KYIV, Ukraine — Under a full-day curfew that brought the city to a standstill, Kyiv awoke Wednesday to air-raid sirens and more pain inflicted on residential neighborhoods as Russian forces — still stalled outside the capital — continued attacks on civilian areas across the country.
Plumes of smoke rose from a 12-story apartment building in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district, just a few miles northwest of the city center, after shelling left at least two people injured when the building was hit in a predawn attack. Several floors became engulfed in flames and the top floor was destroyed, according to the state emergency services.
The assault took place as a third day of negotiations was set to begin between Ukraine and Russia, the latest attempt to broker peace after the two sides failed to reach agreement during multiple rounds of previous talks.
In an early-morning video, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the demands of both nations were sounding “more realistic.” But he said that “time is still needed for the decisions to be in the interests of Ukraine.”
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed that a “business-like spirit” had begun to mark the talks. He told Russian channel RBK TV that “a neutral status [for Ukraine] is being seriously discussed in connection with security guarantees,” but there was no confirmation of that from Kyiv.
Zelenskyy, who met Tuesday with leaders of three European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization states — Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic — and spoke the same day to the Canadian Parliament in a video address, took his case directly to U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.
Speaking to a joint session of Congress, he pleaded with the Biden administration to ramp up its efforts to help Ukraine by supporting a no-fly zone over the nation, sending fighter jets and sanctioning more Russians.
Kyiv “doesn’t give up. And we have not even thought about it for a second, just like many other cities and communities in our beautiful country which found themselves in the worst war since World War II,” Zelenskyy said in Ukrainian.
Citing the attacks on Americans at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and at the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001 — both of which led the U.S. into wars — he asked Washington to take a more hands-on approach to defending Ukraine. “I need to protect our sky. I need your help,” he said.
“Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace,” Zelenskyy said in English as he directly addressed President Biden near the end of his speech. “Peace in your country doesn’t depend any more only on you and your people. It depends on those next to you and those who are strong. Strong doesn’t mean weak. Strong is brave and ready to fight for the life of [your] citizens and citizens of the world, for human rights, for freedom, for the right to live decently and to die when your time comes and not when it’s wanted by someone else, by your neighbor.”
Congress recently approved $13.6 billion in emergency military and humanitarian aid for the embattled nation and is expected to send even more.
But the Biden administration has been steadfast in refusing to support a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine because of the risk of direct military confrontation with Russia. It has also resisted Zelenskyy’s calls to transfer Polish MiG fighter jets to Ukraine via a U.S. military base in Germany.
It’s unclear how much the outpouring of U.S. assistance will help the country, which has impressed the world by fending off a bigger, more militarily advanced enemy but also suffered hundreds of deaths and severe losses of territory near many northern, eastern and southern border areas. The United Nations estimates that more than 3 million refugees have left Ukraine for Poland and other European countries.
While he tries to rally more international support, Zelenskyy appeared to shift on the key issue of NATO membership for Ukraine, pursuit of which is enshrined in the country’s constitution. On Tuesday, he said he accepted that his nation would not join the transatlantic alliance.
“It is clear that Ukraine is not a member of NATO — we understand this,” Zelenskyy said in a speech to the Joint Expeditionary Force, a British-led group of 10 North Atlantic countries on rapid crisis response. “For years we heard about the apparently open door, but have already also heard that we will not enter there, and these are truths and must be acknowledged.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that Ukraine never join the alliance and cited Kyiv’s desire to do so as a sign of Western aggression toward Russia.
On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he agreed with Zelenskyy. There’s “no way Ukraine is going to join NATO anytime soon,” Johnson said during a visit to Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelenskyy, tweeted Wednesday that “our position at the negotiations is quite specific,” saying Ukraine needed “legally verified security guarantees; cease-fire; withdrawal of Russian troops.”
He also suggested that Russians were more likely to negotiate because of Ukrainian counteroffensives “in several operational areas,” but did not share details.
In Kyiv, residents said it felt like the danger was getting closer even though Russian troops haven’t made deep inroads into the city, and routes in and out of it remained open.
Maria Zhartovska, a 31-year-old local journalist who works for the news website Babel.ua, said she awoke “to the sounds of explosions” for the second day in a row. She lives near the Lukyanivska subway station, which is three miles from Zelenskyy’s office and was shut down after Russian shelling damaged it Tuesday.
“By morning, we heard the air-raid sirens five times,” Zhartovska said.
As afternoon came, a series of loud explosions rumbled through the city center, where the occasional car still drove on streets completely devoid of pedestrians.
The city’s curfew, imposed Tuesday evening because of what Mayor Vitali Klitschko described as a “dangerous moment” in the capital, is scheduled to end Thursday.
Kyiv was not the only city to face overnight attacks.
In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, two people were found dead and four were injured after artillery destroyed two residential buildings, the state emergency services said. Part of a school building was also damaged early Wednesday.
In Chernihiv, about 90 miles northeast of Kyiv, another gruesome scene unfolded. According to a tweet by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, 10 people were shot and killed while standing in line for bread.
“Such horrific attacks must stop,” the embassy tweeted. “We are considering all available options to ensure accountability for any atrocity crimes in Ukraine.”
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(Bulos reported from Kyiv and Kaleem from London.)
