Kyiv: At least 33 people died and 18 others were injured in Chernihiv as the Russian forces intensified attacks on the residential areas, including schools, in the northern Ukrainian city, the local governor said.
“Russian aircraft also attacked two schools in the Staraya Podusivka area (of Chernihiv) and private homes. Rescuers are working in the area,” the governor of the Chernihiv region, Vyacheslav Chaus, said on Telegram.
He posted a video of emergency rescuers working in the rubble of badly destroyed buildings. Here’s the video:
⚡️33 people dead, 18 injured as of 6:20 p.m. after Russia conducts air strikes on Chernihiv residential areas, the Stare Emergency Service reports.
Video: State Emergency Service pic.twitter.com/flJUi7ixbU
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 3, 2022
Even as the Ukraine invasion entered the 8th day, Russia said that it does not target civilian areas, despite widespread evidence to the contrary.
On the other hand, Ukraine said at least 350 civilians have been killed since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his attack.
The fresh strikes came in Chernihiv as Ukraine and Russia officials gathered for talks on a ceasefire on the Belarus-Poland border.
Saying that it is trying to “de-Nazfiy” Ukraine, Putin earlier in the day, vowed to carry on with his advance in Ukraine in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Notably, Putin showed no signs of backing down even as a barrage of Western sanctions is set to destroy Moscow’s economy.
In a video address to the nation early on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to keep up their resistance, but didn’t comment on whether the Russians have seized any cities.
They will have no peace here, Zelenskyy said, calling on the Russian soldiers to go home and describing them as “confused children who have been used.
His comments come as Russia acknowledged for the first time since the start of the invasion that nearly 500 Russian troops have been killed in the fighting and around 1,600 wounded.
However, the UN human rights office said at least 227 civilians have been killed and 525 wounded in Ukraine since the start of the invasion on February 24. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service has said more than 2,000 civilians have died, though it was impossible to verify the claim.
