KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces continued their assault on Ukraine’s capital Tuesday as the leaders of three European nations — all members of NATO — prepared to visit the war-torn country in a unified show of support.
Overnight blasts hit a high-rise apartment building in Kyiv’s western Sviatoshynskyi district, leaving at least two people dead and 35 injured. Shock waves from the shelling damaged a subway station just three miles from the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, bringing the war’s destruction close to the city center.
The assault came as the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia — members of the European Union as well as of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — were due to arrive in Kyiv for the first high-level visit by officials from either alliance since Russia invaded Feb. 24.
“The aim of the visit is to express the European Union’s unequivocal support for Ukraine and its freedom and independence,” said a tweet by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
Ukrainian officials were also set to begin a second day of negotiations with Russia after cutting short discussions a day earlier for a “technical pause.” Three previous rounds of talks have produced little progress, although Zelenskyy described Monday’s session as “pretty good.”
Even so, Ukrainian leaders continued to plead Tuesday for help from Western nations in putting a stop to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion as the death toll climbed amid Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II. According to the United Nations, at least 636 people have died in Ukraine — many more are likely — and at least 3 million refugees have fled the country, including about 73,000 children a day, on average. Half of the refugees have gone west to Poland.
Here in Kyiv, residents were awakened around 5 a.m. Tuesday by a series of blasts that rumbled through buildings in the city center. Ukrainian authorities said they were Russian artillery strikes — a sign that the long-expected assault on Kyiv was inching closer to the capital’s center.
The shelling killed at least two people in the apartment high-rise and sparked a fire that smoldered for hours after firefighters put out the blaze.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko announced a 35-hour curfew from Tuesday night to Thursday morning, saying on the Telegram messaging app that the city had reached “a difficult and dangerous moment.”
An artillery strike also hit the yard in front of a residential building in the Vynogradir neighborhood, spraying shrapnel into a number of apartments but leaving no casualties. Dazed-looking residents tiptoed through a carpet of glass and debris, and chucked out twisted window frames, damaged household appliances and pieces of furniture for hours after the attack.
“We weren’t hit. We are staying in a house outside Kyiv, but neighbors told us our apartment was hit,” said Dasha, a resident who gave her first name for reasons of privacy.
She picked through her living room, removing photographs from a blown-out frame and putting them in a bag. She stepped up to a shelf full of toiletries, reached a hand out to sweep them into the bag, then stopped as tears overcame her.
Near the damaged Lukyanivska subway station, a powerful barrage was thought to have targeted the offices of Artem, a Ukrainian missile manufacturer. But the blast didn’t spare the nearby buildings: a row of shops, including bakeries, a cellphone store and a Roshen chocolatier. The force of the explosion blew through a nearby McDonald’s, triggering a klaxon blaring through a commercial center.
Maxim, the proprietor of three bakeries along the strip, loaded his espresso machine, coffee grinder and whatever else he could salvage into a truck. Igor Yuchov cleared out the shattered glass in front of his cellphone shop.
“It’s our job to clean this and fix it, even now,” he said.
In a video recorded front of the damaged apartment building, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko shouted a desperate demand for Western countries to establish a no-fly zone.
“One more attack in Kyiv. ... Just close Ukrainian sky. Do it immediately,” said Goncharenko. “Give us aircraft, air defense. We’ll do everything ourselves but please help us.”
Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal are to meet Tuesday with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Although their nations are NATO members, the alliance insists that its forces cannot risk establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, engaging directly with Russia warplanes and engulfing the world in a much larger conflict.
As he has several times during the last 20 days of war, Zelenskyy made a direct appeal to the Russian people in a video uploaded to Telegram on Monday night.
“As long as your country has not completely closed itself off from the whole world, turning into a very large North Korea, you must fight,” Zelenskyy said, telling Russians to stand up against the Kremlin’s war. “You must not lose your chance.”
Zelenskyy is scheduled to speak Wednesday morning to American lawmakers in a video address to Congress, which recently approved $13.6 billion for military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
He’s expected to make another plea for a no-fly zone, more sanctions against Russia and more military assistance — such as fighter jets — to Ukraine. The U.S. has announced multiple rounds of sanctions and trade bans against Russia but has rebuffed other demands.
Speaking at a news conference Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki again ruled out any military deployment from the U.S.
“Starting World War III is certainly not in our national security interests. Putting U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine to fight a war with Russia is not in our national security interests,” Psaki said.
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(Bulos reported from Kyiv and Kaleem from London.)
