"An operation is planned today [April 29] to get civilians out of the plant," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said, referring to the huge Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are holed up together with about 1,000 civilians. It did not provide further details.
Zelenskiy said the strikes showed Russia's disdain for institutions such as the UN and that the strikes "require corresponding powerful reaction."
"This says a lot about Russia's true attitude towards global institutions, about attempts of Russian authorities to humiliate the UN and everything that the organization represents," Zelenskiy said in an overnight video address to the nation.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram that at least one person was killed and 10 wounded in a strike on a residential building in the capital.
RFE/RL said later that one of its journalists, Vira Hyrych, was in her apartment in the building and was found dead in the rubble.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed "long-range, high-precision" missiles had hit factory buildings in Kyiv of Ukrainian rocket manufacturer Artem.
Ukrainian officials have not commented on whether the factory was hit during the attack.
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One aim of Guterres's visit was to secure the evacuation of people from Mariupol, which has been the scene of some of the most intense fighting since Russia launched its unprovoked attack on Ukraine on February 24.
Guterres said after meeting Zelenskiy in Kyiv on April 28 that intense discussions were under way to enable the evacuation of the Azovstal steel plant. Previous evacuation attempts have collapsed.
"I cannot confirm the exact details of the operation to make sure it is done with safety for our people and for civilians stranded in Mariupol," said Saviano Abreu, a spokesman for the UN's humanitarian office.
"We are depending on the goodwill of all parties and we are in this together," UN Crisis Coordinator Amin Awad told Reuters on April 29.
The governor of Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko, said two towns there were hit by Russian Grad rockets on April 29. There was no immediate word on casualties or damage.
As Russia continued its offensive, the British Ministry of Defense said on April 29 that Moscow's current strategic goal in its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine remains securing control over the eastern part of the country known as the Donbas.
In its daily bulletin, British intelligence said on April 29 that fighting has been particularly heavy around the towns of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region, with an attempted advance toward Slovyansk in the Donetsk region.
But the bulletin noted that due to strong Ukrainian resistance, Moscow's territorial gains "have been limited and achieved at significant cost to Russian forces."
Ukraine has acknowledged losing control of some towns and villages in the east since Russia refocused its assault on the region last week, but says Moscow's gains have come at a massive cost to a troops already worn down from their earlier defeat near the capital.
"We have serious losses but the Russians' losses are much, much bigger.... They have colossal losses," presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden requested $33 billion from Congress to support Ukraine, a massive jump in funding that includes over $20 billion for weapons, ammunition, and other military aid.
"We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom," Biden said. "The cost of this fight -- it's not cheap -- but caving to aggression is going to be more costly."
Biden said the spending would meet Ukraine's needs through September.
The assistance package is more than twice as large as the $13.6 billion in defense and economic aid enacted last month to assist Ukraine and Western allies that is now almost exhausted.
Russia has told the West to stop sending arms to Ukraine, saying large Western deliveries of weapons were inflaming the conflict.
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