Girl unable to enter Kyiv shelter killed in Russia attack, Zelenskiy
demands change
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[June 02, 2023]
By Valentyn Ogirenko and Olena Harmash
KYIV (Reuters) - A nine-year-old Ukrainian girl, her mother and another
woman were killed in a Russian missile strike on Kyiv on Thursday after
the air raid shelter they rushed to failed to open, witnesses said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed frustration at the miscue and
said if local officials were unable to provide protection, they could be
prosecuted.
His comments appeared aimed at Kyiv city authorities and Mayor Vitali
Klitschko, with whom he has periodically clashed during the war.
Police opened a criminal investigation into the three deaths near a
medical clinic in the Desnyanskyi district of Kyiv after the 18th attack
on the capital since the start of May.
"Three people, one of them a child, died near the clinic last night,"
Klitschko said. "A rocket fragment fell near the entrance to the clinic
four minutes after the air alert was announced. And people headed for
the shelter."
Residents said people were unable to enter the shelter because it was
closed. It was not clear why.
"The air alert sounded. My wife took our daughter and they ran to the
entrance here," local resident Yaroslav Ryabchuk told Reuters in the
Desnyanskyi district.
"The entrance was closed, there were already maybe five to 10 women with
children. No one opened up for them."
The case prompted calls for residents to check shelters and report
safety violations. Local media said prosecutors searched city
administration offices as part of the investigation.
PRESIDENT CALLS OUT LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Zelenskiy, in his nightly video message, said shelters "must be kept
accessible. Never again should we see a repeat of the situation that
occurred last night in Kyiv..."
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Local residents react at the site of a
municipal clinic damaged in a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s
attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 1, 2023. REUTERS/Valentyn
Ogirenko
This was "very clearly" the duty of local authorities "and if this
duty is not fulfilled at the local level, it is the direct duty of
law enforcement bodies to prosecute".
In earlier comments to reporters in Moldova, Zelenskiy said that as
well as facing the Russian enemy, "we also have internal ones". He
said the response could be a "knockout" blow, a veiled dig at
Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champion.
At a makeshift memorial for the girl, another parent woken by the
attacks spoke of her terror.
"I grabbed my child and ran into the corridor because I didn't have
any other options. We sat there the whole time, there were a few
more explosions," said Oleksandra, 25, visiting the memorial with
her five-year-old son Hryhoriy.
"My child got really scared, he sat in the corner of our corridor.
He cried, saying that we're all gonna die. I was terrified to hear
this from him. It was terrible."
Russia has denied targeting civilians or committing war crimes
though its air strikes have caused devastation in cities across
Ukraine since the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Ukraine reported no major damage from Thursday's attack, saying it
had shot down all 10 missiles. But, in a statement on International
Children's Day, U.N. human rights monitors in Ukraine said 525
children had been killed since the invasion.
(Additional reporting by Yurii Khomenko, Max Hunder, Tom Balmforth
and Ron Popeski; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Ros Russell, David
Ljunggren and Diane Craft)
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