Bombing of Kyiv during the visit of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
At least three people were wounded in a missile attack targeting Kyiv today, while United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was in the Ukrainian capital, in the first strikes of its kind since mid-April.
AFP reporters saw fire engulfing a floor in one of the capital's buildings and smashed windows, while large numbers of security and ambulance personnel were deployed in the place.
"The enemy bombed Kyiv in the evening," said the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko.
Two strikes on the Shevchenkovsky neighborhood, on the lower floors of an apartment building,” he said, adding that “three people have been hospitalized so far.”
In Kyiv, a UN spokesman said that Guterres and his team were "shocked" by how close the bombing was to their whereabouts, stressing that they were all "fine".
"It is a war zone, but it is shocking that it happened near us," Saviano Abreu, a spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian office, told AFP, without specifying how close they were to the building that was targeted by the bombing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky quickly denounced the Russian bombing, considering it an attempt by Moscow to "humiliate the United Nations."
"This matter says a lot about Russia's actual position towards international institutions, about the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the United Nations and everything the organization represents," Zelensky said in a video clip via Telegram.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced in a tweet on Twitter a "disgraceful act of aggression", noting that the capital was targeted with long-range missiles.
"Russia once again demonstrates its position on Ukraine, Europe and the world," he added.
Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov condemned on Twitter "an attack on the security of the (UN) Secretary-General and global security."
"Rocket bombardment on central Kyiv during the official visit of Antonio Guterres," Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, wrote on Twitter.
"Yesterday, he was sitting behind a long table in the Kremlin, and today explosions over his head," he added sarcastically.
In the same context, Andrei Yermak, head of the presidential administration, said, “This is evidence of our need for a quick victory over Russia and the need for all civilized world to unite around Ukraine.
We have to move quickly.
More weapons, more humanitarian efforts, more help.” He called for Russia to be denied its veto in the UN Security Council.
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