For the second day in a row, already 09 since Russia began the invasion of Ukraine, kyiv has woken up this Tuesday with buildings engulfed in flames and with residents inside.
Two buildings of nine and 15 flats, in the Sviatoshynskyi district, were seriously damaged as a result of the air strikes.
Another residential building, of 10 flats, was attacked in the Podilskyi district; as well as a private house in the Darnytskyi district.
Part of the Lukyanivska metro station was hit and its facade damaged, although the subway service continues to function.
Ukrainian state emergency services say that two people died as a result of the latest attacks on residential buildings, while others 20 were rescued.
On Monday 14 March, a residential complex was attacked in the Obolon district, at 10 kilometers from the center of kyiv. The attack took place early in the morning as Russian troops approached the capital.
The city’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, has imposed a curfew from 35 hours from 20: 00 local time of Tuesday through Thursday at 00: 00. It will be forbidden to move around the city without special permission, except to go to air-raid shelters.
“The capital is the heart of Ukraine, and it will be defended. kyiv, which is currently the symbol and forward operating base of freedom and security in Europe, will not be abandoned by us,” Klitschko said.
“It is a difficult time and dangerous. That is why I ask all the inhabitants of kyiv to prepare to stay at home for two days, or if the sirens sound, in the shelters.”
UK Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly told the BBC Breakfast program that Russia’s “plan of attack is not working”, but as a result “we are seeing more areas civilians attacked”.
“Difficult” conversations
Russia and Ukraine continue negotiations this Tuesday. Ukraine said on Monday it had started “difficult” talks on a ceasefire, immediate troop withdrawal and security guarantees.
Previous rounds focused mainly on ceasefires to bring aid to towns and cities besieged by Russian forces and evacuate civilians.
But those truces have failed so far.
In a video published by various Ukrainian media, the chief’s adviser of Ukrainian President Oleksiy Arestovich’s cabinet said he believes Russia is likely to run out of resources to attack its neighbor in May.
Arestovich said the exact timing would depend on the amount of resources that the Kremlin was willing to commit to the invasion.
“I think no later than May, early May, we should have a peace agreement, perhaps much sooner, we’ll see, I’m talking about the last dates possible,” Arestovich said.
A completely different scenario would be if Russia sends new recruits after a month of training, he said.
Meanwhile, the Prime Ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia They are traveling by train to kyiv and are expected to enter the city for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. They have already crossed the border between Poland and Ukraine.
They are traveling as representatives of the European Union and will present the details of a concrete support package for Ukraine, said Michal Dworczyk, head of the Polish Prime Minister’s office.
The EU has presented its fourth set of sanctions against Russia, with the aim of crippling its ability to finance the invasion. The UK has also announced new sanctions against Russian vodka and luxury goods.
Natural defense
In a briefing in their war room on Monday, the two Ukrainian generals responsible for the defense of kyiv explained to the journalist from the BBC Jeremy Bowen how his forces were fighting to keep Russian artillery out of range of the city.
In In recent days, kyiv has felt the war more acutely, due to Russia’s destructive firepower. However, the city center and many of its sprawling suburbs have not yet been attacked.
The generals responsible for the defense of kyiv they said they were fighting hard to keep Russian artillery out of range, but accepted that the capital was vulnerable to missiles.
However, the topography and terrain of the city are to their liking. side, said Gen. Andriy Kryschenko. The city is large and extensive. It is divided by rivers, not only by the Dnieper that divides kyiv in two, but also by its tributaries.
“It is difficult to defend on the one hand, since it is very big”, he said. “But on the other hand, this is an advantage. The rivers, the bridges are in the accesses to the city. Our troops are building defenses and fortifications.
“Around the city there are many small rivers that flow into the Dnieper and there are many peat bogs, which means that the area is not suitable for movement of troops on a large scale”.
More evacuations
The evacuation corridors of four cities in the northeastern region of Sumy in Ukraine will be ready today, according to a local official.
According to a Telegram post by Dmytro Zhyvytsky, head of the Sumy regional administration, the evacuation routes of the cities of Sumy, Konotop, Trostianets and Lebedyn will be open between 07: 00 and the 21: 00 local time.
Sumy, near the Russian border, has been under heavy shelling with reports of power and water cuts since Russia invaded.
But many other cities are still under fire from Russian troops and airstrikes.
Russian bombing in some areas in Ukraine has been so intense that towns and cities are being forced to bury dozens of civilian victims, without any ceremony, in mass graves.
The place where this dark reality of war is reflected most clearly is Mariupol, a key port city devastated by constant bombing and has had to dig several graves quickly in the last two weeks.
On Monday it was learned that a pregnant woman died with her baby after an airstrike on a maternity hospital in Mariúpol on March 9.
- The pregnant woman who was photographed on a stretcher dies after the bombing of the maternity hospital in Mariupol
- Makeshift mass graves in Ukrainian cities bombed by Russian forces
Ukraine says the number of civilians killed there has risen above 2.500, a figure that the BBC could not check.
The region of Zhitómir has also been the scene of bloody attacks. Residents of this area west of kyiv have faced massive daily shelling, which has killed civilians and left many homeless.
Over the weekend, attacks increased in parts of western Ukraine. Russian forces fired missiles at a military base just 03 km from the border with Poland, a member of NATO. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki referred to the attack as an attempt to “create panic among the civilian population.”
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