“I do not know what is worse … The moment of the bombing, or the next day?” The statement of a Ukrainian citizen captures in the most true way the real face of the war in Ukraine. Russian forces have not stopped bombing dozens of areas and targets in eastern and southern Ukraine.in a radius from Kharkov to Mykolaev, while in the last two 24 hours, after the sinking of the Russian flagship Moskva, in the focus of their operations has re-entered Kyiv, where military installations are affected, in residential areas.
The images published in the international media depict the destruction, the pain and the brutality. People killed by Russian missiles and mourning relatives, people who were miraculously saved but stigmatized for the rest of their lives, looking terrified and flat, structures completely destroyed and vast expanses of freshly dug graves.
See images taken by international media photographers today Saturday (ATTENTION HARD IMAGES):
Heavy bombardment of Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv
Russian warplanes bombed Lviv and Russian missiles hit Kyiv and Kharkiv today, as Moscow continues to threaten to launch more long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities after the sinking of the Fleet’s flagship.
In the besieged Mariupol, the scene of the fiercest fighting and the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the war, Russian troops advanced in the hope that will compensate for their failure to occupy Kyivachieving Russia’s greatest victory in the war to date.
Moscow says its planes hit a tank repair factory in the capital, where an explosion was heard and smoke was visible in the southeastern Darmitsky district. The mayor of Kiev said at least one person had been killed and doctors were struggling to save others.
The Ukrainian military says Russian warplanes that took off from Belarus also fired rockets into the Lviv region near the border with Poland, where four Cruise missiles were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
In Mariupol, Reuters reporters in Russian-controlled parts of the city arrived at the Illych steel plant, which Moscow claimed to have seized yesterday, Friday, one of two huge metallurgical plants where the city’s defenders are resisting underground tunnels and bunkers.
The factory has been turned into a silent pile of iron and cement rubble, with no signs of defenders. Outside the factory, at least six bodies of civilians are scattered in the surrounding streets, including a woman in a pink sweater and white shoes.
Someone had spray-painted “mine-laden” on a fence in the yard of a damaged gas station. At a rare sign of life, a red car slowly descended an empty road, with the word “kids” written on a piece of cardboard on the windshield.
His governor Kharkov in eastern Ukraine says at least one person has been killed and 18 injured in a rocket attack. In Mykolaif, a town near the southern front, Russia said it had hit a military vehicle repair plant.
Russia said Friday it would intensify long-range strikes in retaliation for acts of “sabotage” and “terrorism”, which it did not specify, hours after confirming the sinking of Moskva’s Black Sea Fleet flagship.
Kyiv and Washington say the ship was hit by Ukrainian missiles. Moscow, that sank after a fire.
One and a half months after the start of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia is trying to seize territory in the south and east of the country after withdrawing from the north after a massive attack in Kyiv that was repulsed on the outskirts of the capital.
Russian troops have withdrawn from the north, leaving behind civilian cities, as evidenced by what US President Joe Biden called “genocide” this week – an attempt to eradicate Ukrainian national identity.
Russia denies targeting civilians, saying its “special military operation” is aimed at disarming Ukrainians, defeating nationalists and protecting separatists in southeastern Ukraine.
Kiev mayor: “Get away as much as possible”
Ukraine says its troops are still resisting the ruins of Mariupol, where the defense is concentrated around Azovstal, another huge steel plant that has not yet surrendered.
“The situation in Mariupol is difficult … Fighting is taking place at the moment. The Russian army is constantly calling for more units to attack the city,” Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyank told a televised news conference.
The owner of both of Mariupol’s huge steelworks, Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, has vowed to rebuild the city.
“Mariupol is a world tragedy and a global example of heroism. For me, Mariupol has always been and will always be a Ukrainian city,” Akhmetov told Reuters.
If Mariupol falls, it will be Russia’s biggest victory in the war to date. It is the main port of Donbass, an area consisting of two provinces in southeastern Ukraine that Moscow demands to be ceded entirely to the separatists.
Ukraine says it has so far repelled Russian advance elsewhere in Donbas. One person was killed and three others were injured in a bomb blast in Luhansk, one of Luhansk Oblasts, Governor Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post.
A gas pipeline has been damaged in the first-line cities of Lisichansk and Sheverodonetsk, which have been left without gas and water, Gaidai said. Buses are available for those who want to leave. “Get as far away as you can.”
Ukraine took the upper hand in the initial phase of the war, which many Western military experts had predicted would soon lose. It has successfully deployed mobile units equipped with anti-tank missiles it has received from the West against the huge convoys of Russian tanks bordered by muddy roads.
But Putin seems determined to gain more ground in Donbas in order to declare victory in a war that has left Russia in the crosshairs of growing Western sanctions and few allies.
Zelensky: 2,500 to 3,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 2,500-3,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed so far, compared to 20,000 Russian soldiers.
Moscow has not released a new report on its military casualties since March 25, when it said 1,351 soldiers had been killed. Western estimates of Russian losses point to multiple numbers, while there are few independent estimates of Ukraine’s losses.
Ukraine says civilian deaths are impossible to count, estimating that tens of thousands have been killed in Mariupol alone.
In all, about a quarter of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes, including a tenth of the population who have fled abroad.
“Our army’s successes on the battlefield are really important, historically significant. But they are not yet enough to clear our land of the invaders. We will achieve some more,” Zelensky said in a video message late yesterday.
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