Ukraine estimated this Saturday at more than 100,000 men the Russian invasion force, whose first wave has been held back by the Ukrainian defenses. These also prevented the siege of the capital.
“On our land there are more than 100,000 invaders viciously shooting at residential buildings,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
The long-awaited siege of Kiev will have to wait. Also resisting is the industrial city of Kharkov, located a few kilometers from the Russian border, and the port of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, crucial for building a land corridor with the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia.
Kiev resists the Russian onslaught
The day began with worrying news about the incursion of a Russian motorized unit in western Kiev, where a military garrison was subjected to shelling. The attack was repelled.
“We have liquidated them all,” reported the Army, which described the Russian invaders as “criminals.”
The objective of the attack was to gain control of the “red line” of the metro that leads directly to the heart of the city, the Plaza de la Independencia (Maidan).
For this reason, the metropolitan closed its doors until further notice and the City Council imposed a curfew from five in the afternoon to eight in the morning that will last until Monday morning.
Zelenski was pleased that the Ukrainian Army had managed to “derail” the Russian plan against the capital.
“The occupiers wanted to blockade the center of the country and put (pro-Russian) puppets here, like in Donetsk. We have derailed their idea, they got no advantage over us,” he said.
He stressed: “The enemy used everything against us: fighters, saboteurs, airborne forces.”
“The invaders hit residential areas, trying to destroy power generation infrastructure. Their tactics are very vile,” he claimed.
A projectile opened a hole in a residential building in the capital, an attack that left two injured. Residents of a house in the Kiev region hit by another shell were not so lucky. Three people died.
Distribution of weapons among civilians
In addition to recommending that Kievites not go out on the street or look out of windows or balconies, the Ministry of the Interior expedited the distribution of weapons among the population.
They distributed more than 25,000 unitsto which we must add thousands of bullets, grenade launchers and grenades.
“Kiev will defend itself, will defend itself to the end. I see with pride how people defend their city, their towns, their streets, their houses. Anyone who picked up a gun is a free man from a free country. Today, Ukraine is us. And we are Ukraine. We will resist!” declared Denís Monastirski, Minister of the Interior.
In an attempt to close the encirclement around Kiev, Russian airborne forces landed on an airfield in the Vasilkov localitywhich is located less than 40 kilometers from Kiev.
Fortunately for the national interests, the Ukrainian soldiers expelled the invaders in that locality, key to the control of Kiev.
“Kiev and the key cities around the capital are controlled by our Army,” Zelensky stressed.
Russian prisoners increase for pro-Ukrainian protests
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Réznikov assured today that more than 3.000 invaders were eliminated and another 200 have been captured since Thursday.
«More than 55 hours of resistance. The number of prisoners of war grows. They did not expect so much resistance and they are surrendering », he pointed out.
Reznikov called on the Ukrainians to prevent by any means the advance of the columns of Russian tanks, which are necessarily accompanied by fuel trucks.
For this, the party of the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschkó, published the recipe for making a Molotov cocktail, which, they recalled, was used by the Finns against Russian tanks in the Winter War (1939-1940).
“We welcome the invader with a Ukrainian cocktail,” the statement says.
In addition, Zelensky stressed that defensive weapons continue to arrive in Kiev from the West, while regarding possible consultations with the Kremlin, the Ukrainian leader’s advisers defended the need for “full negotiations” and not demands for capitulation and ultimatums.
In addition, they described the Kremlin’s information that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a halt to the offensive to give dialogue with Kiev a chance as a “lie”.
The pro-Russian militias continued their advance in Donbas. In addition, they took several strategic locations, such as Stanitsa Luhanska, formerly one of the few safe steps in the line of separation of forces.
The one that they have not been able to invade has been Mariúpol, which already resisted the continuous attacks of the rebels in 2014 and is now still standing against the new Russian offensive.