CCTV footage has captured the moment a Russian projectile destroyed a Kyiv city bus and damaged the surrounding street, killing one person and injuring six.
The blast, which occurred on Monday near the publicly owned Kurenivskyi Park in the Ukrainian capital, was corroborated by a message from mayor of the city and former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko.
The footage shows the projectile impacting the ground from an angle in the park as pedestrians and cars pass by, sending debris across the street as the area soon begins to fill with black smoke.
Mr Klitschko, who reopened the nearby park in 2019 after its renovation, confirmed through a Facebook post from Kyiv City Council that there were no passengers on the bus at the time of the explosion.
“Just recently, the wreckage of a rocket fell on the road in Kurenivka,” he wrote, according to a translation.
“One person was killed and six were injured. An ambulance took the two wounded.
“The trolleybus, which was without passengers, was completely destroyed.
“Windows flew, (there are) damaged balconies of surrounding houses and commercial premises on the ground floors.
“Rescuers and ambulance crews are working on the spot.”
Mr Klitschko’s brother, Wladimir, also a former professional boxer, documented on Twitter the aftermath of the event.
He posted a video of the wreckage, in which the back half of the green bus is buried under rubble and a crater can be seen in the ground.
Balconies on the building above the street have debris dangling from them and a car behind Mr Klitschko is also severely damaged, sitting with its bent boot open.
“Putin’s dream of creating a Greater Russia is my country’s nightmare,” he wrote to his 650,000 followers on the platform.
“That’s what Russia’s war against the civilians looks like,” he says in the video while filming the crater where the projectile hit the ground.
“Destroyed buildings, destroyed infrastructure – city bus just got hit by the rocket.
“Lives are getting lost. That is the war that Russia started, that is the city of Kyiv.
“And many cities in Ukraine were destroyed, lives were taken. That’s the truth, these images are the truth of Russian war against Ukraine.
“Putin’s war against Ukraine – that’s what it looks like.”
Klitschko pans the video one final time towards the end of the 52-second clip, showing again the damage caused to the bus and a fallen streetlamp laying along the crater.
Officials from Russia and Ukraine opened a new round of diplomatic talks, held via video conference.
The talks ended without a breakthrough after several hours, with an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the negotiators took “a technical pause” and planned to meet again on Tuesday.
