Only several groups of civilians managed to leave the combat zones through the open corridors north of Kiev and in the city of Sumy
The humanitarian corridors worked with a dropper, but yesterday they served so that several groups of civilians from Irpin, north of Kiev, and Sumy, the northeast of the country, left the conflict zones behind and headed for the western part of Ukraine. After thirteen days of war and three meetings to seek peace, these corridors constitute the first point of understanding and could spread to other cities.
The evacuees did not go in the direction of Russia or Belarus, as Vladimir Putin suggested, but instead headed for areas under Ukrainian control. In the case of Sumy, images of dozens of buses carrying not only locals but also Chinese, Indians and other foreign nationals were broadcast by local media heading to Lokhvytsia to the southwest. Many of those who left were students from all over the world who were caught by the conflict in the middle of the academic year.
The sky of Kiev fell silent during the day. The explosions of the night gave way to silence and the city was dyed white due to a snow storm. “This favors us. The Russians lose visibility and will not be able to use planes, ”one of the militiamen in front of the Maidan barricades, the heart of the capital, reflected aloud. As the days go by, the Ukrainian resistance keeps the enemy out of Kiev but fears of an upcoming large-scale air operation gain strength.
However, the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klichkó, assured that the Russian Army is preparing to try to enter the city soon, but, he warned, “they will not pass.” “We understand that the city of Kiev is the target of the aggressor. We are doing everything possible so that each street, each building, each checkpoint, is a fortress », he stressed.
Putin’s obsession
The capital is the objective that obsesses Putin. His forces are concentrating in the east, northwest and west of the city to carry out the assault in the coming days. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), in Washington, the troops at the service of the Kremlin could execute him within the next 24 to 96 hours.
The Russians prepare the ground. They do this by moving supplies and reinforcements, as well as carrying out artillery, air, and missile strikes to weaken defenses and intimidate defenders before the assault. “It is too early to assess the possible effectiveness of any Russian attempt to complete the encirclement of Kiev or to take the city at this time. If Russian troops are able to resupply, reorganize, and plan deliberate and coordinated simultaneous operations along the various axes of advance around and toward the capital, they may be more successful in this operation than in previous ones.” report by the Institute for the Study of War, led by Frederick W. Kagan, George Barros, and Katryna Stepanenko.
Sumy is also the scene of heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops, and the subject of heavy bombardment. The latest balance of victims speaks of twenty-one dead, including two children. The head of the regional administration, Dimitro Zhivitski, reported attacks, not against military targets, but against “housing buildings”.
300,000 people resist in Mariupol
The president, Volodímir Zelenski, denounced that in Mariúpol “for the first time in decades, perhaps since the invasion of Nazi Germany, a girl had died of dehydration.” “Listen to me, dear friends, a girl has died of dehydration in 2022,” he stressed. The little girl, named Tania and 6 years old, was trapped under the rubble of her house, hit by the bombs. Her mother died immediately, but she, according to the mayor, Vadim Boitchenko, «It is not known how long she was trapped alive under the ruins. The last minutes of her life were spent alone, exhausted, scared and terribly thirsty. This is just one of many stories happening in Mariupol, which has been besieged for eight days,” she wrote on Telegram.
In the coastal city of the Sea of Azov for the third consecutive day a safe exit of civilians was impossible. Boitchenko denounced that 300,000 civilians are surrounded by a fence that condemns them to live without water or electricity and subjected to artillery fire. The International Committee of the Red Cross called the situation “really apocalyptic”, in the words of its spokesman, Ewan Watson.
On the other hand, the Intelligence department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported that another Russian general, the third since the invasion began, fell on the battlefield outside Kharkov. This is Vitali Gerasimov, although his death has not been confirmed from Moscow. Earlier, it was announced that his counterparts Andrei Sukhovetsky and Mogamed Tushayev were killed. Zelenski affirmed yesterday that the Ukrainian troops “annihilate the occupants when they can (…) Russia had not lost so much aviation equipment in thirty years as in the last thirteen days in the Ukraine.”
#encirclement #Russian #troops #limits #effectiveness #humanitarian #corridors