Russian missiles shake Kyiv
"Putin's being counting on it from the beginning, that somehow Nato and the G7 would splinter, but we haven't and it's not going to."
Russian missiles hit an apartment block and kindergarten in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv yesterday, in strikes US President Joe Biden condemned as "barbarism" as world leaders gathered in Europe to discuss further sanctions against Moscow.
Up to four explosions shook central Kyiv in the early hours, in the first such attack on the city in weeks. Two more blasts were heard on the southern outskirts of the city later in the day.
"The Russians hit Kyiv again. Missiles damaged an apartment building and a kindergarten," said Andriy Yermak, head of the president's administration.
A Reuters photographer saw a large blast crater by a playground in a kindergarten that had smashed windows.
Ukraine's police chief, Ihor Klymenko, said on national television that five people had been wounded, and police later said one person was killed.
Russia has stepped up air strikes on Ukraine this weekend, which has also seen the fall of a strategic eastern city to pro-Russian forces.
"It's more of their barbarism," said Biden, referring to the missile strikes on Kyiv, as leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) rich democracies gathered for a summit in Germany.
"Putin's been counting on it from the beginning, that somehow Nato and the G7 would splinter, but we haven't and it's not going to," Biden told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Seeking to further tighten the screws on Russia, G7 countries announced an import ban on new gold from Russia.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said G7 countries should respond to the latest missile strikes by imposing further sanctions on Russia and providing more heavy weapons to Ukraine.
As Europe's biggest land conflict since World War Two entered its fifth month, the Western alliance supporting Kyiv was starting to show signs of strain as leaders fret about the growing economic cost.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the West needed to maintain a united front against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The price of backing down, the price of allowing Putin to succeed, to hack off huge parts of Ukraine, to continue with his programme of conquest, that price will be far, far higher," he told reporters.
Two Russian missiles also struck the central city of Cherkasy, which until now had been largely untouched by bombardment, according to regional authorities, who said one person had been killed and five others wounded.
Russia's TASS new agency quoted a pro-Russian separatist official saying its forces were advancing on Lysychansk, across the river from Severodonetsk, and had entered the city's industrial zone.
In the Ukrainian-held Donbas town of Pokrovsk, Elena, an elderly woman from Lysychansk in a wheelchair, was among dozens of evacuees who arrived by bus from frontline areas.
"Lysychansk, it was a horror, the last week. Yesterday we could not take it anymore," she said. "I already told my husband if I die, please bury me behind the house."
Comments