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Invasion: Ukraine War: Russian army approaches Kyiv

Invasion: Ukraine War: Russian army approaches Kyiv

A huge Russian military column is on its way to Kyiv. Residents put up barricades. Many are wondering: could Moscow change tactics out of frustration at the massive resistance?

8:01 a.m. shows the security camera recording aimed at the city administration of the second largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv.

Four cars were driving in front of and next to the yellow-painted, five-storey building – when suddenly a rocket hits out of nowhere. A huge fireball rises, parts fly through the air. “What madness,” commented Ukrainians on social media the scene.

Kharkiv of all places, they write – the city on the Russian border where practically everyone has relatives or close friends in Russia. For observers, it’s another sign that President Vladimir Putin has begun to use even more brutal tactics.

Because one thing is becoming more and more obvious: After Russia’s attack on Ukraine on Thursday, a quick conquest of the country with subsequent capitulation failed. All major cities remain under Ukrainian control.

According to the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv, more than 5,000 soldiers died in the Russian troops within five days. 200 were taken prisoner, they are often shown in videos. However, neither numbers nor videos can be checked independently. Neither does the fact that Ukraine claims to have brought down 29 planes and 29 helicopters and destroyed hundreds of tanks and armored personnel carriers. The military did not give any information about their own losses.

First advance probably stopped

Especially when night falls, Russian units with ballistic missiles primarily attack military targets near the big cities. According to information from Kiev, there was a regrouping of Russian troops on Tuesday, which points to an imminent second wave of advances. The advance from the northwest of Kyiv was initially stopped at a distance of 15 to 20 kilometers. According to satellite images, the troops advancing from the north-east of the Chernihiv region are forming a column more than 60 kilometers long. Chernihiv was completely surrounded and all exits were mined.

The city of Kharkiv, which has been exposed to massive shelling for days, also hit residential areas and where almost a dozen civilians are said to have been killed, is also threatened with a blockade. However, a first push by Russian troops into the center failed.

After all, the weather is likely to play into the hands of the Ukrainians: Due to the weather conditions, the army leadership does not expect landing operations in the Black Sea region in the near future. All Russian landing units are based in Crimea. However, according to local reports, the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Cherson at the mouth of the Dnipro River is already completely surrounded and is about to be hit by the storm.

In the southeast, the port city of Mariupol on the Sea of ​​Azov is already threatened with complete encirclement by Russian troops. The Russian side set up a corridor for civilians to leave the country on Wednesday. After that, the storm of the city with originally more than 400,000 inhabitants is to be expected. Shelling and massive power outages are already making life difficult. The entire Ukrainian grouping in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions could then be cut off from the rest of the country and thus from supplies in an encirclement operation.

Kyiv is getting ready

According to observers, however, the main target of the operation remains the capital Kyiv. “The enemy wants to conquer the heart of our country,” said Mayor Vitali Klitschko in another video message to the city’s citizens on Tuesday. Kyiv is increasing the barricades every day, most recently especially on the access roads. In the city itself, more and more road controls, sandbags and tank barriers can be seen, residents report. While some stores are open, some empty shelves aren’t due to a supply problem: the city government has banned the sale of alcoholic beverages.

The Kiev Pavlo Hansevych says in voice messages that he is very impressed by the “incredible solidarity” of the people in the city. The army and area defenses would be supplied by the citizens, everyone sticking together to support them. But people are also moving closer together in the residential buildings. “We didn’t used to know our neighbors, now we’re the closest of friends.” But now he has to go and look for diapers.

While some observers assume that the Ukrainian army is already lacking in certain weapons, more and more residents of the country are following the example of the mayor of Dniprorudne. On Sunday, Yevheniy Matvyeev and unarmed residents of his city persuaded Russian tanks to turn back. The mayor told the German Press Agency that he had “in one word” demoralized the Russian soldiers. What exactly that was, he only wants to reveal when the war is over.

Videos circulated on social media from the Kharkiv region of a group of youths with Ukrainian flags jumping on a car marked with a white “Z” to stop it. Footage said to have come from Berdyansk in the south of the country shows hundreds of people shouting “Berdyansk – this is Ukraine” to Russian troops standing in front of the city administration. In another video, dozens of Ukrainians stand in front of a Russian military column, led by a tank, and sing the Ukrainian national anthem.

In Kharkiv, people met the impact of a shell in the city administration with defiance. Just a few hours later, around a dozen Kharkivs with Ukrainian flags gathered in the rubble in front of the building, in which not a single window is intact. “Russians, look what you’re doing here!” shouts a man. “We used to party here, look what’s going on here!” Amid other rather foul language, he advises people in the neighboring country: “Stop before it’s too late.”

Source: Stern

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