Russia renews strikes in Kyiv; Ukraine war far from over

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces resumed scattered attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond Saturday in an explosive reminder to Ukrainians and their Western supporters that the whole country remains under threat despite Russia’s pivot toward mounting a new offensive in the east.

Stung by the loss of its Black Sea flagship and indignant over alleged Ukrainian aggression on Russian territory, Russia’s military command had warned a day earlier of renewed missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital. Officials in Moscow said they were targeting military sites.

But the toll of war reaches much deeper. Each day brings new discoveries of civilian victims of a war that has shattered European security and plunged East-West relations to new lows. In the Kyiv region alone, Ukrainian authorities have reported finding the bodies of more than 900 civilians, most shot dead, since Russian troops retreated two weeks ago.

Russia’s preparations for the anticipated eastern offensive are producing more victims, A mother wept over her 15-year-old son’s body in the partially blockaded city of Kharkiv, where shelling increased this week. Nine civilians died and more than 50 people were wounded on Friday, the president’s office reported.

An explosion believed to be caused by a missile struck Saturday near an outdoor market in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to firefighters and AP journalists at the scene. One person was killed, and at least 18 people were wounded, according to rescue workers.

AP Photo/Felipe Dana

Ukrainian servicemen walk among debris of damaged buildings after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday.

In the capital, smoke rose early Saturday from eastern Kyiv as Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported a strike on the the city’s Darnytski district. One person was killed and several more were wounded, he said. The mayor advised residents who fled the city earlier in the war not to return for their safety.

“Our air defense forces are doing everything they can to protect us, but the enemy is insidious and ruthless,” Klitschko said.

It was not immediately clear from the ground what was hit in the attack. Darnytskyi is a sprawling district on the southeastern edge of the capital, containing a mixture of Soviet-style apartment blocks, newer shopping centers and big-box retail outlets, industrial areas and railyards.

Earlier this week the Russian military said it would carry out strikes on Kyiv, and Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Saturday an armored vehicle plant in the Ukrainian capital was targeted. He didn’t specify where the plant is located, but there is one in the Darnytskyi district.

He said it was among multiple Ukrainian military sites hit with “air-launched high-precision long-range weapons.” As the U.S. and Europe send new arms to Ukraine, the strategy could be aimed at hobbling Ukraine’s defenses ahead of what’s expected to be a full-scale Russian assault in the east.

It was the second strike in the Kyiv area in two days. Another hit a missile plant on Friday as tentative signs of prewar life began to resurface in the capital after Russian troops failed to capture the city and withdrew to concentrate on lauching a full-scale assault in eastern Ukraine.

Kyiv was not the only target far from the eastern front Saturday. The governor of the Lviv region in western Ukraine, an area long seen as a safe zone, reported airstrikes on the region by Russian Su-35 aircraft that took off from neighboring Belarus. Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy didn’t provide details about possible casualties or damage.

Fighting continued in the pummeled southern port city of Mariupol, where Russian forces have maintained a blockade since the early days of the invasion, and dwindling numbers of Ukrainian defenders have held out against the siege.

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