© AFP
Russian airborne troops landed in Kharkiv from the night of Tuesday, March 1 to Wednesday, March 2as specified by references of the Ukrainian army, evoking combats in progress within the great city that is located in the east of the country.
“Russian airborne troops have landed in Kharkiv (…) and attacked a local hospital”remarked through a statement members of the armed forces. “There is a fight going on between the invaders and the Ukrainians”they added.
The announcement comes on the seventh day of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, launched last Thursday, February 24, and intensified on Tuesday after a first phase without major victories for Moscow. Prior to the arrival of the Russian troops, the city was “notified” by Putin.
Kharkov, the second Ukrainian city with 1.4 million inhabitants and close to the Russian border, suffered bombardments the day before that left at least ten dead and more than 20 wounded. These numbers were disclosed by official authorities.
Video: the impressive explosion of the government building in Kharkov
The Russian bombings over Ukraine, a week after the beginning of the invasion
A week into the conflict, Ukrainian media broadcast new explosions at night in the capital and in Bila Tserkva, about 80 km to the south. What’s more, shelling was reported on Zhytomir west of Kiev, with two dead and three wounded.
In Mariupol, on the shore of the Sea of Azov, more than a hundred people were injured Tuesday by Russian gunfiresaid the city’s mayor, Vadim Boichenko, also quoted by the same Ukrainian media that reported on the air strikes.
Even further west, in Kherson, the approaches to which were already controlled by Russian forces, they took control of the train station and the port, according to its mayor Igor Kolykhayev. The Ukrainian army had warned of maneuvers by the invading troops.
As they anticipated, the forces led by Vladimir Putin had as their objective surround and assault the main cities of the countrywhere a huge column of Russian vehicles and weapons is headed according to images obtained by satellites.
Although they have yet to claim any major victories, the Russians appear to be making more headway in southern Ukraine than anything else.where they controlled the annexed Crimean peninsula and part of Donbas, the pro-Russian rebel territory that had been against Kiev since 2014.
For Kiev, a new danger also lurks to the north, in Belarus, an ally of Moscow, which ordered the deployment of additional troops to the border with Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, these troops could “support the Russian invaders in the future.”
JFG