EU authorities visit kyiv, Russia strikes civilian target

Emergency workers and neighbors remove debris after a Russian rocket hit an apartment building in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Yevgen Honcharenko)

kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — European Union leaders arrived in kyiv on Thursday to meet with Ukrainian authorities, as rescue teams searched through the rubble of an apartment building in eastern Ukraine hit by a Russian missile that killed the least three people and injured about 20.

Emergency workers spent the night searching for survivors in the city of Kramatorsk, in the eastern province of Donetsk, after the missile hit on Wednesday. The scene of devastation was a grim reminder of the cost of the war nearly a year after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has often attacked apartment buildings that have caused civilian casualties, although the Kremlin has denied targeting residential structures.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell ahead of what authorities described as a summit on Friday.

Borell tweeted that the visit was intended to “deliver the EU’s strongest message of support to all Ukrainians defending their country.”

EU aid to Ukraine, he said, totals 50 billion euros ($55 billion) since Russia started the war on February 24.

“Europe stood together with Ukraine from day one. And will stand with you to win and rebuild,” Borrell tweeted.

It was von der Leyen’s fourth visit since the invasion. The last such summit was held in kyiv in October 2021, a few months before the start of the war.

The talks were expected to include Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts. kyiv’s long road to possible EU entry would be a key issue to discuss, and rooting out corruption is a key condition for joining.

“We are together to show that the EU stands with Ukraine as firmly as ever. And to reaffirm our support and cooperation.”

Zelenskyy criticized corrupt officials for the second time in a week on Wednesday. Several high-level officials have been removed.

Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 on a campaign based on fighting the system and corruption, in a country where embezzlement and bribery have long been a problem.

The latest allegations of corruption coincided with moves by Western allies to allocate billions of dollars to help kyiv fight Moscow’s forces, and as the Ukrainian government makes reforms with aspirations to one day join the EU.

The Ukrainian government is seeking more Western military aid in addition to the tanks promised last week. The two sides are expected to launch new offensives when the winter ends. Now kyiv has ordered fighters.

US President Joe Biden has refused to provide F-16s to Ukraine. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a trip to the Philippines on Thursday that the goal of US aid is to increase Ukraine’s military capability by sending artillery, armor, air defenses and providing training to Ukrainian troops.

The United States is “focused on providing Ukraine with the capability it needs to be effective in its next expected counteroffensive in the spring,” Austin said.

“So we’re doing everything we can to give them the capability they need right now to be effective on the battlefield,” he said.

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