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KYIV: Russian shelling struck Kyiv on Tuesday killing at least two people, as invading forces tightened their grip on the Ukrainian capital and the mayor announced a 36-hour curfew.
Two large blasts echoed across the centre of the city just before dawn on Tuesday. Late on Monday, tracer bullets flashed across the night sky as Ukrainian forces apparently targeted an enemy drone.
“Today is a difficult and dangerous moment,” mayor Vitali Klitschko said. “The capital is the heart of Ukraine, and it will be defended. Kyiv, which is currently the symbol and forward operating base of Europe’s freedom and security, will not be given up by us.”
The announcement came as Russia launched fresh attacks in Ukraine’s capital, which has nearly been encircled by Moscow’s troops in the third week of the crisis.
Witnesses saw a high-rise apartment block in flames after being struck by artillery. Firefighters tried to douse the blaze and rescue workers helped evacuate residents trapped inside using mobile ladders.
Kyiv has been spared the worst of the fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but the Russian military is slowly closing in on the city and the shelling has intensified.
In another part of the city, residents cleared debris from their homes after shelling blew out windows, ruined balconies and left wreckage strewn across the ground. Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict and millions more displaced.
It comes as the Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers were travelling to Kyiv by train on Tuesday in the first visit by foreign leaders to the capital. Kyiv imposed a similar curfew on February 26 just after Moscow launched its attack.
