BLITZ OF THE INNOCENTS
Wounded girl, 7, pulled from rubble of her family home after Putin unleashes fresh missile onslaught on Kyiv civilians
THIS is the horror moment a seven-year-old girl was hauled out of the smouldering wreckage of her family home in Kyiv after it was blitzed as she slept.
Russian missiles rained down on the capital today in a fresh attack, killing at least one person just hours after Vladimir Putin rushed to a sudden late-night meeting in Kremlin.
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A shocking picture of the youngster being stretched away from the stacks of rubble with a bloody nose was shared by Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian deputy prime minister.
The girl, a Russian national according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, was injured alongside her mother, while her dad, 37, was killed in the blast.
He said: "Russia today again hit Kyiv with missiles. Early in the morning. A man died, he was only 37 years old.
"There are wounded, and among them - a girl named Zhenya, she is seven years old, the daughter of the deceased. Her mother was also injured. By the way, a citizen of Russia.
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"She was not threatened by anything in our country, she was completely safe, until Russia itself decided that everything was equally hostile to them now - women, children, kindergartens, houses, hospitals, railways."
The girl's condition following the attack in the early hours of Sunday morning is unknown.
At least two buildings were struck, according to the city's mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Footage shows a massive cloud of smoke billowing in the air following the devastating missile strike.
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A video shows one of the targeted buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi district, destroyed as rescue services are battling to rescue civilians.
The strike on Kyiv is only one of the attacks in Ukraine as 48 cruise missiles were launched on civilian targets across the country.
Rockets hit military bases, civilian infrastructure and residential neighbourhoods including the northeastern village of Andriivka on Friday night.
The polytechnic in the northeastern city of Kharkiv was also damaged.
Oleksand Struyk, mayor of Severodonetsk, said the city was “now under the full occupation of Russia” after weeks of battle. Ukrainian forces have retreated to regroup.
The fresh attack comes after Putin's mysterious late-night meeting amid suspicions he has prepared a new televised statement on the war in Ukraine and tensions with the West.
Video shows his Aurus limousine in a late-night dash to his Moscow seat of power at 11pm on Saturday night.
His Kremlin visit immediately followed talks with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko in St Petersburg, 440 miles away, in which he agreed to supply advanced nuclear-capable arms to the Minsk dictator.
The meeting followed a night of bombardment on Ukrainian cities from Russian warplanes using Belarus airspace.
LATE-NIGHT DASH
Putin’s spokesman did not deny the late-night dash to the Kremlin but ruled out the purpose of being a crisis meeting of top officials.
He also denied that Putin was to make an immediate emergency statement.
Peskov in a late-night statement told TASS: “No. Everything is not like that. Everything is normal.”
The Russian president has previously pre-recorded major announcements in the Kremlin which are then later released.
Fears have been sparked that the purpose of his visit was to prerecord an announcement of an escalation of hostilities.
Putin does not live in the Kremlin but at an out-of-town official residence, and in summer is frequently based in Sochi on the Black Sea.
Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko expressed concern that the visit signalled a new Putin statement on the war.
He said: "Late at night on Saturday Putin suddenly drove into the Kremlin.
“Peskov denied suggestions that appeared in the media that it was linked to an emergency meeting, and said that ‘everything was normal’.”
Yet before the invasion, Putin had pre-recorded a statement “to announce the start of the attack”.
At his meeting with Lukashenko, Putin vowed to supply Minsk with missile systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons,
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The Belarus dictator warned about the "aggressive", "confrontational" and "repulsive" policies of his neighbours Lithuania and Poland.
"We will transfer Iskander-M tactical missile systems to Belarus, which can use both ballistic and cruise missiles, both in conventional and nuclear versions,” Putin was quoted as saying.
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