Morning in Kyiv starts again with siren sounds following night of shelling

By Jeyhun Aliyev

KYIV, Ukraine (AA) - The sounds of siren warning the air raid on Ukraine's capital Kyiv were heard again on Wednesday early morning while a number of explosions and shelling incidents were heard during the night.

On the seventh day of Russia's war on Ukraine, Kyiv still stands under the control of the Ukrainian forces, but many civilians were reportedly killed by Russian missiles mainly in Kharkiv, the second-largest city.

Surroundings of Maidan Nezalezhnosti, an iconic Independence Square in Kyiv, have been turned into barricades with sand bags and anti-tank Czech hedgehogs as a long column of Russian forces was earlier reported heading towards the city.

On Tuesday evening, a Russian missile targeted the Kyiv TV tower located on the territory of Babyn Yar.

"On September 29-30, 1941, Nazis killed over 33 thousand Jews here. 80 years later, Russian Nazis strike this same land to exterminate Ukrainians. Evil and barbaric, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.

- Attacks on Zhytomyr

An adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko said he spoke to Zhytomyr Mayor Sergiy Sukhomlyn, noting that Russian forces Tuesday night "have missed the target and instead of the military base, hit the residential area."

He said that according to the initial reports, there were four casualties, including a child.

The residential buildings near the base of the 95th Airborne Brigade in the city of Zhytomyr, some 75 miles west Kyiv, had been set on blazes, Gerashchenko said on Telegram.

Emergency services said at least 10 houses were hit.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on Twitter reported that a maternity home in Zhytomyr was destroyed with Russian Kalibr cruise missile.

Heavy fighting has been ongoing near the maternity home, located in the village of Buzova, near the Zhytomyr highway.

All people were evacuated from the building, according to local sources.

Under the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994, in exchange of security guarantees from the US, UK, and Russia.

Since Russia began its war on Ukraine last Thursday, it has been met by outrage from the international community, with the EU, UK, Canada, Japan, and the US implementing a range of economic sanctions on Moscow.

At least 136 civilians, including 13 children, have been killed and 400 others, including 26 children, injured in Ukraine, according to UN figures.

Around 680,000 people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, the international body said Tuesday.