Russian hypersonic and cruise missiles bombarded Kyiv as a delegation of African leaders and senior officials arrived in Ukraine to discuss peace options.
The dignitaries, including the presidents of South Africa, Senegal, Zambia, and the Comoros Islands, visited Bucha, a Kyiv suburb where the bodies of slaughtered civilians, some bearing signs of torture, were discovered in the streets last year after the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Russia Bombs Kyiv
While in Bucharest, the African officials lit candles at a modest memorial in front of St. Andrew's Church, close to one of the mass grave sites. After that, sirens began to sound in Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported an explosion in one of the city's earliest communities, Podilskiy.
Six Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, six Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles, and two reconnaissance drones were destroyed, according to the Ukrainian air force. There have been no reported fatalities, according to NY Post.
However, two children and an elderly woman were injured in the attack, and more than thirty homes were damaged in the Kyiv region as a result of the airstrikes, according to Andriy Nebytov, the local police commander.
On the eve of the arrival of the African delegation, Ukrainian forces continued their newly launched counteroffensive, which has already resulted in the recapture of at least even settlements.
Two persons were slain and two others were injured in Kherson as a result of Russian shelling; in a separate incident, a man was injured in the Zaporizhia region.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged a group of African leaders to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to release political prisoners from Crimea and elsewhere, stating that it could be a crucial part of their Saturday travel to Russia.
African Leaders Promote Peace Plan
On Friday, seven African leaders, including the presidents of Comoros, Senegal, South Africa, and Zambia, as well as Egypt's prime minister and top envoys from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, visited Ukraine as part of a self-proclaimed "peace mission" to both Ukraine and Russia in an effort to help end their nearly 16-month-long war.
Per Washington Post, the African leaders were scheduled to meet with Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia. The mission to Ukraine, the first of its kind by African leaders, comes in the wake of other peace initiatives such as one by China, and it carries extra significance for the African countries: They rely on food and fertilizer deliveries from Russia and Ukraine, whose war has hindered exports from one of the world's most significant breadbaskets.
"This conflict has a deleterious impact on Africa," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a news conference with Zelensky and four other African heads of state or government on Friday afternoon, following closed-door discussions.
Ramaphosa and others acknowledged the ferocity of the conflict and the animosity between Russia and Ukraine, but insisted that all hostilities must come to an end - something the delegation hopes to hasten.
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