Dubai Telegraph - Deadly blasts rattle Kyiv, talks with Russia to resume

EUR -
AED 3.843876
AFN 71.46757
ALL 98.334246
AMD 408.921785
ANG 1.890704
AOA 954.443474
ARS 1053.32585
AUD 1.613486
AWG 1.883771
AZN 1.777411
BAM 1.957876
BBD 2.118145
BDT 125.3629
BGN 1.957013
BHD 0.39446
BIF 3099.055767
BMD 1.046539
BND 1.413685
BOB 7.275713
BRL 6.06951
BSD 1.049112
BTN 88.441624
BWP 14.331193
BYN 3.43314
BYR 20512.173424
BZD 2.114642
CAD 1.476149
CDF 3003.568546
CHF 0.92896
CLF 0.037025
CLP 1021.630219
CNY 7.576684
CNH 7.599007
COP 4588.813899
CRC 534.605448
CUC 1.046539
CUP 27.733296
CVE 110.379907
CZK 25.325311
DJF 186.808039
DKK 7.458059
DOP 63.219772
DZD 139.884617
EGP 51.926973
ERN 15.698092
ETB 130.810926
FJD 2.382918
FKP 0.826051
GBP 0.834804
GEL 2.857518
GGP 0.826051
GHS 16.522516
GIP 0.826051
GMD 74.304489
GNF 9040.497654
GTQ 8.100355
GYD 219.482679
HKD 8.143422
HNL 26.50985
HRK 7.465237
HTG 137.694658
HUF 410.442515
IDR 16664.414117
ILS 3.813119
IMP 0.826051
INR 88.232015
IQD 1374.256881
IRR 44046.230248
ISK 145.09192
JEP 0.826051
JMD 166.494914
JOD 0.742309
JPY 161.133064
KES 135.589536
KGS 90.828533
KHR 4210.423334
KMF 490.77458
KPW 941.885118
KRW 1464.203166
KWD 0.322093
KYD 0.874227
KZT 523.84534
LAK 23039.424621
LBP 93943.491644
LKR 305.273628
LRD 188.824765
LSL 18.967508
LTL 3.090159
LVL 0.633041
LYD 5.134443
MAD 10.539974
MDL 19.17733
MGA 4902.196931
MKD 61.570856
MMK 3399.119344
MNT 3556.14103
MOP 8.407012
MRU 41.716441
MUR 48.894341
MVR 16.169403
MWK 1819.1285
MXN 21.51026
MYR 4.672826
MZN 66.874137
NAD 18.967508
NGN 1761.461771
NIO 38.600552
NOK 11.639084
NPR 141.509665
NZD 1.794919
OMR 0.402907
PAB 1.049112
PEN 3.973312
PGK 4.225996
PHP 61.721228
PKR 291.376995
PLN 4.317163
PYG 8173.665089
QAR 3.826984
RON 4.97703
RSD 116.988424
RUB 108.818843
RWF 1432.404838
SAR 3.9296
SBD 8.781084
SCR 14.253917
SDG 629.495812
SEK 11.542347
SGD 1.411358
SHP 0.826051
SLE 23.782645
SLL 21945.414172
SOS 599.529847
SRD 37.145882
STD 21661.253876
SVC 9.179732
SYP 2629.461642
SZL 18.962102
THB 36.348931
TJS 11.182634
TMT 3.673354
TND 3.327532
TOP 2.451098
TRY 36.233815
TTD 7.125554
TWD 33.959925
TZS 2773.329504
UAH 43.536654
UGX 3887.120826
USD 1.046539
UYU 44.716123
UZS 13458.267417
VES 48.752124
VND 26595.184038
VUV 124.247268
WST 2.92151
XAF 656.646852
XAG 0.034486
XAU 0.000398
XCD 2.828325
XDR 0.802451
XOF 656.653133
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.556352
ZAR 18.95356
ZMK 9420.11208
ZMW 28.927667
ZWL 336.985279
  • RBGPF

    0.8100

    61

    +1.33%

  • NGG

    0.1500

    63.26

    +0.24%

  • CMSC

    0.0578

    24.73

    +0.23%

  • SCS

    0.4500

    13.72

    +3.28%

  • GSK

    0.1900

    34.15

    +0.56%

  • BTI

    -0.0500

    37.33

    -0.13%

  • BCC

    8.7200

    152.5

    +5.72%

  • AZN

    0.7700

    66.4

    +1.16%

  • RIO

    0.6300

    62.98

    +1%

  • BCE

    0.2500

    27.02

    +0.93%

  • RELX

    -0.1800

    46.57

    -0.39%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    6.79

    +0.29%

  • CMSD

    0.1200

    24.58

    +0.49%

  • JRI

    0.1600

    13.37

    +1.2%

  • BP

    -0.4000

    29.32

    -1.36%

  • VOD

    0.1800

    8.91

    +2.02%

Deadly blasts rattle Kyiv, talks with Russia to resume
Deadly blasts rattle Kyiv, talks with Russia to resume

Deadly blasts rattle Kyiv, talks with Russia to resume

A series of powerful explosions rocked residential districts of Kyiv early Tuesday killing two people, just hours before talks between Ukraine and Russia were set to resume.

