Kyiv was hit by Russian missiles during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday evening, during which he criticised his own organisation’s Security Council.
Black plumes of smoke could be seen billowing from the Ukrainian capital’s skyline, as missiles were fired at the city, striking a residential building and injuring at least 10 people, officials said.
Another landed near the UN chief’s hotel, according to his team, who confirmed they were safe and uninjured.
During the day, Mr Guterres visited towns surrounding Kyiv that had been heavily damaged by Russian forces in their failed attempt to take the capital.
Russian forces struck Kyiv barely an hour after a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and the UN chief.
During an earlier press conference, Mr Guterres said the UN Security Council had failed to go far enough in its efforts to “prevent and end” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He also condemned the atrocities committed in towns such as Bucha, where there has been evidence of civilian mass killings.
It follows talks between Mr Guterres and Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, where evacuations from the besieged steelworks in Mariupol had been agreed on, the UN said.
Mr Guterres said he was “shocked” to hear that rockets had been fired during the visit.
He told the BBC: “I am in Kyiv today. Two rockets have exploded in Kyiv, I was shocked to be informed that two rockets had exploded in the city where I am.
“So this is a dramatic war, and we absolutely need to end this war, and we absolutely need to have a solution for this war.”
Mr Zelensky said the attacks on Kyiv “prove that we must not drop our vigilance. We must not think that the war is over.”
Following the blasts, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the Russian strikes hit the lower floors of a 25-storey residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the president’s office, tweeted: “Missile strikes in the downtown of Kyiv during the official visit of @antonioguterres.
“The day before he was sitting at a long table in the Kremlin, and today explosions are above his head. Postcard from Moscow? Recall why Russia still takes a seat on the UN Security Council?”
