Yahoo News Russia gears up for Kyiv assault as Putin’s forces shell more Ukrainian cities
Russian forces were clawing their way towards Kyiv on Friday as fears grew that Vladimir Putin will unleash an onslaught against Ukraine’s capital within days.
Satellite images from Maxar Technologies also showed that a 40-mile column of tanks and other military vehicles, which had been around 18 miles to the north-east of the city centre, had now dispersed into local towns and forests, including close to Hostomel Airport, which has been the scene of fierce fighting.
A separate Russian military convoy to the north-west of Kyiv has moved around three miles forward to within about 10 miles of the city centre, according to a US official.
British defence chiefs said on Friday morning: “Russia is likely seeking to reset and re-posture its forces for renewed offensive activity in the coming days. This will probably include operations against the capital Kyiv.”
However, the latest intelligence briefing from the Ministry of Defence also stated that the progress of Russian ground forces remained “limited” as they were being hit by “strong” Ukrainian resistance and bogged down by “logistical issues”.
It added: “It remains highly unlikely that Russia has successfully achieved the objectives outlined in its pre-invasion plan.” As the Russian president appeared to be trying to expand his war in Ukraine, concerns were also growing that attacks by his troops may become even more “barbaric”, possibly even resorting to using chemical weapons which could send the civilian death toll soaring.
After the horror of the shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol earlier this week, killing at least three people including a child aged six, reports were coming in on Friday of an attack on a psychiatric hospital, which normally has around 330 patients though some had been evacuated, in the Kharkiv region. There were no reported deaths.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians have been killed in the war, which started just over two weeks ago. In key developments on Friday:
* Russian forces were still believed to be seeking to encircle Kyiv, from where half the population is already said to have fled.
* Mr Putin’s troops were trying to break through Ukrainian defences from Kukhari, 56 miles to the north-west through to Demidov, 25 miles north of Kyiv, said the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces.
* It claimed Russian forces had been halted in efforts to take the northern city of Chernihiv, in particular by Ukraine’s re-taking of the town of Baklanova Muraviika, which Russian troops could use to move toward Kyiv.
* Three Russian air strikes hit the important industrial city of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine, killing at least one person in attacks that struck near a kindergarten and apartment buildings, according to Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko.
* Local officials said Russian air strikes also targeted the western cities of Ivano-Frankiivsk and Lutsk, far from the main attack targets elsewhere in Ukraine, raising fears that Mr Putin was seeking to expand the conflict. Two Ukrainian servicemen were killed and six people wounded in an attack on the Lutsk military airfield, said one official.
* Russian forces have shelled residential areas of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv 89 times in one day but there was no current danger to civilians after a physics institute, containing a nuclear laboratory, was hit, said local governor Oleh Synegubov. Forty-eight schools in the city were said to have been damaged.
* Mr Putin’s troops were pushing their offensive in the south around Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, according to military sources.
A Ukrainian commander in Mykolaiv claimed Russian forces were abandoning many vehicles near the city. “They have no will to fight. They don’t even have food. It’s minus 10C with snow here, they don’t want to be here,” he told reporters.
* Rough weather on the Azov and Black Seas has stalled Russian ships’ efforts to come ashore, the Ukrainian general staff added. However, military experts believe that Russia, with its superior military firepower, also had time on its side as Mr Putin slowly expands the invasion.
* Ukrainian authorities were seeking to open several evacuation and humanitarian aid delivery routes, with the support of the Red Cross, with the priority being to free people from the besieged city of Mariupol, where there are food, water and power shortages.
* Deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a video message that the aim was to bring evacuees out to the city of Zaporizhzhia but repeated previous attempts have failed, as aid and rescue convoys were targeted by Russian shelling. She added that buses would be sent to several Kyiv suburbs to bring people into the capital, and to bring aid to those staying behind.
* Around 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded more than two weeks ago, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
* Russia’s deputy energy minister, Yevgeny Grabchak, said power was restored to the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.
* Mr Putin backed up to 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East to be deployed alongside Russian-backed rebels in the conflict.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky, said it was possible Mr Putin would be willing to use nuclear weapons against his country in the face of its determined resistance against the invasion. The Russian president ordered his military command late last month to put Russia’s deterrence forces, which include nuclear arms, on high alert, citing what he called aggressive statements by Nato leaders.
After thousands of people were detained in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities for protesting against the war, the Kremlin sought to discredit opponents by saying that Russians who say they were ashamed of the “special military operation” were not real Russians.
