Russian airstrikes pummeled Kyiv for the third time in five days Monday, as Moscow intensified its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said falling debris from destroyed missiles demolished a non-residential building and damaged windows at nearby residential buildings. At least 10 people were injured across the city.
The side of the demolished building, which held an art academy's gym and exhibition hall, was reduced to rubble in an area packed with high-rise apartment blocks.
Schoolchildren had to run for cover during the assault, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink reported loud explosions in the Ukrainian capital.
“Over the last 5 days, Russia has launched hundreds of missiles and drones against a sovereign country,” Brink posted on social media. “Ukraine needs our assistance now. There is not a moment to lose.”
The Ukrainian air force said Monday it shot down two ballistic missiles fired from the occupied Crimean Peninsula, more than 500 km (310 miles) away.
After Monday’s attack, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Ukraine's State Emergency Service rescuers, police, utility workers, and all other services involved in rescue and recovery of civilians. He also renewed his appeal for Western partners to provide more air defense systems to protect against Russia’s “unrelenting attacks.”
“We reiterate that Ukraine requires more air defense systems, which provide safety for our cities and save lives. All of us who respect and protect life must put an end to this terror,” Zelenskyy wrote on a post on the social platform X formerly Twitter.
The bombardment of Kyiv came three days after a terrorist attack on a concert hall outside Moscow that killed more than 130 people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to link the attack on Crocus Concert Hall to Ukraine, even though an affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility and Ukraine has denied having anything to do with the attack.
In a statement Sunday, leaders of Catholic religious organizations in the United States denounced Russia’s attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure calling them “war crimes.”
“We beseech the religious leaders of Russia, especially Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, to stop supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to urge President Putin to halt terror attacks aimed at innocent civilians. We likewise urge our government and civic authorities to utilize all available just means to protect Ukraine and its people from this brutal aggression,” the statement read.
Since last Monday, Russia has used nearly 190 missiles of various types, almost 140 ‘Shahed’ drones and almost 700 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine, according to Zelenskyy in his Sunday video address. “There has not been a single week in the more than two years of this war when Russia refrained from terror,” he said.
On Friday, Russia unleashed a massive attack against Ukraine’s energy sector, describing the assault as retaliation for Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russian soil.
Ukraine’s continuous shelling on the Russian border region of Belgorod have forced Russia to plan evacuating about 9,000 children from the border region, the region’s governor Vyacheslev Gladkov said Tuesday.
The children will be moved farther east of Belgorod, away from the Ukraine border, Gladkov said.
His announcement came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin wants to create a buffer zone to help protect border regions from long-range Ukrainian strikes and cross-border raids more than two years into the war.
Russia also said Monday it thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack in the Rostov area of southwestern Russia, while a fire at a power plant in the region disrupted service.
The Russian defense ministry said its air defenses shot down all 11 Ukrainian drones involved in the attack.
Vasily Golubev, the regional governor in Rostov, said on Telegram there was a fire at the Novocherkassk power plant, causing two of its power units to be temporarily taken out of operation.
Russian ambassador - Poland
The Russian ambassador did not come to the foreign ministry in Warsaw despite being summoned to do so, a Polish spokesperson said on Monday, after a Russian missile flew into Poland's airspace.
Russia violated Poland's airspace early on Sunday with a cruise missile launched at targets in western Ukraine, Poland's armed forces said.
"The ambassador of the Russian Federation... did not attend the foreign ministry today to explain the incident concerning the Russian cruise missile that violated Polish airspace on March 24," foreign ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski told reporters.
Russia's ambassador to Poland, Sergei Andreyev, told state-run RIA Novosti that he did not visit the foreign ministry, where he had been invited to discuss the "missile incident," because the Polish side did not provide evidence of any airspace violation.
Poland's army said its military radar systems recorded the missile entering the country's airspace for 39 seconds on Sunday, encroaching 2 kilometers into Polish territory before returning to Ukraine.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
