War in Ukraine: Attacks against the population intensify in Ukraine with a bombing of a shopping center in kyiv | International

The battle in Ukraine against citizenship is becoming increasingly fierce. Two bombings in kyiv and the shooting of Russian soldiers to disperse a demonstration in Kherson on Monday show the harshness of the war amid the deadlock in negotiations. Odesa, in the south, has endured its first attack, also launched against a residential area. In Mariupol, the city that has become a symbol of destruction and cruelty to civilians in this war that is now 26 days old, the Ukrainian troops have refused to surrender to the ultimatum issued by Moscow on Sunday.

At least eight people were killed in the attack carried out late on Sunday in northern kyiv. At eleven o’clock on Sunday night the explosion was heard for several kilometers around. Dawn, with the end of the curfew, brought back the image of devastation. This time the target of the attacks was the recently built Retroville shopping center. The gallery stands in one of the extensions in the court of the Ukrainian capital, not far from the area where the Ukrainian and Russian armies have been disputing the access to the capital for days. On the afternoon of this Monday, from the attacked area, the fighting can still be heard in the distance.

Neighbors crowded in Monday morning as close as they could to the cordoned off area. “It was like an earthquake,” explains Victoria, one of them, making the detonation gesture with her hands that shook everyone who lives in the neighborhood. She “she was sitting on the sofa at home when everything shook and small pieces began to fall from the windows.”

Around the epicenter of the attack are blocks about fifteen stories high built a few years ago with gardens in the middle. Many of the windows and glass have been blown up. Also shop windows. The damage could be seen even several hundred meters from the huge explosion that hit the mall. Many of the posters of large international fashion, restaurant or DIY brands had been installed in this commercial area that this Monday has remained surrounded by security teams and members of the Army.

Hours later, the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, reported in an interview with TVE of another attack in the center of the city in which a civilian was killed and 10 people were injured. “We expect new attacks in the next 24 hours and our main priority is to safeguard the lives of citizens,” Klitschko said.

A few hours after the bombing, the Ukrainian capital is experiencing a new period of lethargy imposed by the City Council. The curfew runs from Monday afternoon to Wednesday morning. During the night it is not allowed to go out on any day, but this is the third time that this measure has been imposed on citizens since the beginning of the war, on February 24. The purpose, according to the authorities, is to more effectively combat supposed groups of enemies infiltrated in the city.

First attack on Odessa

On the southern front, local authorities reported this Monday the first attack on the coastal city of Odessa, with around a million inhabitants, and a strategic port on the Black Sea that the Kremlin wants to conquer. The target, also this time, were residential buildings, but the attack caused no fatalities. The town, located at a strategic point for Moscow, had been shielding itself for weeks against the possibility of an imminent invasion.

The Ukrainian authorities have announced the closure of the ports of the Sea of ​​Azov and the Black Sea. After weeks of intense fighting, kyiv has lost control of the Sea of ​​Azov, a key geostrategic piece for the Kremlin that is trying to unite the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, with the separatist and pro-Russian region of Donbas. Putin’s troops have taken over the port of Mariupol, the main port of these waters, and have already entered the strategic city, where they are fighting street by street with the Ukrainian forces. The ultimatum launched by Moscow on Sunday for the Ukrainian Army to hand over its weapons and leave the town devastated by the bombs has not had an effect. The deadline expired at five in the morning on Monday and the Ukrainian authorities refuse to give up the city, as the Kremlin demands.

Constant bombing in Kharkiv

In addition to Mariupol, Kharkov, Sumi and Chernigov, in the east of the country, are the cities that have suffered the most from the Russian tactic of destroying urban areas with artillery. The mayor of Kharkov, Igor Terekhov, assures that many of the buildings reduced to rubble in the country’s second city were residential. “It is impossible to say that we have left behind the worst days; we are constantly being bombarded, last night there was artillery fire again,” Terekhov told Reuters.

Until now, peaceful demonstrations of Ukrainian citizens protesting the invasion had been seen under the gaze of Russian troops. This Monday, however, the soldiers have repressed a protest in Kherson with live fire, as denounced by the Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba. According to the minister, they have injured a pensioner.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has also accused Russia of forcibly transferring thousands of children from the Donbas region to Russia. The ministry spokesman, Oleg Nikolenko, has assured on his social networks that 2,389 minors were separated from their families on Saturday alone.

In the west of the country, just 166 kilometers from Poland, several people were injured this Monday after a missile attack on Ukrainian military facilities in the Rivne region, as reported by the Russian Defense Ministry and confirmed by the mayor of the town, Alexandr Tretiak, through his Telegram account. “According to the first information, there are several wounded. We will report in more detail later”, has detailed the councilor of Rivne.

While the attacks continue, the negotiating teams have resumed the talks this Monday. The delegates from Moscow and kyiv have spoken this morning by videoconference for 90 minutes. According to David Arajamia, leader of the party of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Parliament, they will continue to speak with the Russian delegation throughout the day.

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