Deadly attacks in kyiv before new negotiations between Ukraine and Russia

At least two people were killed Tuesday morning in attacks on residential areas in kyiv, ahead of the expected resumption of talks between Russia and Ukraine that began the day before to end the conflict.

Partially surrounded by Russian troops, the Ukrainian capital awoke with three deep explosions. The emergency services later indicated that they corresponded to attacks on residential areas in different districts.

In Sviatoshyn, west of kyiv, a shelling hit a 16-storey building where “the bodies of two people were recovered and 27 people were rescued,” they said in a statement on Facebook.

There was also a victimless attack on a house in Osokorky (southeast) and artillery fire that caused a fire that was later extinguished in a residential building in Podilsk (northwest), where one person was hospitalized, they added.

In that place, covered with glass and debris, a column of smoke came out of the huge hole left by the impact while the neighbors threw the ruins of their houses through the broken windows, said a journalist from AFP.

The attack comes before the planned resumption of talks between the two sides that began by videoconference the day before and which, according to Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, went “pretty well.” “But we will see, they will continue tomorrow (Tuesday),” he added.

On paper, the positions are far apart. Moscow demands that Ukraine withdraw from NATO and recognize the pro-Russian separatist regions in the east of the country, whose independence was recognized by Russian President Vladimir Putin days before the invasion that began on February 24.

For its part, kyiv calls for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces from its territory.

Previously, both sides held three face-to-face meetings in Belarus, in addition to a meeting of their respective foreign ministers in Turkey. (I)