By Associated Press
Russian forces reportedly shot and killed 10 people standing for bread in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, the US embassy in Kyiv said.
“Today, Russian forces shot and killed 10 people standing in line for bread in Chernihiv. Such horrific attacks must stop. We are considering all available options to ensure accountability for any atrocity crimes in Ukraine,” a tweet said.
Video geolocated by CNN confirmed that a shell or rocket hit a group of people on Wednesday morning, while a local reporter on the scene said at least 10 people had been killed in the attack, The Guardian reports.
Meanwhile, Olha Semidyanova, a Ukraine Armed Forces medic and Mother to six children of her own and six orphans, died in combat earlier this month, Ukrainian news agencies reported.
Semidyanova was from the village of Marhanets near Nikopol. She was killed in early March, in fighting in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region, a UNIAN news agency report said.
Semidyanova was known to the Ukrainian public prior to the RF’s Feb. 24 invasion to Ukraine for her long-time service on the lines of the Donbas conflict, and for her large family. She was a recipient of Ukraine’s rarely-given “Honor and Glory Award” for her service and help to orphans, and a Mother-Heroine award for giving birth to six children herself.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday appealed to the U.S. Congress to do more to help Ukraine’s fight against Russia, but acknowledged the no-fly zone he has sought to “close the sky” over his country may not happen.
Livestreamed into the Capitol complex, Zelenskyy said the U.S. must sanction Russian lawmakers and block imports. He showed a packed auditorium of lawmakers a graphic video of the destruction and devastation his country has suffered in the war, along with heartbreaking scenes of civilian casualties.
“We need you right now,” Zelenskyy said, adding, “I call on you to do more.” In urging a steeper economic hit to the Russians, he said: “Peace is more important than income.”
Today, Russian forces shot and killed 10 people standing in line for bread in Chernihiv. Such horrific attacks must stop. We are considering all available options to ensure accountability for any atrocity crimes in Ukraine.
— U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) March 16, 2022
Lawmakers gave him a standing ovation, before and after his short remarks, which Zelenskyy began in Ukrainian through an interpreter but then switched to English in a heartfelt appeal to help end the bloodshed.
“I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths,” he told them.
Wearing a short-sleeved army T-shirt, Zelinskyy began his remarks by invoking the destruction the U.S. suffered in 1941 when Japan bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by militants who commandeered passenger airplanes to crash into the symbols of Western democracy and economy.
“Remember Pearl Harbor? Remember September 11?” Zelenzkyy asked. “Our countries experience the same every day right now,” he informed.
