Houses on fire, thousands flee: the Russian attack shakes Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian foreign minister, Kiev is under fire with “terrible rocket attacks”.
On day two of the Russian attack, Ukraine reports rocket fire on the capital Kiev. Among other things, a multi-storey residential building was hit, as the city administration announced on Friday morning.
“Terrible Russian rocket attacks on Kiev,” tweeted Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, drawing a parallel to the attack by Nazi Germany in 1941. Fighting and attacks were also reported from other locations, such as the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine.
Despite the massive attacks, the minister was demonstratively optimistic: “Ukraine has defeated this evil and will defeat it.” Kuleba again called for tougher sanctions against Russia and Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin: “Stop Putin. Isolated Russia. Disconnects all connections. Kick Russia out of everything.”
Explosions and fires in Kiev
Among other things, a multi-storey residential building on the east bank of the Dnipro River was hit, where fire broke out. The city administration announced on Telegram that debris from a rocket had hit there. Three people were injured. There, Ukrainian forces managed to shoot down a Russian aircraft, wrote an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko published a video on the social network Telegram showing fires on several floors of the building. Firefighters were on site. One of the injured is in critical condition, he wrote.
Zelenskyy: “Stay in the capital”
In his own words, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is organizing resistance against the attack by Russian troops from Kiev. “I’m staying in the capital, staying with my people,” he said in a video message on Friday night.
The 44-year-old leader and former TV comedian wore a brown T-shirt; it was filmed at an unidentifiable location. Residents of Kiev reported the sound of explosions at night.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian border guard reported fatalities from rocket fire at one of its posts in the south of the country on the Sea of Azov. There were several dead and injured during the night on Friday, the authority said on Facebook. The town of Primorskyj Posad is located on the coast between the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia, and the eastern Ukrainian separatist area. The Ukrainian military assumes that the Russian army wants to capture a corridor between the two areas.
137 dead on the first day
The Ukrainian army lost 137 soldiers on the first day of the Russian invasion, Zelenskyy said. He called them heroes. 316 soldiers were also injured. The Russian attacks from several directions began on Thursday morning. «Today Russia attacked the entire territory of Ukraine. And today our defenders did a lot, »said Zelenskyj. Information on civilian casualties remained sparse. In the Kharkiv region on the eastern border, 23 people were killed and hundreds injured, said the head of administration Oleg Sinegubow, according to the Unian agency.
Zelenskjy surmised that the Russian attack was meant to overthrow him. “According to our information, the enemy has made me Target #1, my family Target #2,” he said. He complained that none of his international interlocutors had supported Ukraine’s admission to NATO. So Ukraine is on its own. The US government also saw Zelenskyj as a “main target for Russian aggression”. He embodies “in many ways the democratic aspirations and ambitions of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told CNN.
General mobilization ordered in Ukraine
The Ukrainian President ordered a general mobilization late Thursday evening, which is to apply for 90 days and provides for the call-up of conscripts and reservists. Even before that he had ordered a partial mobilization of reservists. “We have to operationally replenish the army and other military formations,” he explained his decision. There will also be military exercises in the territorial units. The 44-year-old did not say how many men will be affected.
According to Ukrainian authorities, male citizens between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country. They will not be allowed across the border, said the head of the Ukrainian customs authority in Lviv, Danil Menshikov. He asked people not to panic and not try to cross the border on their own.
Opaque military situation
There was no reliable information on the military situation. The enemy is concentrating its troops in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in the east and south, said a spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff. The main goal seems to be to blockade Kiev. At night, Russian columns advanced on the capital. They circled the small town of Konotop about 200 kilometers away, according to the local administration.
According to the city administration, 17 large high-rise buildings were damaged by shelling in the strategically important Ukrainian port of Mariupol on the Azov Sea. The power supply had partially failed, but the water supply worked. 23 injured residents of the city and 23 injured soldiers were admitted to clinics.
According to Ukrainian sources, Russia captured the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Thursday. “Unfortunately, I have to report that the zone around Chernobyl, the so-called exclusion zone, and all facilities of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are under the control of armed Russian groups,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Thursday, according to the Unian agency. The Ukrainian capital of Kiev is just under 70 kilometers away.
Source: Stern
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