Russian troops reached the bridgeheads by air at two smaller fields around Kiev. “This is really scary,” says a hotel employee interviewed by HS.
Saturday morning whitewashed deceptively as usual in the southern suburbs of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The HS journalist and photographer arrived there the night before, a long drive from the million city of Dnipro.
However, the mood changed rapidly as regional defense officers, made up of Ukrainian civilians, marched into the lobby of the Ramada Encore Hotel used by HS for breakfast.
“You can’t just march around here! This is now the official shelter of the UN! ” the hotel manager shouted at them angrily.
The gunmen showed their papers and the situation in the lobby calmed down quickly.
The hotel is estimated to be so logistically located about 12 kilometers south of the city center that the UN has relocated a couple of hundred workers from downtown Kiev, such as Unicef and the World Food Program, right here.
Watch the video for HS Editor-Photographer Kalle Koponen report on the quiet center of Kiev:
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HotelLIN the window shows directly in the north the southern suburbs of Kiev and in the northeast the Dnieper River, on the other bank of which is adjacent to the gray tower blocks of the working-class district.
“Already the third night at work,” the sales manager working behind the counter in the lobby Oksana Vasilyeva sigh.
“We now have 30 employees inside, when there are usually 190 of us. Many have stayed home because of their young children and some have fled west towards the Polish border.”
View from the window of the Ramada Encore hotel, used as a UN safe house, towards the southern suburbs of Kiev.
The location of the hotel has been considered good, but now this building is also in an area that the Russians approached from several directions. As bridgeheads, the Russians had, at least in the morning, a couple of smaller airports in the region, but entry to the troops is not without problems for Russian soldiers, as Ukraine’s air defense is not as toothless as initially feared.
The will of the Ukrainians to fight is also high, and assault rifles and instructions for making Molotov cocktails have also been distributed to civilians.
In the video you can listen to how the alarms warning of the air attack sound in the morning of Kiev:
“This is really scary, ”sighs Oksana Vasilyeva, the daughter of a Russian-born Ukrainian father and a Ukrainian mother of medicine.
“There was no reason for the attack, but now there is a war here and the international community is just discussing sanctions. This is already a big humanitarian crisis, so action is needed now to get Russia to stop the attack immediately. ”
Luke Stasevsky spent Saturday morning in a school cellar bomb shelter.
International a Finn living in Kiev also needs community action Lukas Stasevsky, which HS reached again in the morning by phone. The cellist and director of the Finnish Game Music Collective is studying to be a film director in Kiev and lives in the Solomjansky district on the outskirts of the city center.
“It is hoped that NATO will now provide air defense weapons to Ukraine immediately. Prompt action is required. It can be about hours! ”
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Stasevsky says the people of Kiev knew they expected the bombings to pick up from three in the morning.
“That’s what happened and the bombings were extremely severe. I then ran from our home to the bomb shelter in the basement of a nearby school, where everything was extremely well organized, ”he says.
“I understand the Russians were made to stop around us at four in the morning, when there was a phase of chaotic city war and shots seemed to be heard everywhere. But at seven in the morning we were told that the situation in this district is now calm and I was able to return to my apartment. ”
The future is also of great concern to him.
“I am terribly afraid that when these means have not been enough to overcome our resistance, Vladimir Putin next to order the bombing of civilian targets. “
At least so far, the Russians had not bombed the center of Kiev, for example. In his own words, Russian troops are bombing military infrastructure, but civilian casualties have not been avoided either.
Read more: Kiev “did not sleep for a minute” due to bombings the night before Friday: “Ukrainians will never forgive this”
Destruction of a missile strike in a Kiev apartment building on Saturday.
For example, an attack on an apartment building on Lobanovskyi Street in Kiev has destroyed several apartments, according to the news agency Unian.
According to Ukrainian authorities, a Russian-fired missile has hit the apartment building.
Shared images of the building show how the hit has torn the side of a tall residential building open, wreaking havoc on several apartments. Reuters reports that the Ukrainian Interior Ministry has said no casualties have been reported.
Zhanna Pastushenko and children in Kiev on Friday.
Scary the night experience was also Zhanna Pastushenko and at the age of 10 Matveilla as well as at the age of 8 In Jefrosinia In the Vinonhradar district of Kiev. The afternoon was at home, due to heavy fire the night in the basement of the local school and in the morning we returned home again.
But at 9:30 a.m. rushed again and the driver returned home from work Vasily Pastushenko said the family was once again heading for bomb shelter.
“There’s a lot of firing here now.”
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