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KIEV – Ukrainians seeking shelter from Russia’s shelling of Kiev in the early hours of Thursday morning had nowhere to run after being locked out of a bomb shelter amid the wail of air raid sirens. At least three people, including a child, were killed and 19 injured, second Ukrainian authorities.
Russia fired seven ballistic missiles and three Iskander cruise missiles from Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, Kyiv Air Force She said, but although air defenses shot down all of them, the debris hit a hospital and several residential buildings, causing casualties.
With Russia increasing the frequency and ferocity of its rocket attacks on Kiev and other cities and towns in Ukraine, residents have less time to seek safety in the bomb shelters that have sprung up across the country in the wake of the widespread invasion Moscow scale.
In the early hours of Thursday, when most residents were in their homes, many asleep, the missiles arrived less than five minutes after the first sound of air raid sirens, signaling an attack was coming.
Several people died and others were injured after trying to escape the oncoming barrage at a local shelter at a health clinic in Desnyansky District but arrived to find it closed, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported from the scene.
“The air raid alert has been triggered. We were running towards a shelter. But nobody opened it for us. People have been knocking for so long. There were women with children », Yaroslav, who witnessed the carnage, Suspilne duty. His wife was among those killed by the Russian missile debris.
“My son survived, but my wife died,” said Yaroslav, sobbing. « We were together. I just ran to another part of the building to find someone to open the shelter for us.
The Kiev authorities, including Mayor Vitali Klitschko and his deputies, are face control for failing to establish a proper system for bomb shelters more than a year into the full-scale Russian invasion.
In the first days of the war, many shelters arose in subway stations and in the basements of residential buildings. But now, as Ukrainians suffer near-daily attacks from Russian rockets, complaints are mounting about shelters that are inexplicably closed.
« In each district of the city, the heads of institutions where shelters are located and the heads of districts are responsible for the operation of shelters that are marked on the map of shelters in the capital, » Klitschko he said in a Telegram statement Thursday morning after the bombing.
Referring to the incident in Desnyansky district, where fleeing Ukrainians reported being locked out of the health clinic, Klitschko said a shelter at a school next door was open, « and there were people inside. »
The mayor said law enforcement agencies have opened a criminal investigation into the incident.
“A fragment of the rocket fell at the entrance to the medical facility four minutes after the announcement of the air alert. And people headed for shelter. Now the investigations are ascertaining whether the refuge was open. Were there people inside? Because, according to the rescuers, after the damage to the health clinic, a group of people were taken out of it, » Klitschko said.
Interior Minister of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko, a police general, said police had opened a case to investigate whether the incident involved criminal negligence.
« Air raid shelters closed during the war are not just indifference », Klymenko She said. “As part of the investigation, we will find and bring to justice all the culprits. In addition, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, together with the National Police, will regularly check the availability and condition of fallout shelters in all populated areas of the country. »
