Bombing of a shopping center in Kiev

Kiev, 21 Mar 2022 (AFP) - At least six people were killed in a bombing of a shopping mall in Kiev between Sunday night and early Monday, an AFP journalist noted, at a time when Russian forces are trying to surround the Ukrainian capital.Six bodies lay on Monday outside the Retroville shopping center, in northwest Kiev, according to an AFP journalist. The place was hit by a strong bomb that sprayed the vehicles parked on the site and left an open crater several meters long in front of the ten-story building, which was charred.The entire southern part of the shopping center was destroyed, as was a gym in the parking lot, an AFP journalist noted. Monday, firefighters and soldiers were looking for other victims in the rubble.Previously, in the evening, emergency services indicated that “enemy shots” had caused a fire on several floors of the shopping center, in the Podilsky district.They published images from a surveillance camera showing a huge explosion and a cloud shaped of fungus, followed by a series of minor deflagrations.Firefighters pulled out of the rubble of the building at least one man covered in dust, according to video footage released by the rescue services.Residents of a nearby apartment building, whose windows blew up by the explosion, said they saw a mobile rocket launcher near the mall several days before.A huge deflagration shook the city during the attack, according to AFP journalists. Kiev has been the target of numerous attacks last week, including one on Sunday against a residential building that left five wounded. — New curfew put in place in Kiev Monday night to Wednesday morning (mayor) Kiev, 21 Mar 2022 (AFP) - Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that he will introduce a new curfew in the Ukrainian capital from Monday evening to Wednesday morning.” It will start today at 20:00 (18H00 GMT) and will last until 07:00 (05:00 GMT) on March 23,” wrote the former boxing world champion on his Telegram account. Shops, pharmacies, gas stations, establishments will not be open tomorrow,” he said. “I ask each of you to stay at home or in shelters at the moment when the sirens sound,” he added. The Ukrainian capital, which Russian forces seek to encircle, has already decreed several curfews. The last one lasted 35 hours last week, from Tuesday night to Thursday morning. On the night of Sunday to Monday, a bombardment hit a shopping center in the northwest of the capital, killing at least eight people, Vitali Klitschko confirmed. According to Klitschko, six residential buildings, two schools and two kindergartens in the vicinity of the shopping center were also damaged. Half of the 3.5 million inhabitants of the Ukrainian capital have already fled since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.