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Photos: Russian missiles strike Kyiv, as battle slows down in eastern Ukraine

<strong>April 28:</strong> Emergency services work at the site where fires were triggered by an explosion in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russia struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv shortly after a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday evening.
Emilio Morenatti
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AP
April 28: Emergency services work at the site where fires were triggered by an explosion in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russia struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv shortly after a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday evening.

Updated April 29, 2022 at 3:48 PM ET

Editor's note: Some of these images are graphic.

In the ninth week of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many civilians are trapped in the besieged Azovstal steel plant, the last remaining holdout of Ukrainian forces in the port city of Mariupol.

The U.N. projects that more than 8 million refugees will have left Ukraine by the end of the conflict; more than 5 million have already fled the country.

While Russian forces continue to target central and western Ukraine — where most of the displaced civilians have fled to — with airstrikes, more intense offensives continue in southern and eastern Ukraine, where Russia has said its focus will be, going forward.

Here's a look at the situation on the ground:

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

<strong>April 29:</strong> Residents and emergency services personnel push a damaged car from the driveway of a destroyed house during clean up operations a day after a Russian attack in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. Russia has stepped up its attacks in southeast Ukraine as it tries to advance further into Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.
Chris McGrath / Getty Images
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Getty Images
April 29: Residents and emergency services personnel push a damaged car from the driveway of a destroyed house during clean up operations a day after a Russian attack in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. Russia has stepped up its attacks in southeast Ukraine as it tries to advance further into Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.
<strong>April 29:</strong> Mourners grieve during the funeral service of fallen soldier Lubomyr Tazaev, aged 36, at the Saint's Peter and Paul Garrison Church in Lviv, Ukraine. Lviv has served as a stopover and shelter for the millions of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, either to the safety of nearby countries or the relative security of western Ukraine.
Leon Neal / Getty Images
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Getty Images
April 29: Mourners grieve during the funeral service of fallen soldier Lubomyr Tazaev, aged 36, at the Saint's Peter and Paul Garrison Church in Lviv, Ukraine. Lviv has served as a stopover and shelter for the millions of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, either to the safety of nearby countries or the relative security of western Ukraine.
<strong>April 28:</strong> Igor Ugnevenko,, second from the right, the head of Lyman city police, and his colleague are served Ukraine's traditional soup Borscht at the house where they deliver some necessary items for a pregnant woman in Lyman, eastern Ukraine, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
April 28: Igor Ugnevenko,, second from the right, the head of Lyman city police, and his colleague are served Ukraine's traditional soup Borscht at the house where they deliver some necessary items for a pregnant woman in Lyman, eastern Ukraine, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine.
<strong>April 28:</strong> Volodymyr Tykhonov, 76, opens the door of his garage that has numerous bullet holes, in Zahaltsi, Ukraine.
Alexey Furman / Getty Images
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Getty Images
April 28: Volodymyr Tykhonov, 76, opens the door of his garage that has numerous bullet holes, in Zahaltsi, Ukraine.
<strong>April 28:</strong> Ukrainian soldiers rest at their position near Lyman, eastern Ukraine, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
April 28: Ukrainian soldiers rest at their position near Lyman, eastern Ukraine, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine.
<strong>April 29:</strong> A liquor store owner looks at the damage to his shop caused by an explosion in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Emilio Morenatti / AP
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AP
April 29: A liquor store owner looks at the damage to his shop caused by an explosion in Kyiv, Ukraine.
<strong>April 29:</strong> Clean-up crews prepare to work at the site of an explosion in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Emilio Morenatti / AP
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AP
April 29: Clean-up crews prepare to work at the site of an explosion in Kyiv, Ukraine.
<strong>April 28:</strong> Iulia Shevchuk rests in a reception center for displaced people in Dnipro, Ukraine.
Francisco Seco / AP
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AP
April 28: Iulia Shevchuk rests in a reception center for displaced people in Dnipro, Ukraine.
<strong>April 28:</strong> Relatives and friends attend the funeral of Ukrainian serviceman Oleh Skybyk, killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at Lychakiv cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
Yuriy Dyachyshyn / AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
April 28: Relatives and friends attend the funeral of Ukrainian serviceman Oleh Skybyk, killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at Lychakiv cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
<strong>April 28:</strong> A railway wagon and sleepers burns after a shelling near the Lyman station in Lyman, eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
April 28: A railway wagon and sleepers burns after a shelling near the Lyman station in Lyman, eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
<strong>April 28:</strong> An elderly couple cross railroad tracks instead of using a flyover to get to the bus stop ahead of evacuation from Lyman, eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
April 28: An elderly couple cross railroad tracks instead of using a flyover to get to the bus stop ahead of evacuation from Lyman, eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
<strong>April 28:</strong> Members of a demining team of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine check for unexploded devices in a school building following Russian shelling in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, on the 64rd day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
April 28: Members of a demining team of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine check for unexploded devices in a school building following Russian shelling in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, on the 64rd day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
