Girl unable to enter Kyiv shelter killed in Russia attack, Zelenskiy demands change

5/5 © Reuters. Local residents react near the body of a person killed in a Russian missile strike, at the compound of a municipal clinic, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 1, 2023. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko 2/5

By Valentyn Ogirenko and Olena Harmash

KYIV (Reuters) - A nine-year-old Ukrainian girl, her mother and another woman were killed in a Russian missile strike on Kyiv on Thursday after the air raid shelter they rushed to failed to open, witnesses said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed frustration at the miscue and said if local officials were unable to provide protection, they could be prosecuted.

His comments appeared aimed at Kyiv city authorities and Mayor Vitali Klitschko, with whom he has periodically clashed during the war.

Police opened a criminal investigation into the three deaths near a medical clinic in the Desnyanskyi district of Kyiv after the 18th attack on the capital since the start of May.

"Three people, one of them a child, died near the clinic last night," Klitschko said. "A rocket fragment fell near the entrance to the clinic four minutes after the air alert was announced. And people headed for the shelter."

Residents said people were unable to enter the shelter because it was closed. It was not clear why.

"The air alert sounded. My wife took our daughter and they ran to the entrance here," local resident Yaroslav Ryabchuk told Reuters in the Desnyanskyi district.

"The entrance was closed, there were already maybe five to 10 women with children. No one opened up for them."

The case prompted calls for residents to check shelters and report safety violations. Local media said prosecutors searched city administration offices as part of the investigation.

PRESIDENT CALLS OUT LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Zelenskiy, in his nightly video message, said shelters "must be kept accessible. Never again should we see a repeat of the situation that occurred last night in Kyiv..."

This was "very clearly" the duty of local authorities "and if this duty is not fulfilled at the local level, it is the direct duty of law enforcement bodies to prosecute".

In earlier comments to reporters in Moldova, Zelenskiy said that as well as facing the Russian enemy, "we also have internal ones". He said the response could be a "knockout" blow, a veiled dig at Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champion.

At a makeshift memorial for the girl, another parent woken by the attacks spoke of her terror.

"I grabbed my child and ran into the corridor because I didn't have any other options. We sat there the whole time, there were a few more explosions," said Oleksandra, 25, visiting the memorial with her five-year-old son Hryhoriy.

"My child got really scared, he sat in the corner of our corridor. He cried, saying that we're all gonna die. I was terrified to hear this from him. It was terrible."

Russia has denied targeting civilians or committing war crimes though its air strikes have caused devastation in cities across Ukraine since the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

Ukraine reported no major damage from Thursday's attack, saying it had shot down all 10 missiles. But, in a statement on International Children's Day, U.N. human rights monitors in Ukraine said 525 children had been killed since the invasion.