Russia strikes Kyiv during UN chief's visit
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres (center) with officials in the Borodyanka region of Ukraine on April 28. Photo: Andre Luis Alves/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Russia struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Thursday with at least two missiles while United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was in the city meeting Ukrainian officials.
Why it matters: The strikes killed at least one person and injured several others, according to the UN. They came just days after Guterres met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who claimed Russia is still seeking a "diplomatic outcome" in Ukraine and denied that his military has deliberately killed Ukrainian civilians.
Russia launched the attack on Kyiv shortly after Guterres held a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which the UN chief promised to increase aid to Ukraine.
- At least one of the missiles struck a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi District of Kyiv, according to photographs of the aftermath.
- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said Friday that one of its journalists, Vira Hyrych, was killed in the strike on the building.
What they're saying: "It is a war zone, but it is shocking that it happened close to us," Saviano Abreu, a spokesman for the UN's humanitarian office who was with Guterres, told AFP.
- Zelensky, who claimed Russia launched five missiles at Kyiv during the attack, said in an address Thursday night that it "says a lot about Russia's true attitude to global institutions" and "the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the UN and everything that the organization represents."
The big picture: Earlier in his visit, Guterres visited the towns of Irpin and Bucha, where over 300 people were tortured and killed while they were occupied by Russian forces.
- During his meeting with Guterres, Putin denied that Russian troops killed the civilians.
- Satellite images of Bucha showing several bodies of dead civilians lying in streets weeks before Ukrainian forces reclaimed control of the town, the New York Times reported.
- Footage published in another Times report shows a Russian armored vehicle killing a person on a bicycle in early March. After Russia withdrew from the city in early April, a body with the same clothes as the cyclist in the first video was filmed near a bicycle in the precise location in a second video.
- Drone footage captured on March 12 and 13 published by CNN this week shows Russian military vehicles and soldiers near dead civilians strewn in street. The same bodies were found by Ukrainian forces when they retook Bucha.
Go deeper: Ukraine files first war crime charges for Bucha atrocities
