Russian shelling struck Kyiv on Tuesday killing at least two people, authorities said, as invading forces tightened their grip on the Ukrainian capital and the mayor announced a 36-hour curfew starting from Tuesday night.
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."
Reuters 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. A body lay on the ground in a bag.
Kyiv has been spared the worst of the fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, but the Russian military is slowly closing in on the city and the shelling has intensified.
"What is happening right now in Kharkiv, in Mariupol and other cities — it was understandable that sooner or later it would happen in Kyiv," said local resident Igor Krupa.
A woman inspects debris inside a private house damaged by shelling in the Osokorky district in southeastern Kyiv on Tuesday. Source: AFP / GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images
"This actually saved me because all the windows went out and all the debris went into the apartment, and I remained unwounded. Just a couple of scratches."
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.
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, calls its actions a "special military operation" to "denazify" the country, a claim that Ukraine and its allies reject as a pretext for an unjustified and illegal attack.
Impact on young lives
The news of the attacks on Kyiv comes as the UN said one child is becoming a refugee every second in Ukraine.
Some 1.4 million children have now fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, meaning nearly one child a second has become a refugee, the UN said Tuesday.
"On average, every day over the last 20 days in Ukraine, more than 70,000 children have become refugees," James Elder, spokesman for the UN children's agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva.
That amounts to around 55 every minute, "so almost one per second," he said.
Train to Kyiv
The Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers were travelling to Kyiv by train on Tuesday in the first visit by foreign leaders to Ukraine's besieged capital since Russia invaded last month.
The visit comes as Russia pummels targets across Ukraine including Kyiv, which has nearly been encircled by Moscow troops, and as Russia and Ukraine are due to resume talks to end the nearly three-week war.
Mateusz Morawiecki, Petr Fiala and Janez Jansa are visiting as "representatives" of the European Union and are due to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Polish government said in a statement.
"In such crucial times for the world, it is our duty to be in the place where history is being made," Morawiecki said in a Facebook post.
Firefighters extinguish a fire in a 16-storey residential building in Kyiv on Tuesday. Source: AFP / SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images
The government statement said that the visit had been organised "in agreement" with European Council chief Charles Michel and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
"The purpose of the visit is to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and to present a broad package of support for the Ukrainian state and society," the statement said.
Top Polish government official Michal Dworczyk said the train crossed into Ukraine at around 07.30 GMT.
The trio is accompanied by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland's populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party and will also meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal.
"Europe must send a strong signal for peace!" Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller tweeted.
