Russian invasion ends its second week as efforts continue to coordinate escape routes for Ukrainian civilians in besieged cities.
Since the Russian forces entered the country, some two million people have fled Ukrainealmost half of them children. Most of the refugees have traveled to neighboring Poland. Russian troops have seized swathes of territory in the south, but have met strong Ukrainian resistance in other regions.
As certified by the UN, at least 494 civilians were massacred in different regions of the country, most of them under aviation or artillery bombardment of the invading forces. But the Human Rights Commission believes the figure is much higher.
The Russian offensive faces the challenge of the Ukrainian resistance, stronger than imagined, and of an irregular war that does not allow it to advance in a conventional way. They occupied territory quickly in the early days, but have now stalled.
What’s more, the snowfall of the last few hours could put the “death convoys” on the ropes, now transformed into “armored freesers. They expect to spring into action with increasingly extreme temperatures, which raises an ominous question: what will Putin decide?
The fear is that, under pressure, he will launch an all-or-nothing offensive, regardless of the human cost -neither Ukraine nor Russia-, obsessed with taking Kiev and beheading the Zelensky government. A small light appears on the other side: the statements of the spokeswoman for his Foreign Ministry, who spoke of progress in the dialogue with Kiev. her boss, Serguei Lavrov will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart in Turkey this Thursday.
On the table they will have a scenario similar to the following:
.responsive { width: 100%; height: auto; }
Are civilians being evacuated safely?
It was planned that this Wednesday civilian evacuations were carried out for 12 hours from the northeastern town of Sumy to the city of Poltava. Nearly two dozen buses would bring aid into the city and pick up people who wanted to leave, according to officials.
The areas where attacks must stop are between Energodar and Zaporizhia; Sumy, in the direction of the city of Poltava; Mariupol and Zaporiye; Volnovakha with Pokrovsk; and between Pasas and Lozova (in the Kharkiv region).
The sixth runner would affect the Kyiv region and includes a route that reaches Vorzel, Bucha, Borodyanka, Gostomel and Irpinin addition to Stoyanka and Belgorodka.
On Tuesday, 5,000 people were evacuated from Sumyincluding 1,700 foreign students, according to a senior Ukrainian official.
Other evacuation efforts on Tuesday were thwarted by Russian bombing. The planned evacuation of civilians from Mariupol failed because Russian troops fired on a Ukrainian convoy carrying humanitarian material to the city, according to the Ukrainian deputy prime minister.
In the besieged city of Mariupol, women and children gathered in an underground shelter as flashes of artillery fire could be seen in the distance. A Ukrainian soldier appeared in a video telling people to stick together as some people stole essential goods from a shop. “They don’t need to panic. Please don’t steal everything. this is your home“, He said.
This Wednesday, President Volodiimir Zelensky denounced the Russian bombing of a maternity hospital in the besieged city: “Mariupol. Direct attack by Russian troops on the maternity hospital. People and children are under the rubble. Atrocity!”, he wrote on his Twitter account, along with a video about the remains of the building.
In the capital, Kiev, families with young children continued to take refuge in a subway station to escape the chaos and sounds of war above ground.. A university student told the news agency AP that people went to his house from time to time, just to shower and get food.
Russian artillery has been pounding the outskirts of Kiev for weeks, destroying homes and other buildings.
What do the Ukrainian authorities say?
Two people, including a child, were killed Tuesday afternoon by Russian fire in the town of Chuguevjust east of the country’s second largest city, Kharkiv.
In the city of Malyn, west of Kiev, at least five people, including two children, were killed in an airstrike.according to Ukrainian authorities.
The Russian projectiles prevented the removal of the bodies of five people killed by gunfire on their vehicle near Kiev, according to Ukrainian authorities, as well as those of 12 patients from a psychiatric hospital in the area, where some 200 patients remained without food or medicine.
In the northern city of Chernihiv, Russian forces were placing military equipment next to residential buildings and farms., according to the Ukrainian General Staff. And in the south, he added, Russians in civilian clothes were advancing on the town of Mykolaiv.
The Ukrainian Minister of Energy said that the Ukrainian staff at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, were physically and emotionally exhausted.. Some 500 Russian soldiers and 50 pieces of heavy weapons were inside the compound, which the Russians seized last week.
The image from Russia
more and more isolated, Russia has persecuted independent news coverage and blocked access to Russian-language information from various foreign media. In the country there are still scattered anti-war protestsalthough the Russian public has fewer and fewer sources of information about what is going on.
The president of United States, Joe Bidensaid on Tuesday that The United States would ban all imports of Russian oileven if that means raising costs for Americans, especially at gas stations.
Shell also said it would stop buying Russian oil. McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and General Electric announced on Tuesday that they would temporarily suspend operations in Russia.
Some companies, such as McDonald’s, said they would continue to pay their employees in Russia, at least for now.
The Central Bank of Russia tightened currency restrictions to levels not seen since the Soviet era. He ordered the country’s commercial banks to limit the amounts customers can withdraw to $10,000 of your accounts. Any amount over the limit will be converted into rubles at the exchange rate of the day.
A senior Russian diplomat who oversees American affairs at the Foreign Ministry lashed out at the US actions against Moscow, saying it had brought relations between the two countries “to the point of no return.”
The director of the CIA, William Burnsdeclared Monday before Congress and said between 13,000 and 14,000 Russians had been detained before the start of the invasion for opposing the warand that there would bea few ugly weeks” as Putin stepped up his attack on Ukraine.
The “dumb bombs” that killed 47 civilians
A Russian airstrike on the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on March 3 that killed 47 civilians “may constitute a war crime”said this Wednesday International Amnesty (AI).
The human rights organization has investigated the drop of “multiple bombs” at noon on Thursday March 3 on “the small public square formed by Viacheslava Chornovola and Kruhova streets” of Chernihiv, which they killed citizens lining up to buy bread and severely damaged nearby buildings.
After reviewing the facts, AI’s Crisis Response team indicates that “most likely a Russian air strike using at least eight unguided aerial bombs, known as ‘dumb bombs’”.
The Chernihiv Regional Administration reported that 47 people (38 men and nine women) died in the attackAmnesty points out in its statement.
AI “was unable to identify a legitimate military target” at or near the site of the attack and, based on images and testimonies, believes that “Most of the victims were queuing for food when the missiles fell”.
For its part, the UN has so far certified the death of 494 civilians, 29 of them minors, while another 861 people not involved in the war were injured, of which 44 are minors. The breakdown of where these deaths occurred was detailed by the Human Rights Commission as shown in this infographic:
.responsive { width: 100%; height: auto; }
(With information from AP and Europa Press)
KEEP READING:
Russian invasion of Ukraine LIVE: EU added 160 Russian oligarchs and senators to its sanctions blacklist
Infobae in Kiev: Orthodox priests prepare for urban combat in a monastery from the year 1051
Source-www.infobae.com