Smoke plume rises on Kyiv skyline

(16 Mar 2022) Smoke was seen rising above the Kyiv skyline Wednesday, on the day Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to make a direct appeal for more help in a rare speech by a foreign leader to the U.S. Congress. Zelenskyy, previewing his speech to the U.S. Congress, thanked President Joe Biden and “all the friends of Ukraine” for $13.6 billion in new support. He appealed for more weapons and more sanctions to punish Russia and repeated his call to “close the skies over Ukraine to Russian missiles and planes.” He said Russian forces on Tuesday had been unable to move deeper into Ukrainian territory but had continued their heavy shelling of cities. Over the past day, 28,893 civilians were able to flee the fighting through nine humanitarian corridors, although the Russians refused to allow aid into Mariupol, he said. Zelenskyy also suggested there was still some reason to be optimistic negotiations might yet yield an agreement with the Russian government. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/07eb14a3452c4d2a891fa01e83e5f09f