The mayor of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushyn, stated in a Telegram statement Sunday that eight civilians were murdered during an evacuation in Irpin, a district west of Kyiv that suffered heavy bombardment on Sunday.
According to Markushyn, Russians opened fire during an evacuation across a bridge.
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“A family died,” he said, “in front of my eyes two small children and two adults died.”
Video from the site showed citizens passing through the checkpoint before an explosion, which appeared to be triggered by a shell or mortar, occurred near a crossroads.
“Irpin is at war, Irpin has not surrendered,” Markushyn said. “Part of Irpin was indeed captured by Russian invaders, but part of Irpin is fighting and not surrendering.”
Markushyn stated that another evacuation will begin the next morning.
According to the Regional Administration, Russian military attacks have disrupted television and radio transmissions in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv.
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The Regional Administration announced in a Facebook post Sunday that “repeated shelling” of Kharkiv’s TV tower had knocked out tv and radio broadcasting.
“Areas of the building housing technical equipment were destroyed, and the extent of damage to the towers themselves is still being assessed,” read the department statement.
On Tuesday, March 1, Russian military attacks hit Kyiv’s TV Tower, disrupting its broadcast capabilities.
Russian forces reportedly switched off communication and internet services for personnel at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar, Ukraine, on Sunday, just hours after seizing control of the site.
There are “very credible” claims that Russia is conducting war crimes in Ukraine, according to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Sunday, just days after President Joe Biden claimed it was too early to determine if Russia was committing war crimes in the eastern European country.
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He went on to explain that the US was keeping an eye on the situation to make sure that right organisations were involved in dealing with Russia’s wartime violations.
As bleak as the situation of the war-conflicted region may seem, a flicker of humanity was seen earlier in the day when a young woman in a beanie played Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” on the piano at Lviv’s railway station.
Reuters’ special correspondent Andrew RC Marshall uploaded the video on his Twitter account.