Mother and daughter among latest victims of Russia’s attack on Kyiv

This is the moment a grandmother breaks down as she views the bodies of her daughter and granddaughter following Putin’s latest missile attack on Kyiv. Warning: Graphic.

A nine-year-old girl and her mother were among three people killed in a Russian air strike on Kyiv early Thursday.

Moscow’s forces have recently launched a series of aerial assaults on the Ukrainian capital, including an unusual daytime attack on Monday that sent residents running for shelter.
Photos captured the heartbreaking moment a grandmother stood over the bodies of her loved ones.
The grieving woman can be seen weeping as she was held up and comforted by emergency services workers.

A woman reacts over the body of her deceased loved one, next to a clinic that was damaged during a Russian missile attack in Kyiv.

The grandmother is comforted by emergency services workers. Picture: Getty Images

At least three people were killed in the missile attack including the woman’s daughter and granddaughter. Picture: Getty Images

The girl’s mum, 24, was also killed in the strikes as they ran for shelter in the early hours.
Yaroslav Ryabchuk told Reuters his wife rushed out with their daughter and ran to the entrance – but it was already closed.
He said: “There were already maybe five to 10 women with children.
“No one opened up for them. They knocked loudly enough.”
Mayor Vitaly Klitschko confirmed that over a dozen people had been wounded.

Men clean debris of a building damaged in the missile attack on Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

Experts look for fragments of a downed missile exploded outside a polyclinic during the Russian attack on Kyiv. Picture: AFP

People take shelter in an underground crossing during the hit on Kyiv. Picture: AFP

TEMPORARY SHELTERS FILLING UP IN RUSSIAN TOWN

At the same time, a Russian town was the target of “uninterrupted shelling” in the Russian region of Belgorod bordering Ukraine injuring eight people.

The shelling targeted the region 40km from the Ukraine border and struck the town of Shebekino.

“Shebekino is facing uninterrupted shelling” with rocket launchers, the town’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Belgorod mayor Valentin Demidov visits a temporary shelter for residents evacuated from the town of Shebekino. Picture: AFP/Telegram Handout

Residents are being evacuated and are filling up temporary shelters in the regional capital, Mr Gladkov said.

“The largest temporary accommodation centre in the city is gradually filling up, so all arriving residents of Shebekino are being sent in an organised manner to the remaining centres for displaced people.”

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said 12 people had been wounded in the previous 24 hours in the district of Shebekino, whose residents poured into centres for displaced people in the regional capital, named Belgorod.

The Russian city of Belgorod, some 40km from border with Ukraine was this week the scene of an unprecedented two-day incursion from Ukraine. Picture: AFP

UKRAINE PUSH FOR NATO ALLIANCE

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned European leaders on Thursday that any doubts they show before admitting Kyiv into the NATO alliance will embolden Russia to attack more countries.

“We must remember that every doubt we show here in Europe is a trench that Russia will definitely try to occupy,” he told a European summit in Moldova.

Ukraine and Moldova are candidates to join both NATO and the European Union, but some European capitals are wary of setting a formal timeline for membership as Russia’s invasion continues.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes the hand of Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic (L), along with Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (C) at the summit. Picture: AFP

Mr Zelenskyy warned European leaders from inside and outside the union and the alliance, that delaying a decision would undermine the West’s strength.

He complained that if Ukraine and Moldova have no clear path to membership, vulnerable pro-Western political forces in Belarus and Georgia will be at risk.

“Whether these doubts are about vital security steps or doubts about our unity, maybe about our ability to meet the challenges of our time, every doubt brings more insecurity,” he said.

NATO foreign ministers were separately in Oslo debating what level of promises or security guarantees could by granted Ukraine at July’s alliance summit.

“I would like to emphasise in summer in Vilnius at the NATO summit, clear invitations to

French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walk after meeting during the European Political Community Summit. Picture: AFP

NATO membership are needed, and security guarantees all the way to NATO membership are needed,” Mr Zelenskyy said, adding that he wanted a clear invitation to join the EU.

“Recently, a Chinese journalist asked me ‘Why NATO?’ and the answer is very simple. When there are no security guarantees, there are only war guarantees,” he said.

“We need a just peace. That is why every European country that borders Russia, and that does not want Russia to tear them apart should be a full member of the EU and NATO.

“And there are only two alternatives to this: Either an open war or creeping Russian occupation.”

AMAZING DASHCAM FOOTAGE OF MISSILE ATTACK

Dashcam footage has captured the shocking moment a missile comes crashing down onto a road in Ukraine.

A car appears to narrowly miss being hit by a large chunk of metal that bursts into flames on a road in the capital Kyiv on Monday.

It happened during a daytime attack on the war-ravaged city but amazingly nobody was injured in the assault.

In the incredible footage, the missile drops on to the middle of the road just missing two white cars.

The drone hits an overhead wire with street signs and traffic lights before it makes impact and explodes.

Debris from the weapon disperse towards the camera leaving stain marks.

Traffic continues to pass by fire and black smoke as if the incident did not occur.

It is believed the missile was intercepted by air defences before it could reach its target, according to BBC News.

It comes after a spate of attacks made in shadowy circumstances on targets inside Russia itself, including an unprecedented barrage of drone attacks on Moscow on Tuesday.

Amazingly, nobody was hurt in the missile attack.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the United States has laid out its ground rules to Ukraine.

“We don’t tell them where to strike. We don’t tell them where not to strike,” he said on Thursday.

“Ultimately, President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and his military commanders decide what they’re going to do.”

However, “we certainly don’t want to see attacks inside Russia that are being propagated, that are being conducted, using US-supplied equipment.”

Kirby said that despite the growing tensions over the issue, the White House remains confident that Ukraine will keep its promise not to use US-built F-16 warplanes – set to be supplied by European countries – against targets beyond Ukrainian borders.

“We have gotten that assurance at various levels,” Kirby said.

Kirby said that while Washington is full-heartedly backing the Ukrainian effort to defeat the Russian invasion, it wants to avoid situations that “suck in the West and NATO and the United States” and to “avoid World War III.”

US UNVEILS $462M ARMS PACKAGE

The United States announced a new $US300 million ($A462 million) arms package for Ukraine, including air defence systems and tens of millions of rounds of ammunition, but warned Kyiv that US weaponry should not be used to attack within Russia.

“We have been very clear with the Ukrainians privately – we’ve certainly been clear publicly – that we do not support attacks inside Russia. We do not enable and we do not encourage attacks inside Russia,” Kirby told reporters.

The Defence Department said the latest shipments will bring the total value of US security assistance to Ukraine to $US37.6 billion ($A57bn) since Russia’s February 2022 launch of the invasion.

“The United States will continue to work with its allies and partners to provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security assistance requirements,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

The United States has been leading an unprecedented effort by NATO and other allied countries to supply Ukraine with weaponry and other aid. The latest arms shipments come as Ukraine prepares a counteroffensive aimed at driving Russian forces back from swathes of occupied territory in the east and south of the country.

The Pentagon said the new arms package includes munitions for Patriot air defence systems, AIM-7 air defence missiles, Avenger air defence systems and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. Also part of the package is ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, 105mm tank ammunition and Zuni aircraft rockets. The United States is also sending more than 30 million rounds of small arms ammunition to Ukraine, the Pentagon said.

Originally published as Mother and daughter among latest victims of Russia’s attack on Kyiv