The Russian attackers flooded the Ukrainian capital with a wave of nighttime air raids. According to reports, three people – including a little girl – were killed on Thursday night because an air raid shelter was sealed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has indirectly reprimanded Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko for this.
According to eyewitnesses, the nine-year-old child, his 34-year-old mother and another 33-year-old woman were trying to get into a bomb shelter early Thursday morning when the Russians fired several rockets into Kiev. But it was locked.
“Hammered on the Doors”
The three people died in the air raid because they were defenseless, the widower of the 33-year-old complains: “They hammered on the doors of the shelter, but no one opened.”
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko called the incident a “crime” and said an investigation had been launched into the locked bomb shelter at Desnianskyi Hospital.
“Express duty of the authorities”
Selenskyj also intervened on Thursday evening. “A situation like last night in Kiev, when people came to the protective bunker and it was locked, must never happen again,” he stressed. “It is the express duty of the local authorities to ensure that shelters are adequate and that they are open 24 hours a day,” Zelenskyj said, indirectly criticizing Klitschko.
“It hurts to see negligence in these commitments. It hurts to see the dead. And if duty is not fulfilled on the ground, it is the direct responsibility of law enforcement agencies to hold the perpetrators accountable,” Zelenskyy said.
Klitschko had previously responded to the fatal bad luck on Thursday. He had asked the presidential office to remove the head of the affected district, Dmytro Ratnikov, from his post for the duration of the investigation, he said. In addition, Klitschko ordered to check the shelters in all districts of Kiev.
Fragile truce
The reproach that the mayor of Kiev received from Zelenskyy is not the first. Last November, the Ukrainian president reprimanded him for the massive blackout in Kiev due to Russian attacks. It was the first time that the tacit truce between the two, which had been in effect since the beginning of the war, had been broken. Selenskyj and Klitschko are actually political rivals.
Source: Krone
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