The Russian army extended its offensive in Ukraine on Friday, striking the city of Dnipro for the first time and targeting two military airports in the west of the country, while the noose tightens around Kyiv, the capital.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also encouraged the use of “volunteer” fighters alongside some 150,000 Russian forces already engaged on the ground for this war which has thrown more than four million people on the roads so far. Among them are 1.9 million internally displaced people and more than 2.5 million refugees abroad, mostly in Poland, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
• Read also: LIVE | The fighting continues
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People try to flee the city of Dnipro.
An industrial center located on the Dnieper, a river that marks the separation between the partly pro-Russian east of Ukraine and the rest of the country, Dnipro has been the target of raids that have left at least one person dead, according to local authorities.
Early Friday morning, “there were three airstrikes on the city, on a kindergarten, a residential building and a two-storey shoe factory where a fire then broke out. One person has died,” the Ukrainian emergency services announced.
Two Ukrainian soldiers were also killed and six injured in the bombardment of the military airport of Lutsk, in the northwest of the country.
“At 05:45 (03:45 GMT), four rockets were fired, according to our services, by a Russian army fighter plane at the Lutsk military airfield,” regional administration official Yuriy said on Telegram. Pohuliayko.
Russian forces also targeted the Ivano-Frankivsk military airport in the far west of the country. Both airbases have been “decommissioned,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
“Explosions on the side of the airport. Everyone safe! Do not post any photos, addresses or contact details!” warned Mayor Ilhor Polichchuk on Facebook. The explosions caused heating interruptions in the city.
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After reaching the outskirts of Kyiv, the Russian army also tried to eliminate the Ukrainian defenses in several localities to the west and north of the capital – in Andriivka, Kopyliv, Motyzhyne, Bouzova, Horenytchi, Boucha and Demydiv – to “Block” it, explained the Ukrainian staff on the night of Thursday to Friday.
“A movement of Russian troops” towards Brovary, east of Kyiv, is also “not excluded”, he specified.
Fighting was recorded in Irpin and Makarov, west of the capital. Bombardments also targeted Boutcha and missiles the locality of Baryshivka, near Brovary, which hit apartment buildings.
The Kyiv region is “preparing to evacuate the population from the most threatened localities”, announced the regional authorities. Nearly 20,000 people have already been evacuated on Wednesday and Thursday and some 100,000 in total over the past two days from towns plagued by fighting, according to Ukrainian authorities.
If there remain just under two million inhabitants in the capital – half of its population having fled since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24 – “Kyiv has turned into a fortress”, said the mayor , Vitali Klitschko.
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Volunteers prepare food for the Ukrainian army in Kyiv.
Night air raids also hit the cities of Chernihiv (north), Sumy (north-east) and Kharkiv (east), already heavily affected since the start of the Russian offensive, damaging residential buildings and power supply infrastructure. water and electricity.
In Nizhyn, near Chernihiv, two people were killed and eight injured by Hurricane multiple rocket launchers. Fighting also took place near Chernihiv and in the Kharkiv region.
In the south-east of the country, the Russian army is “focusing its efforts” on Severodonetsk and the besieged city of Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, where the bombing of a pediatric hospital left three people dead on Wednesday and sparked a wave of international condemnation, according to the Ukrainian general staff.
A representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) described a dire situation in Mariupol where the inhabitants are deprived of electricity, water and gas: “People have started to fight for food. Others destroyed another person’s car to get the gasoline out of it,” said Sasha Volkov in an audio recording sent to the media.
In Severodonetsk and Rubizhne, near the pro-Russian separatist city of Lugansk, multiple rocket launchers fired numerous fires in apartment buildings as well as a retirement home, local authorities said.
The fighting also continues for the control of Mykolaiv (south), notes the Ukrainian staff, noting that Moscow has tried to “start an offensive” towards the big cities of Zaporozhye and Krivoy Rog.
“The Russian occupiers are stopped, demoralized and suffer heavy losses,” he said.
Denouncing for his part the sending of “mercenaries” by the West, the master of the Kremlin asked his army to help the “volunteers” to reach the combat zone.
The United States and its European allies were considering additional sanctions against Russia in response to the seemingly “escalating” atrocities against Ukrainian civilians.
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They are also trying to help Ukraine militarily while avoiding the direct involvement of NATO member states. The US Congress adopted Thursday a staggering envelope of nearly 14 billion dollars for the Ukrainian crisis.
After the first high-level talks between the belligerents since February 24 – which were held in Turkey on Thursday without reaching a ceasefire – Moscow has promised the daily opening of humanitarian corridors to allow Ukrainians fleeing the fighting to win Russia.
But Ukraine, where the population of towns besieged by Russian troops lives in hiding due to the bombardments, refuses to evacuate to Russia and demands humanitarian corridors within its borders.
Meeting at a summit in Versailles, near Paris, to work out economic and military responses to the shock of the Russian invasion, the Heads of State and Government of the Twenty-Seven ruled out a rapid accession by Ukraine to EU, while opening the door to closer ties.
The UN Security Council will also meet Friday at 4:00 p.m. GMT at the request of Moscow, on the alleged manufacture of biological weapons in Ukraine, categorically denied by Mr. Zelensky.
Reference-www.tvanouvelles.ca