Russian Shelling of Kyiv Intensifies as EU Leaders Head to Ukraine Capital to Meet Zelensky

Firefighters work in an apartment building damaged by shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 15, 2022. Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo

Russian shelling of Kyiv intensified Tuesday morning as the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia were setting out on a trip by train to the Ukrainian capital on a European Union mission to meet with the country’s top leadership.

“In such critical times for the world it is our duty to be where history is forged,” Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a statement announcing the trip to Kyiv, which had been kept secret for security reasons.

“Because it’s not about us, but about the future of our children who deserve to live in a world free from tyranny,” he added, while calling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ”special military operation“ in Ukraine an act of ”criminal aggression.”

In his message, Morawiecki cited an ominous warning from Poland’s now-deceased former President Lech Kaczynski about the risk that Putin would not stop at invading Ukraine.

“Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after the Baltics, and later perhaps it'll come time for my country, for Poland,” Morawiecki cited Kaczynski as saying when the now deceased former president was on a trip to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, to lend his support to the country’s leadership during the Russian invasion of Georgia 14 years ago.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks during a news conference in Budapest, Hungary, on Oct. 12, 2021. Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

Heading to Kyiv with Morawiecki are Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland’s deputy prime minister for security and the leader of the conservative ruling party, Law and Justice.

Morawiecki said in a separate statement that the delegation plans to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

“Europe must guarantee Ukrainian sovereignty and pledge help in rebuilding the country,” he said.

Several hours before Morawiecki announced the trip, a series of strikes hit residential buildings and a metro station in Kyiv, according to emergency services and the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.

“The enemy continues to attack Kyiv,” Klitschko wrote in a message on his official Telegram channel.

Two high-rise buildings were hit in the Sviatoshyno district and one in the Podil neighborhood, as well as a single-family house in an unspecified location, he said.

“The entrance to one of the metro stations was damaged by the shock wave. There are victims in residential buildings,” with details about casualties still being clarified, he said, adding that rescuers and medics were working on the ground.

Ukrainian emergency services later said two people had been killed in the shelling of one of the high-rise buildings, according to Interfax Ukraine.

Firefighters work at the scene of an apartment building bombing in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 15, 2022. Felipe Dana/AP Photo

Klitschko said in a follow up message that a curfew would be imposed in Kyiv from 8 p.m. on March 15 and would last until 7 a.m. on March 17. It’s unclear whether the curfew is connected with a visit to Kyiv by the EU politicians.

“Today is a difficult and dangerous moment,” Klitschko wrote, adding that special passes will be required to move through the city during curfew except to seek refuge in a shelter.

“I ask all Kyivites to prepare for the fact that they will have to be at home for two days or, in case of an alarm, in a shelter.”

Morawiecki said he and the other leaders were making their trip in agreement with the European Union, citing the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He added the United Nations had been informed of the visit.

Michal Dworczyk, the head of Morawiecki’s office, said in a statement that the visit had been planned for several days but was kept secret for security reasons. Dworczyk said at around 10 a.m. local time that an hour or so earlier a train carrying the delegates had crossed the border between Poland and Ukraine.

Dworczyk said in a separate statement that a proposal of concrete help for Ukraine would be presented to the country’s leaders.

Klitschko, in a follow-up message, issued a call for Ukrainian men who had left Kyiv to return to help defend the capital “instead of sitting somewhere and sympathizing.”

“Kyiv, which today is a symbol and outpost of European freedom and security, we will not give up! We will not be brought to our knees!” he wrote.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” the country entered its 20th day on Tuesday.

The U.N. says that nearly 3 million people have been driven from their homes due to the fighting, an exodus that European officials have called the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.