Guard arrested for woman’s death near locked shelter.

Concerns Rise Over Civilian Safety in Ukraine as Air-Raid Shelters Found Locked or Unusable

The safety of civilians in Ukraine has become a major concern following the discovery that almost a quarter of the country’s air-raid shelters are locked or unusable. This news comes just days after a woman in Kyiv allegedly died waiting outside a shuttered shelter during a Russian missile barrage.

BREAKING: Russia launched a pre-dawn attack on Ukraine’s capital, killing at least one person and sending Kyiv’s residents again scrambling into shelters. Moscow authorities meanwhile reported a drone attack on the Russian capital. https://t.co/6LWDaFMjHl

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 30, 2023

Locked and Unfit for Use

The Ukrainian interior ministry announced that of the “over 4,800” shelters it had inspected, 252 were locked and a further 893 were “unfit for use.” The inspection was carried out by over 5,300 volunteers, including emergency workers, police officers, and local officials, who will continue to inspect shelters across Ukraine.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that “more than a thousand” complaints were received regarding locked, dilapidated, or insufficient air-raid shelters within a day of launching an online feedback service. Almost half of the complaints concerned facilities being locked, while about a quarter had to do with them being in poor condition. Some 250 Kyiv residents wrote in to complain of a lack of nearby shelters.

Arrests Made in Criminal Probe

The Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office reported that four people were detained in a criminal probe into the 33-year-old woman’s death on Thursday outside the locked shelter. One person, a security guard who had failed to unlock the doors, remained under arrest, while three others, including a local official, had been put under house arrest. The suspects face up to eight years in prison for official negligence that led to a person’s death.

Civilian Casualties

Russia launched a pre-dawn missile barrage at the Ukrainian capital on Thursday, killing a 9-year-old, her mother, and another woman, in what was the highest toll from a single attack on Kyiv over the past month. Ukrainian regional officials reported on Saturday morning that Russian shelling had killed at least four civilians across the country in the previous 24 hours.

A 67-year-old man died in the early hours of Saturday as Russian forces shelled the northeastern Kharkiv region, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. Two other civilians were killed on Friday and overnight, while six more, including a 3-year-old boy, suffered wounds. In the frontline Kherson region in the south, two boys aged 10 and 13 were hospitalized with “serious” injuries after an explosive device detonated Saturday in a village playground, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin reported. Five others, including two children, were wounded by Russian shelling over the previous day. In the Sumy province further west, a Russian mortar shell killed an 85-year-old man as he sat by the orchard outside his house, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office reported Saturday. Shelling also killed two people in Russia’s Belgorod region just across the border, including an elderly woman who died on the spot, according to local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. Gladkov added that another woman had been hospitalized with injuries and blamed Ukraine for the attack.

Verification Pending

It was not immediately possible to verify the above claims by regional authorities in Ukraine and Russia. The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.

Stay tuned for updates on this developing story.