In a report on the course of the military operation in Ukraine Vesti Nedeli says:
«Heavy fighting has been underway for a month now on the northwestern outskirts of Kyiv. The Kyiv regime has turned Kyiv's satellite towns into a fortified area. Yet civilians have not been evacuated. The Russian forces are unable to use tubed or rocket artillery on residential buildings. AFU units evade direct combat, retreating behind civilians.»
See below just a few reports about how Russian artillery actually «avoids» shelling residential buildings. We cite only examples from Kiev and its suburbs, as reported by Vesti Nedeli.
On March 26, Andrei Nebytov, chief of the Main Department of the National Police in the Kyiv region, posted the following text on Facebook:
«The enemy once again used heavy artillery on population centers in the Kyiv region. At least five houses were destroyed, there were casualties among civilians, including one child.
As you can see, the occupiers are hitting everything: residential areas, civilian infrastructure and high-rise buildings. They cynically kill citizens and destroy their homes with Grad rocket launchers.
The Kyiv region police have already documented in detail more than 250 war crimes the aggressor committed in the Kiev region, which documentation will be used in the International Court of Justice during the trial of the Russian military-political criminals (if they survive)».
Andriy Nyebitov, Facebook
On March 18, the Ukrainian online edition Comments.ua wrote:
«Russian occupants used heavy artillery to shell the Svyatoshinsky district of Kiev for the second time in a day according to the capital's prosecutor's office, Comments.ua reports. The agency says enemy shells hit the private housing area today, on March 18. Dozens of homes, cars and a shopping center located in residential areas of Kyiv's Svyatoshinsky district were damaged by heavy artillery fire. Law enforcers and rescuers are working at the site of the shelling. According to preliminary data, there are no casualties. Information about casualties and the scale of destruction is being updated. The capital's prosecutor's office opened criminal proceedings over yet another violation of the laws and customs of war by the Russian occupants.»
In addition, on March 18, Russian occupants shelled and destroyed a residential neighborhood in Vynohradar, within Kyiv's Podilskyi district. As a result of the enemy attacks, six residential buildings, a kindergarten and a school were damaged in Vinohradar. One person was killed and 19 injured, including four children. The wounded were taken to the hospital. According to earlier reports, enemy shelling caused several fires in the Svyatoshinsky district of Kiev on March 17, and there was a threat of a shell exploding in a warehouse; two people were killed.»
Comments.ua
On March 17, the Kyiv region police reported:
«A two-year-old child killed, four people wounded: Russian occupants shelled Novye Petrovtsy.
On March 17, the occupants used heavy artillery to shell homes in the Vyshgorod district.
As a result of the shelling, an apartment block was destroyed, and nearby residential houses were damaged. At present, it is known that a two-year-old child was killed and four people injured.»
Kyiv region police official Facebook account
Novye Petrovtsy is Kyiv's closest northern suburb, directly bordering the city.
On March 14, Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, said:
«At 05:09 in the Obolon district [of Kyiv], an artillery shell hit a nine-story apartment building, causing partial destruction of floors 1 to 3 and fire in the apartments on floors 3 and 4. Nobody was killed or wounded. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine dispatched 33 people and 8 units of equipment to participate in the rescue effort.»
Telegram channel Pravda Gerashchenko
Residents of Kyiv suburbs are being evacuated on a regular basis via agreed corridors. Ukrainian railroads dispatch several special evacuation trains a day. But there have been known cases in which Russian troops hindered evacuation; for example, according to Oleksandr Kamyshyn, board chairman of Ukrzaliznytsa, the evacuation train from Kyiv bound for Ivano-Frankivsk was fired upon near Vasylkiv (a Kiev suburb) on March 24.