Kyiv under fire as European leaders visit in show of support

Russia’s relentless bombardment of Ukraine has edged closer to central Kyiv, with a series of strikes hitting a residential area as the leaders of three European Union countries planned to visit the embattled capital in a show of support.

Shortly before dawn, large explosions thundered across Kyiv from what Ukrainian authorities said was artillery strikes.

The shelling ignited a huge fire and a frantic rescue effort in a 15-storey apartment building in a western district of the city.

At least one person was killed in the blast.

Shockwaves from an explosion also damaged the entry to a city centre subway station that has been used as a bomb shelter. City authorities tweeted an image of the blown-out facade, saying trains would no longer stop at the station.

The International Organisation for Migration has reported that the number of people who have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24 passed three million on Tuesday.

As Russia stepped up its assault on Kyiv, the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia announced they would travel to Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday on a European Union mission to show support for the country.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in a tweet: “The aim of the visit is to express the European Union’s unequivocal support for Ukraine and its freedom and independence.”

He will be joined by Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is Poland’s deputy prime minister and the leader of the conservative ruling party.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators also planned to hold a second day of talks as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its 20th day.

The Red Cross and the United Nations refugee agency say millions of people face food and medicine shortages along with the immediate threats of shelling and air attacks.

Millions more have fled their homes, with a reported three million crossing into Poland and other neighbouring countries in what the UN has called Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.

When Russia launched the war nearly three weeks ago, fear of an imminent invasion gripped the Ukrainian capital, and residents slept in subway stations or crammed onto trains to flee. But as the Russian offensive bogged down, Kyiv saw a relative lull.

Fighting has intensified on the city’s outskirts in recent days, and sporadic air raid sirens ring out around the capital.

Tuesday’s early morning artillery strikes hit the Svyatoshynskyi district of western Kyiv, adjacent to the suburb of Irpin, which has seen some of the worst battles of the war.

Flames shot out of the 15-storey apartment building and smoke choked the air as firefighters climbed ladders to rescue people.

The assault blackened several floors of the building, ripped a hole in the ground outside and blew out windows in neighbouring apartment blocks.

A firefighter at the scene confirmed one person had died and that several had been rescued, but others remained inside as rescuers tried to reach them.

A 10-storey apartment building in the Podilsky district of Kyiv, north of the government quarter, was also was damaged by unspecified ammunition.

Russian forces also stepped up strikes overnight on Irpin and the north-west Kyiv suburbs of Hostomel and Bucha, said the head of the capital region, Oleksiy Kuleba.

“Many streets (in those areas) have been turned into a mush of steel and concrete. People have been hiding for weeks in basements, and are afraid to go out even for evacuations,” Mr Kuleba said on Ukrainian television.

Russian forces also stepped up their attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv in the east, with more than 60 strikes overnight, according to regional administration chief Oleh Sinehubov.

The strikes hit the city’s historical centre, including the main marketplace and Gagarin Avenue, a major thoroughfare.

Rescuers have pulled out “dozens of bodies of civilian residents,” from the ruins of destroyed apartment buildings, Mr Sinehubov said on Ukrainian television.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is seeking to extend martial law until April 24 and to require men aged 18 to 60 to stay in the country to fight.

Mr Zelensky submitted the extension in a bill to parliament, which is expected to vote on it this week.

Talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are due to resume Tuesday, after failing to make a breakthrough – or to break down – on Monday.

The two sides had expressed some optimism about the negotiations, which Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said would discuss “peace, ceasefire, immediate withdrawal of troops and security guarantees”.

Russia’s military is bigger and better equipped than Ukraine’s, but its troops have faced stiffer-than-expected resistance, bolstered by arms supplied by the West.

US officials said Russian troops made little progress on the ground in recent days and were still about nine miles from the centre of Kyiv as of Monday.

The Pentagon said Russian forces have launched more than 900 missiles but have not taken control of the air above Ukraine.

US administration officials alleged that China had signalled to Moscow that it would be willing to provide both military support in Ukraine and financial backing to help stave off effects of Western sanctions.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned China against helping Russia during a meeting in Rome on Monday with a senior Chinese diplomat. The Kremlin denied asking China for military equipment to use in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the number of people killed in a Russian rocket attack on a TV tower in western Ukraine on Monday rose to 19, authorities in the Rivne region said.

The Rivne regional government posted on its Facebook page that 19 people were killed and nine were injured in the strike on the TV tower in Antopol, a village that is about 100 miles from the border of Nato member Poland.

There was a rare glimmer of hope in the encircled port city of Mariupol after a convoy of 160 civilian cars left along a designated humanitarian route, the city council reported on Monday.

Over the past 10 days or so, the lethal siege has pulverised homes and other buildings and left people desperate for food, water, heat and medicine.

Previous attempts to evacuate civilians and deliver humanitarian aid to the southern city of 430,000 were thwarted by fighting.

Ukraine’s military said it repelled an attempt on Monday to take control of Mariupol by Russian forces, who were forced to retreat.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies showed fires burning across the city, with many high-rise apartment buildings heavily damaged or destroyed.

Ukraine claims its forces have killed 150 Russian troops and destroyed two Russian tanks in the battle for Mariupol.

The Kremlin-backed leader of the Russian region of Chechnya said on a messaging app that Chechen fighters were spearheading the offensive on Mariupol.

Elsewhere, the Russian military said 20 civilians in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine were killed by a ballistic missile launched by Ukrainian forces. The claim could not be independently verified.