Air alert declared in Kyiv as fighting continues

An air alert was declared Wednesday morning in and around Kyiv, with residents urged to get to bomb shelters as quickly as possible.

© Provided by Associated Press A man stands atop a destroyed bridge in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

“Kyiv region – air alert. Threat of a missile attack. Everyone immediately to shelters,” regional administration head Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram.

© Provided by Associated Press A man carries belongings out of an apartment building hit by shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Marienko)

Nearly two weeks into the invasion, Russian troops have advanced deep along Ukraine’s coastline. The city of Mariupol, which sits on the Azov Sea, has been surrounded by Russian soldiers for days and a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the encircled city of 430,000

© Provided by Associated Press A nun comforts a child at a temporary shelter, for displaced persons fleeing Ukraine, in Przemysl, Poland, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. U.N. officials said Tuesday that the Russian onslaught has forced more than 2 million people to flee Ukraine. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

For days, as Moscow’s forces have laid siege to Ukrainian cities, attempts to create corridors to safely evacuate civilians have stumbled amid continuing fighting.

© Provided by Associated Press An elderly lady is carried in a shopping cart after being evacuated from Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. Demands for ways to safety evacuate civilians have surged along with intensifying shelling by Russian forces, who have made significant advances in southern Ukraine but stalled in some other regions. Efforts to put in place cease-fires along humanitarian corridors have repeatedly failed amid Russian shelling. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Across the country, thousands of people are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, in nearly two weeks of fighting. Russian forces have seen their advances stopped in certain areas — including around Kyiv, the capital, — by fiercer resistance than expected from the Ukrainians.

© Provided by Associated Press People use their phone as a boy plays in a subway car parked inside a station being used by residents as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

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© Provided by Associated Press People queue to receive hot food in the improvised bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Monday, March 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Follow the AP’s coverage of the Ukraine crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

 

 

 

 

An elderly woman sits on a bench wrapped in a blanket in a subway station turned into a shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. Demands for ways to safety evacuate civilians have surged along with intensifying shelling by Russian forces, who have made significant advances in southern Ukraine but stalled in some other regions. Efforts to put in place cease-fires along humanitarian corridors have repeatedly failed amid Russian shelling. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda): Russia Ukraine War