Foreign countries|Russian invasion
Kyiv has banned large gatherings during the Independence Day week due to the increased threat of violence. The US embassy in Kyiv has asked the country’s citizens to leave Ukraine.
On Wednesday is Ukraine’s 31st Independence Day since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. However, instead of holding celebrations, Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, have banned all large public gatherings.
For example, in Kyiv, the ban on gatherings started already on Monday and will last until Thursday.
The reason for the bans is the fear that Russia will commemorate Independence Day with even more brutal acts of violence than usual. Especially when the same time also coincides with another kind of anniversary: on Wednesday it will be exactly half a year since Russia launched its full-scale attack on Ukraine on February 24.
“We must all be prepared for the fact that this week Russia might try something particularly ugly, something particularly cruel,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said the US media in a video greeting on Saturday According to CNN.
Ukrainian the Center for Strategic Communications reported last week that Russia is concentrating missiles and ammunition near the borders of Ukraine. According to the center, the threat of large-scale bombing with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles during the Independence Day week is “obvious”, writes the Ukrainian Kyiv Post newspaper.
“Considering the numerous trains [Venäjältä] before August 20, it is clear that Russia is preparing an attack on Ukraine on August 24,” the Center for Strategic Communications stated on its website and messaging service Telegram.
Russia may be planning an attack on Wednesday from as many as three directions – from Belarus, the Black Sea and Russia – said a Ukrainian military expert on television, according to the Kyiv Post.
“I think preparations are underway in Belarus. Probably them [venäläissotilaat] carry out a large-scale air strike with the largest possible number of launch pads and missiles,” he said.
From the beginning of the week the US intelligence service also said that they believe that Russia is planning attacks on civilian and administrative targets in Ukraine in the coming days.
The US Embassy in Kyiv has issued a new security warning regarding Ukraine and asked its citizens to leave the country.
“Western embassies urge their citizens to leave Ukraine due to the risk of mass attacks on civilian targets and city centers,” wrote an adviser to the Ukrainian president Mykhailo Podolyak in turn on his Twitter channel.
Wartime Writing diary entries on Twitter from Kiev Yaroslava Antipina described the preparations for Independence Day on Monday as follows:
“How do we prepare for Independence Day?
Officials warn to avoid crowds and pay attention to air warnings.
I buy a lot of water, food, masks. Even with Victory [kissa] there is food for a month.
Tomorrow I won’t go to the office, as I usually do on Tuesdays.
So yes. We are ready to ‘celebrate’.”
#Russian #attack #Ukraine #preparing #Russia #increase #violence #civilians #government #buildings #countrys #Independence #Day