Text size:

The airport in the eastern city of Dnipro also came under heavy bombardment overnight, as the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia travelled to the besieged capital Kyiv in a sign of EU support for Ukraine.

Nearly three weeks into Russia's invasion of its pro-Western neighbour, the human toll of the deadly conflict was increasingly laid bare, with more than three million forced to flee to neighbouring countries.

The United Nations said Tuesday that nearly 1.4 million children have fled Ukraine since the conflict began on February 24 -- nearly one child per second.

Ukraine's capital has been transformed into a war zone, with apartment blocks badly damaged from Russian bombardments and half of the city's 3.5 million people now gone.

The city's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Tuesday a 35-hour curfew would come into effect from 8:00 pm Tuesday after overnight attacks in the capital.

"Today is a difficult and dangerous moment," Klitschko said.

"This is why I ask all Kyivites to get prepared to stay at home for two days, or if the sirens go off, in the shelters."

Four large blasts were heard from the centre of the capital early Tuesday, sending columns of smoke high into the sky.

- 'Are you alive?' -

As dawn broke the damage became clear, with one strike hitting a large 16-storey housing block.

There, a fire raged and smoke billowed from the charred husk of the building, as emergency services and stunned locals navigated an obstacle course of glass, metal and other debris littering the road.

Another residential building in the Podilsk area also came under attack.

"At 4:20 everything was very thunderous, crackling. I got up, my daughter ran to me with a question: 'Are you alive?'," Lyubov Gura, 73, told AFP minutes after rescuers let her and her daughter out of her 11th-floor apartment.

She was still waiting for emergency workers to lower her son-in-law and grandson to the ground.

The district was once "a place to get coffee and enjoy life. Not anymore," Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko said.

The city is surrounded to the north and east, and authorities have set up checkpoints, while residents are stockpiling food and medicine.

Overnight shelling also caused massive damage at the airport in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, regional authorities said Tuesday.

"During the night the enemy attacked the Dnipro airport. Two strikes. The runway was destroyed. The terminal is damaged. Massive destruction," region governor Valentin Reznichenko said.

Hours earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a new video address sounding a note of cautious optimism about ongoing peace talks.

- EU leaders to Kyiv -

He claimed Russia was realising victory would not come on the battlefield.

"They have already begun to understand that they will not achieve anything by war," Zelensky said.

He said Monday's talks were "pretty good... but let's see. They will continue" Tuesday.

The two sides are still far apart in the negotiations, with Moscow demanding Ukraine turn away from the West and recognise Moscow-backed breakaway regions.

Ukrainian negotiators say they want "peace, an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops".

In an unprecedented show of solidarity with the embattled president, the Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers boarded a train for Kyiv to meet Zelensky on Tuesday.

"In such crucial times for the world, it is our duty to be in the place where history is being made," Poland's Mateusz Morawiecki said in a Facebook post.

It is the highest-level EU delegation to go to Kyiv since the war began.

Russia's military progress has been slow and costly, with Moscow apparently underestimating the strength of Ukrainian resistance.

Military experts believe Russia's military now needs time to regroup and resupply its troops, paving the way for a possible pause or slowdown in fighting.

- 'Stop the war' -

The head of Russia's national guard Viktor Zolotov has reportedly admitted the operation was "not going as fast as we would like" but said victory would come step-by-step.

Reports say Moscow has turned to Beijing for military and economic help -- prompting what one US official said were several hours of "very candid" talks between high-ranking US and Chinese officials.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said his nation does not want to be impacted by Western sanctions on Russia, as US pressure grows on Beijing to withdraw support from Moscow.

"China is not a party to the crisis, still less wants to be affected by the sanctions," Wang said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his forces "to hold back on any immediate assault on large cities" according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Monday, who cited "civilian losses" as the reason for stalling an attack.

He added, however, that the defence ministry "does not rule out" the possibility of putting large cities "under its full control".

Meanwhile, Ukraine's allies have piled pressure on Putin's regime with unprecedented economic sanctions, and the Kremlin faces domestic pressure despite widespread censorship of the war.

During Russia's most-watched evening news broadcast on Monday, a dissenting employee entered the studio holding up a poster saying "Stop the war. Don't believe the propaganda."

An opposition protest monitor said the woman, an editor at the tightly controlled state broadcaster Channel One, was detained following the episode.

Across Ukraine, Russia's invasion has continued to take a bloody toll, destroying cities and ensuring that many lives will never be the same again.

"I wish Russia the same grief I feel now," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks as she clung to her grandson's elbow for support.

A correspondent for Fox News -- Britain's Benjamin Hall -- was injured and hospitalised while reporting on the city outskirts, the network said, a day after a US journalist was shot dead in Irpin, a frontline Kyiv suburb.

burs-dlc/jv/jm

F.El-Yamahy--DT