Shelling hits Kyiv as 3 European leaders plan to visit embattled city

Ukrainian president expected to address Canada’s Parliament later Tuesday

Ukrainians wanting to flee their country wait to catch a train at Lviv station.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES / YURIY DYACHYSHYN

RCI

Russia’s offensive in Ukraine edged closer to central Kyiv on Tuesday, with a series of strikes hitting a residential neighbourhood as leaders from three European nations planned to visit the embattled capital in a show of « unequivocal support for Ukraine. »

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The latest:

• Explosions reported across Kyiv as Ukrainian authorities report artillery strikes.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asks Europe for more weapons, calls for trade embargo on Russia. Zelensky isset to address Canada’s Parliament (new window) at 11:15 a.m. ET.
• Leaders of Poland, Czech Republic and Sloveniatravelling to Kyiv to show support for Ukraine.
• ANALYSIS |Why these Ukrainian diplomats and leaders have little hope peace talks will soon end Russia’s war. (new window)

Shortly before dawn, large explosions thundered across Kyiv from what Ukrainian authorities said was artillery strikes. The shelling ignited a huge fire and a frantic rescue effort in a 15-storey apartment building. At least one person was killed and others remain trapped inside.

Shockwaves from an explosion also damaged the entry to a downtown subway station that has been used as a bomb shelter. City authorities tweeted an image of the blown-out facade, saying trains would no longer stop at the station.

Today is a difficult and dangerous moment, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who announced a 35-hour curfew starting at 8 p.m.

WATCH | Battered Ukrainian villages mourn fallen soldiers:

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As Russia stepped up its assault of Kyiv, the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia planned to travel to Ukraine’s capital Tuesday on a European Union mission to show support for the country.

The aim of the visit is to express the European Union’s unequivocal support for Ukraine and its freedom and independence, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in a tweet.

He will be joined by Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is Poland’s deputy prime minister for security and the leader of the conservative ruling party.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators also planned to resume talks after they were paused on Monday.

Zelensky to address Parliament

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to deliver an address to Canada’s Parliament at 11:15 a.m. ET. CBCNews.ca will carry the speech live.

Ahead of his address to Canadian MPs, Zelensky addressed leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force — a U.K-led task group of armed forces from several European nations —via videolink Tuesday.

The president, who urged Europeans to help yourself by helping us, said the Ukrainian military is rapidly using up weapons and other hardware that Western nations have shipped to his country. He also appealed for a full trade embargo on Russia, saying sanctions have not been enough to counter the Russian advance.

We have to acknowledge Russia as a rogue state and there has to be a trade embargo with Russia, Zelensky said. This is something that we need and you need as well, just like the rest of the world, to make sure there is peace in Europe and Ukraine.

Zelensky also repeated his frustration with NATO over its refusal to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine in his address to the leaders of the JEF.

What’s happening on the ground

According to the latest data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of Ukrainian refugees is approaching 3 million.

PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS / EMILIO MORENATTI

When Russia launched the war nearly three weeks ago, fear of an imminent invasion gripped the Ukrainian capital, as residents slept night after night in subway stations or crammed onto trains to flee. But as the Russian offensive bogged down, Kyiv saw a relative lull. Fighting has intensified on the outskirts in recent days, and sporadic air raid sirens ring out around the capital.

• The Ukrainian military said in a statement that the Kyivexplosions reported Tuesday were artillery strikes. They hit the Svyatoshynskyi district of western Kyiv, adjacent to the suburb of Irpin that has seen some of the worst battles of the war. Flames shot out of an apartment building as firefighters rescued people from ladders. Smoke filled the air. A firefighter at the scene confirmed one person had died and that several others were rescued, but that others remained inside as rescuers tried to reach them.
• Russian forces also stepped up strikes overnight on the northwest suburbs of Irpin, Hostomeland Bucha, the head of the Kyiv region Oleksiy Kuleba said. “Many streets [in those areas] have been turned into a mush of steel and concrete. People have been hiding for weeks in basements, and are afraid to go out even for evacuations,” Kuleba said Tuesday on Ukrainian television.

Russian forces also renewed efforts to capture Mariupol in the south, and unleashed new artillery strikes on downtown Kharkiv in the east, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a Facebook statement. It claimed Ukrainian forces have killed 150 Russian troops and destroyed two Russian tanks in the battle for Mariupol.

• The deputy mayor of Mariupoltold  (new window)CBC’s Power & Politics (new window) on Monday that the city still lacks food, water and medicine. “The situation is awful, and it becomes worse and worse,” Serhiy Orlov said, noting that the most recent attempt to get a convoy of aid into the city had stalled.
• The reported assaults come after a rare glimmer of hope Monday in the encircled port city of Mariupol,which saw a convoy of 160 civilian cars leave along a designated humanitarian route, according to city council.

But overall, nearly all of the Russian military offensives remained stalled after making little progress over the weekend, according to a senior U.S. defence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s assessment. Russian troops were still about 15 kilometres from the centre of Kyiv, the official said.

The Red Cross and the United Nations refugee agency say millions of people face food and medicine shortages along with the immediate conflict threats of shelling and air attacks, with millions displaced within the country.

More than 2.95 million people from Ukraine have fled to neighbouring countries in what the UN has called Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War. Of those, more than 1.7 million are in neighbouring Poland, the UN refugee agency says. (new window) The International Organization for Migration put the number even higher, saying more than three million people had fled Ukraine since the war began.

In Washington, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that while the Biden administration supports Ukraine’s participation in the talks with Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin would have to show signs of de-escalating in order to demonstrate good faith.

During a meeting in Rome with a senior Chinese diplomat, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned China against helping Russia.

Two administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said China had signalled to Moscow that it would be willing to provide both military support in Ukraine and financial backing to help stave off effects of Western sanctions, which include a fourth set of EU sanctions announced late Monday.

The Kremlin has denied asking China for military equipment to use in Ukraine. China, meanwhile, insists that its stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is impartial and constructive. The Chinese government is also repeating its accusations that the U.S. is spreading misinformation over reports Beijing has responded positively to a Russian request for military supplies.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia has its own potential to continue the operation and that it was unfolding in accordance with the plan and will be completed on time and in full.

Russia has faced major international sanctions and increasing pressure from abroad, as well as some domestic protest.

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On Monday, the live main evening news program on state television in Russia was briefly interrupted by a woman who walked into the studio holding a poster against the war.

Russia’s military is bigger and better equipped than Ukraine’s, but its troops have faced stiffer-than-expected resistance, bolstered by arms supplied by the West.

The Associated Press with files from CBC News and Reuters