<strong>April 27:</strong> Decoy flares are seen after being released by an Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-25 providing an air support to Ukrainian troops on the ground during the battle near Yampil, eastern Ukraine, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
April 27: Decoy flares are seen after being released by an Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-25 providing an air support to Ukrainian troops on the ground during the battle near Yampil, eastern Ukraine, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine.
<strong>April 28:</strong> Locals remove debris from destroyed houses after a Russian rocket, hit by Ukraine's anti-aircraft system, stroke in a residencial area in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. The strike came as parts of southern Ukraine prepare for a further advance by Russian forces who seek to strip the country of its seacoast.
Francisco Seco / AP
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AP
April 28: Locals remove debris from destroyed houses after a Russian rocket, hit by Ukraine's anti-aircraft system, stroke in a residencial area in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. The strike came as parts of southern Ukraine prepare for a further advance by Russian forces who seek to strip the country of its seacoast.
<strong>April 28:</strong> U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, center, reacts during his visit to Borodyanka, close to Kyiv, Ukraine.
Efrem Lukatsky / AP
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AP
April 28: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, center, reacts during his visit to Borodyanka, close to Kyiv, Ukraine.
<strong>April 28:</strong> Clothes hung in a closet of a destroyed house after a Russian rocket, hit by Ukraine's anti-aircraft system, stroke in a residencial area in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine
Francisco Seco / AP
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AP
April 28: Clothes hung in a closet of a destroyed house after a Russian rocket, hit by Ukraine's anti-aircraft system, stroke in a residencial area in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine
<strong>April 27:</strong> Vitalii, right, 50 year-old, stays with his son Kiril, 2 year-old, on their bed in the bunker of Ostchem factory in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
April 27: Vitalii, right, 50 year-old, stays with his son Kiril, 2 year-old, on their bed in the bunker of Ostchem factory in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
<strong>April 27:</strong> Gravedigger Alexander, digs a grave at the cemetery of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Emilio Morenatti / AP
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AP
April 27: Gravedigger Alexander, digs a grave at the cemetery of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv.
<strong>April 27:</strong> An emergency worker is helped by locals to carry a man to an ambulance following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Felipe Dana / AP
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AP
April 27: An emergency worker is helped by locals to carry a man to an ambulance following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
<strong>April 26:</strong> Lilia stands next to a place where a bomb heavily damaged the basement of a residential building killing an 8-year-old girl, according to the building's residents, during a Russian attack Monday in Lyman, Ukraine.
Leo Correa / AP
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AP
April 26: Lilia stands next to a place where a bomb heavily damaged the basement of a residential building killing an 8-year-old girl, according to the building's residents, during a Russian attack Monday in Lyman, Ukraine.
<strong>April 27:</strong> Ukrainian servicemen install a machine gun on a tank during repairs after fighting Russian forces in the country's Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine.
Evgeniy Maloletka / AP
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AP
April 27: Ukrainian servicemen install a machine gun on a tank during repairs after fighting Russian forces in the country's Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine.
<strong>April 26:</strong> A woman from the Luhansk Oblast cries while sitting on an evacuation train in Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine.
Evgeniy Maloletka / AP
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AP
April 26: A woman from the Luhansk Oblast cries while sitting on an evacuation train in Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine.
<strong>April 26:</strong> A Soviet-era monument to the friendship between Ukraine and Russia  that sits in central Kyiv is torn down amid Russia's ongoing invasion.
Efrem Lukatsky / AP
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AP
April 26: A Soviet-era monument to the friendship between Ukraine and Russia that sits in central Kyiv is torn down amid Russia's ongoing invasion.
<strong>April 27:</strong> Men carry portraits of, from right, Valerya Glodan, 28, and her mother, Lyudmila Yavkina, 54, who were killed in their apartment by shelling with 3-month-old infant Kira Glodan, during a funeral ceremony at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa, Ukraine.
Max Pshybyshevsky / AP
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AP
April 27: Men carry portraits of, from right, Valerya Glodan, 28, and her mother, Lyudmila Yavkina, 54, who were killed in their apartment by shelling with 3-month-old infant Kira Glodan, during a funeral ceremony at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa, Ukraine.
<strong>April 26:</strong> Medical workers treat Volodymyr Nikiforov, 40, injured by shelling near Barvenkove at a hospital in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine.
Evgeniy Maloletka / AP
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AP
April 26: Medical workers treat Volodymyr Nikiforov, 40, injured by shelling near Barvenkove at a hospital in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine.
<strong>April 26:</strong> A collapsed bridge in Rusaniv, Ukraine.
Alexey Furman / Getty Images
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Getty Images
April 26: A collapsed bridge in Rusaniv, Ukraine.
<strong>April 27:</strong> People queue at a food distribution center for internally displaced persons and others in need in Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had captured several eastern villages as part of Moscow's offensive to take control of the country's eastern Donbas region, which Russia has vowed to "liberate."
Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images
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AFP via Getty Images
April 27: People queue at a food distribution center for internally displaced persons and others in need in Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had captured several eastern villages as part of Moscow's offensive to take control of the country's eastern Donbas region, which Russia has vowed to "liberate."

Marco Storel