Russian strike on Kyiv during UN visit kills journalist

The body of a journalist from U.S.-backed broadcaster Radio Liberty was found in rubble in the Ukrainian capital, killed in a Russian missile attack during a visit by the U.N. secretary-general, Friday.  

“Radio Liberty journalist and producer Vera Hyrych died as a result of a Russian missile hitting the house where she lived in Kyiv. The attack took place on April 28,” the Ukrainian branch of the news organization said in a statement.  

Her body had been found on Friday morning after Thursday’s missile attack destroyed the bottom two floors of a residential building. Hyrych had worked for Radio Liberty since 2018.   

U.S.-funded RFE/RL, which has covered the former Soviet Union since the Cold War, is one of the main remaining Russian-language sources for news outside Kremlin control, since Moscow effectively shut all independent media following its invasion.  

The missiles hit the Ukrainian capital during a visit on Thursday by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The missiles had struck the capital after a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the UN Chief. Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov called it “an attack on the security of the Secretary-General and on world security”.  

Zelenskiy’s office said Russia was pounding the entire front line in the eastern Donetsk region with rockets, artillery, mortar bombs and aircraft. Britain said fighting had been particularly heavy around the cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, the main part of the Donbas that Russia is still trying to capture, with an attempted advance south from Russian-held Izium towards Sloviansk.
- KYIV, April 
29 Reuters