Lack of military successes of magnitude in the northern fronts, and with the offensive in the south concentrated in the conquest of the port of Mariúpol, the Kremlin troops have intensified their attacks in the surroundings of Kyiv, with the apparent intention, according to the Ukrainian military commanders, of surrounding the city once and for all. Despite renewed push by Kremlin soldiers, President Volodymyr Zelensky he remains defiant, promising that the enemy will only gain entry to the capital if they “destroy us all”.
The airfield of Valsylkivsouth of the great ukrainian metropolis, has been destroyed this Saturday by Russian missiles, while in the northwest of it there have also been violent clashes. The attackers are about 25 kilometers from Kiev, but the morale of the city’s defenders is through the roof after it has been spread in recent hours. a video of a ukrainian attack against an armored column at the height of sykbyn, on the eastern outskirts. In the images it can be seen as a rain of shells and projectiles falls on the invaders, destroying the Russian tank that was in first position and another vehicle located further back. “We shot them tanks and grenade launcher; they withdrew to hide in the surrounding villages”, one of the ukrainian military who took part in the clashes, nicknamed topaz.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Russians are currently trying to eliminate the defenses in the north and west of the Russian capital to “block it” and “surround her“.
Ukrainian military losses
In his daily address, the President Zelensky has made a first balance of military losses in its ranks. He has encrypted 1,300 the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed, and has compared them with the 12,000 casualties that he assures the adversary has suffered, a ratio of 10 to 1 that satisfies the president. For its part, Moscow has only admitted less than 600 deaths. The American estimates spoke a few days ago of between 2,000 and 4,000 deaths, while European intelligence reports put them at 6,000. None of these figures have been confirmed. in an independent way.
On the southern flank of the war, during the day the first positive news for the besieged civilian population in Mariupol. After several failures, the Ukrainian authorities have finally managed to open a humanitarian corridor to bring food and medicine there. “Open green corridor; a humanitarian caravan left Zaporizhia, in the center of the country, for Mariupol,” has enthusiastically announced the mayor’s office on his Twitter account. “More than 90 tons of food they end up in the city, which leads 11 days blocked“, he continued. To ensure that the convoy reached its destination, members of the clergy of the Orthodox Church have accepted accompany personally to vehicles.
A hundred kilometers from Mariupol, specifically in Melitopol, one of the first towns to fall under the control of Russian forces, individuals in balaclavas have arrested the mayor of the city, Ivan Fedorov. In a new sign that managing the occupation of the conquered territories is not going to be easy for the Kremlin, two thousand people have gathered in the Town Hall square to demand their release, shouting “freedom for the mayor“. President Zelensky himself has personally asked his counterpart in France, Emmanuel Macronand to the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf ScholzThat personally involve and discuss the matter with the president Vladimir Putin when you have conversations with him.
Related news
The diplomatic front has also shown signs of activity in recent hours. This Saturday it has been confirmed that the Russians and Ukrainians are negotiating via videoconference, after three face-to-face rounds held in the first days of the conflict. “Negotiations with the Russian delegation are now taking place uninterruptedly in video format; has been created special working subgroups“, has reported on his Telegram channel Mikhail Podolyakwho heads the negotiations on the Ukrainian side.
The tone and content of the conversations, according to President Zelensky, is different. “Now the Russian side, in the negotiations, has begun to talk about things and not to issue ultimatums; I think it is a fundamentally different approach,” the president stated. Putin demands, to stop the offensivethe recognition of independence of Donbas and the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia, in addition to the demilitarization of the country.