KYIV
\nKyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city was under missile attack on Sunday with explosions in the Ukrainian capital, two days after a Russian missile killed 18 people in President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s hometown.
\nKlitschko said paramedics had been sent to two districts in Kyiv, while the Ukrainian air force said missiles had entered the northern Chernihiv region.
\n\u201cExplosions in the capital. Air defense is in operation,\u201d Klitschko said on Telegram.
\n\u201cThe missile attack on Kyiv continues. Stay in shelters!\u201c
\nHe added that three people were injured so far, and said there was reported wreckage falling in two non-residential sites.
\nAcross Ukraine, air raid alerts were also issued for the Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions.
\nThe attacks come at a time when US President Donald Trump is pushing for a partial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, more than three years into Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion, while seeking a thaw in ties with the Kremlin.
\nOn Saturday, Zelensky slammed the US embassy for what he called a \u201cweak\u201d statement that did not blame Russia for the deadly missile strike on his home city Kryvyi Rig. Nine children were among the 18 fatalities.
\nIn one of the deadliest strikes in recent weeks, a Russian missile struck a residential area near a children\u2019s playground in the central Ukrainian city.
\nSeventy-two people were wounded, 12 of them children, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Sergiy Lysak said after emergency operations ended overnight.
\nIn an emotional statement on social media, Zelensky named each of the children killed in the attack, accusing the US embassy of avoiding referring to Russia as the aggressor.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, the reaction of the American embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people \u2014 and such a weak reaction,\u201d Zelensky wrote.
\n\u201cThey are even afraid to say the word \u2018Russian\u2019 when talking about the missile that killed the children.\u201d
\nThe Ukrainian president took aim at the US Ambassador Bridget Brink after she posted a message on X on Friday evening that said: \u201cHorrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant.\u201d
\nBrink, who was appointed by Trump\u2019s predecessor Joe Biden and has been ambassador since May 2022, added that \u201cthis is why the war must end.\u201d
\nZelensky wrote on Saturday: \u201cYes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is wrong and dangerous to keep silent about the fact that it is Russia that is killing children with ballistic missiles,\u201d Zelensky reiterated in his evening address.
\n\u201cIt only incites the scum in Moscow to continue the war and further ignore diplomacy.\u201d
\nThe Ukrainian leader was born in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rig, which had a pre-war population of around 600,000 people.
\nZelensky said the children killed by the latest attack ranged in age from a three-year-old boy, Tymofiy, to a 17-year-old teenage boy, Nikita.
\nOleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rig\u2019s military administration, said three days of mourning had been declared on April 7, 8 and 9.
\n\u201cThis is nothing less than a mass murder of civilians,\u201d he said.
\nPictures circulated by rescue services showed several bodies, one stretched out near a playground swing.
\nRussia\u2019s defense ministry said it \u201cdelivered a precision strike\u201d in the city \u201cwhere commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting.\u201d
\nThe General Staff of the Ukrainian army retorted that Moscow was \u201ctrying to cover up its cynical crime\u201d and \u201cspreading false information.\u201d It accused Russia of \u201cwar crimes.\u201d
\nTrump, who said during his re-election campaign he could end the three-year conflict within days, is pushing the two sides to agree to a ceasefire but his administration has failed to broker an accord acceptable to both.
\nZelensky said the missile attack showed Russia had no interest in stopping its full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.
\nThe president hailed \u201ctangible progress\u201d after meeting British and French military chiefs in Kyiv on Friday to discuss a plan by London and Paris to send a \u201creassurance\u201d force to Ukraine if and when a deal on ending the conflict is reached.
\nZelensky wrote on social media that the meeting with British Chief of the Defense Staff Tony Radakin and French counterpart Thierry Burkhard agreed \u201cthe first details on how the security contingent of partners can be deployed.\u201d
\nThis is one of the latest efforts by European leaders to agree on a coordinated policy after Trump sidelined them and opened direct talks with the Kremlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city was under missile attack on Sunday with explosions in the Ukrainian capital, two days after a Russian missile killed 18 people in President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s hometown. Klitschko said paramedics had been sent to two districts in Kyiv, while the Ukrainian air force said missiles had entered the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-470947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n