Kyiv apartment block hit in Russian shelling; fierce fighting in capital, elsewhere

Ukrainian emergency services say that a high-rise apartment block was hit by shelling overnight in Kyiv as fighting raged between Russian attackers and Ukrainian forces.

The authorities say the number of victims was “being specified” and that an evacuation was underway. They posted a picture online of the tower block with a hole covering at least five floors blasted into the side and rubble strewn across the street below.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said online that the building had been hit by a missile.

A Russian missile has targeted a residential house in Kyiv this night pic.twitter.com/xEU4VtOS32

— Illia Ponomarenko ???????? (@IAPonomarenko) February 26, 2022

An adviser to Ukraine’s president says that fighting is raging in the capital and in the country’s south, and that the Ukrainian military is successfully fending off Russian assaults.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Saturday that small groups of Russian forces tried to infiltrate Kyiv and engaged in fighting with Ukrainian troops. He said that Russia wants to seize control of the Ukrainian capital and destroy the country’s leadership, but said the Russian military has failed to make any gains and that the Ukrainian forces control the situation in Kyiv.

A missile struck a highrise residential building not far from Zhuliani airport in Kyiv pic.twitter.com/g0Vb68DGVr

— ChristoGrozev@bsky.social (@christogrozev) February 26, 2022

He said Russian forces were also focusing on the country’s south, where intense fighting is underway in Kherson just north of Crimea, and in the Black Sea ports of Mykolaiv, Odessa, and around Mariupol.

He said that Russia considers it a priority to seize the south, but it has failed to make any significant gains.

“Ukraine hasn’t simply withstood it. Ukraine is winning,” Podolyak said at a briefing.