three Russian helicopters in Kherson, in the south, the most destructive strike of its kind so far according to CNN.
Hostage intensive care
Russian forces have also taken hostage the main intensive care hospital in the region, holding against their will nearly 400 patients and doctors, said the region’s senior official, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Just in Kharkiv, where the bombs continue to rain down up to 65 times a day, 600 residential buildings have been burned down, according to CNN.
Russian-Ukrainian talks are due to continue on Wednesday.
“The positions in the negotiations seem more realistic. However, even more time is needed for decisions to be in Ukraine’s interest,” Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, said on Tuesday evening.
– With Roxane Trudel