Russia strikes Kyiv during UN chief's visit, Biden asks for $33 billion for Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces bombarded Ukraine's capital late Thursday during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who decried the "absurdity" of war in the 21st century, as US President Joe Biden asked for $33 billion more to support Kyiv.
At least three people were wounded in the strikes in the western part of the city, which were the first in the capital in nearly two weeks, and came after Guterres toured Bucha and other suburbs where Moscow is alleged to have committed war crimes.
Ukrainian prosecutors said they were investigating 10 Russian soldiers for suspected atrocities in Bucha, where dozens of bodies in civilian clothes were found after Moscow's retreat, and had identified more than 8,000 alleged war crimes cases.
Those cases involve "killing civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, torture" and "sexual crimes" reported during Russia's occupation of various parts of Ukraine, prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told a German TV channel.
In Washington, Biden urged US lawmakers to approve his huge aid package, as well as proposed new laws to allow using luxury assets stripped from Russian oligarchs to compensate Ukraine for damage inflicted since Moscow invaded on February 24.
"The cost of this fight is not cheap. But caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen," Biden said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed Biden's proposal as an "important step" and "necessary."
'Shocking'
In a residential part of Kyiv, AFP correspondents saw one building in flames and black smoke pouring into the air.
"I heard the sound of two rockets and two explosions. It was a sound similar to a flying plane, and then two explosions with an interval of three to four seconds," Oleksandr Stroganov, 34, told AFP.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said there had been "two hits in the Shevchenkovsky district", with one hitting "the lower floors of a residential building". Three people were taken to hospital, but the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.
"It is a war zone but it is shocking that it happened close to us," Saviano Abreu, spokesman for the UN's humanitarian office who was travelling with Guterres, told AFP, adding that the delegation was safe.
Zelensky said the strikes, immediately after his talks with Guterres, were an attempt by Russia "to humiliate the UN and everything that the organisation represents."
A Russian military spokesman told reporters that Moscow's army had conducted air strikes against 38 military targets, destroying seven munitions depots, but made no immediate mention of Kyiv or the wider region around the capital.
Guterres, who arrived in Kyiv after talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, called the war "evil" after visiting Bucha and demanded that the Kremlin cooperate with an International Criminal Court investigation into the accusations.
Prosecutors said the 10 servicemen under investigation are suspected of "premeditated murder", cruel treatment and other violations of the laws and customs of war during their occupation of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, in March.
At a joint press conference with Zelensky, Guterres admitted the UN Security Council had "failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war."
"This is the source of great disappointment, frustration and anger", he added.
'Idle comments'
In Washington, Biden pushed back against increasingly heated claims by Russian officials and state media that Moscow is fighting the entire West, rather than only Ukraine.
"We're not attacking Russia. We are helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression," Biden said.
The US leader also blasted Moscow for "idle comments" on the possible use of nuclear weapons.
The $33 billion package sought by Biden is a significant increase on previous requests.
The bulk — $20 billion — would be weapons and other security assistance, while $8.5 billion will be economic aid to help Ukraine's government respond to the crisis.
Russia has targeted Western-supplied arms, as the United States and Europe increasingly heed Zelensky's call for heavier firepower, despite their misgivings about being drawn into a conflict with Moscow.
The German parliament on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favour of providing Kyiv with heavy weapons, a major shift in policy.
In its economic standoff with the West, Russia on Wednesday cut gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland, both European Union and NATO members. Both are now receiving gas from EU neighbours.
On Thursday, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Kiril Petkov urged Europe to be "stronger" and wean itself off Russian gas as he also visited Ukraine, arguing "everybody in Europe should be able to".
Biden said the West would not allow Russia "to use their oil and gas to avoid consequences for their aggression".
'One hope'
With the war claiming thousands of lives, Kyiv has admitted Russian forces are making gains in the east, capturing a string of villages in the Donbas region.
The first phase of Russia's invasion failed to reach Kyiv or overthrow Zelensky's government after encountering stiff Ukrainian resistance reinforced with Western weapons.
The Russian campaign has since refocused on seizing the east and south of the country while using long-range missiles against west and central Ukraine.
Guterres said the United Nations was doing everything possible to evacuate civilians from the "apocalypse" in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
A Russian official meanwhile said Thursday that the ruble will soon be introduced in areas of Ukraine under Moscow's control, despite Russia earlier insisting it was not seeking to occupy captured territory.
Ukraine's ombudsman condemned the move as "act of annexation" and "gross violation" of UN Charter articles.
Nearly 5.4 million Ukrainians have fled their country since the invasion, according to the United Nations, and more than 12 million others are displaced internally.
"We feel bad, we shouldn't be standing here," Svitlana Gordienko, a nurse forced to relocate to the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, told AFP as she queued for food at a humanitarian hub.
"We're left with only one hope: to return home," added pensioner Galina Bodnya.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday secured Turkey's crucial backing for Ukraine's NATO aspirations after winning a US pledge for cluster munitions that could inflict massive damage on Russian forces on the battlefield.
Washington's decision to deliver the controversial weapons — banned across a large part of the world but not in Russia or Ukraine — dramatically ups the stakes in the war, which entered its 500th day Saturday.
Zelensky has been travelling across Europe trying to secure bigger and better weapons for his outmatched army, which has launched a long-awaited counteroffensive that is progressing less swiftly than Ukraine's allies had hoped. — AFP
Washington's decision to supply Ukraine with ATACMS long-range missiles is "a grave mistake", Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov says Wednesday.
"The White House's decision to send long-range missiles to Ukrainians is a grave mistake. The consequences of this step, which was deliberately hidden from the public, will be of the most serious nature," he says in a statement. — AFP
President Vladimir Putin says Sunday that Russian forces had made gains in their Ukraine offensive including in Avdiivka, a symbolic industrial hub.
"Our troops are improving their position in almost all of this area, which is quite vast," he says in an interview on Russian television, an extract of which was posted on social media on Sunday. "This concerns the areas of Kupiansk, Zaporizhia and Avdiivka." — AFP
The regional governor says debris from a drone destroyed over the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, fell on homes and killed three people, including a young child.
The air defense system "shot down an aircraft-type UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) approaching the city", says Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, adding that the falling debris destroyed several homes.
"Most importantly, three people were killed, one of them a small child," he writes on the Telegram messaging app, accompanied by pictures of a house reduced to a pile of rubble behind red and white police tape. — AFP
Ukraine's air force says on Tuesday that it had destroyed 27 of 36 Russian attack drones overnight in the south of the country.
Ukrainian forces downed 27 "Shahed-136/131" drones in the southern Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, the air force said on the messaging platform Telegram.
In all, Moscow had launched 36 of the Iranian-made drones from the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, it says. — AFP
The Kremlin claims on Friday Russian forces never targeted civilian infrastructure after Ukraine blamed Moscow for a missile attack that killed over 50 people in the eastern village of Groza.
"We repeat that the Russian military does not strike civilian targets. Strikes are carried out on military targets, on places where military personnel are concentrated," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says in his daily briefing. — AFP
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