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Death Toll in Kyiv Rises From Russian Airstrikes


Rescuers carry a woman extracted from debris after a Russian missile struck an apartment building in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 24, 2023. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)
Rescuers carry a woman extracted from debris after a Russian missile struck an apartment building in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 24, 2023. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters)

Latest Developments:

  • Wagner’s mutiny against Russian military leadership and the subsequent negotiations between Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin for the de-escalation of the revolt, has exposed fresh "cracks" in the strength of the Kremlin’s leadership that may take weeks or months to play out, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday. "I don't think we've seen the final act," Blinken said on ABC News, in one of a series of interviews after the aborted mutiny by forces led by Prigozhin.
  • Prigozhin will move to Belarus under a deal negotiated by Lukashenko, ending Wagner’s armed mutiny against Russia's military leadership, the Kremlin said Saturday.
  • China supports Russia in maintaining Russia’s national stability, said the Chinese foreign ministry in a statement Sunday, after Wagner’s aborted rebellion.

The death toll from an attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early Saturday has risen to five, according to the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko. Rescuers discovered two more bodies under the rubble of a 24-story apartment block in the city’s Solomyanski district, Klitschko said in a Telegram post Sunday.

It was Russia’s eighth attack on the Ukrainian capital in June, said Serhii Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. He added that falling debris from a Russian missile attack in Kyiv resulted in a fire on several floors of a 24-story building. He also said that air defenses had shot down more than 20 Russian missiles in the airspace around Kyiv.

Officials in Ukraine said Russia launched missile attacks on several Ukrainian cities Saturday, causing damage to buildings and casualties.

Meanwhile, 11 people, including three children, were injured in a missile attack on the city of Dnipro that destroyed four homes, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Seven of them are hospitalized, officials said.

In Kharkiv, a city of more than 1 million people just south of the Russian border, a fire was started when a gas line was hit, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram. Terekhov said three missiles were fired at the city.

Explosions were also reported in Kremenchuk, RFE/RL reported.

Fighting rages

Meanwhile battles rage on the eastern and southern fronts. The British defense ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence report about Ukraine, that in “recent days,” Ukraine has again undertaken “major offensive operations” on three main axes in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

In the report posted on Twitter, the update said Ukrainian forces have learned from their experiences in the first two weeks of the counteroffensive and refined their tactics to assault “the deep, well prepared Russian defenses.”

Ukrainian troops have advanced in several directions around the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk oblast, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Saturday. “There is progress in all directions,” she wrote on Telegram.

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