On Saturday evening, videos on social media showed sirens sounding in different areas of Kiev.
At dawn on Thursday, February 24, the Russian forces launched a military operation in eastern Ukraine, which opened the door to the possibility of the outbreak of a “third world war”, which would be the first in the twenty-first century.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, on Saturday, that Ukraine had “derailed” the Russian attack plan, calling on the Russians to pressure Vladimir Putin to stop the war.
Field Developments
A senior US defense official said that US estimates indicate that more than 50 percent of the Russian combat force deployed along the Ukrainian border has entered Ukraine, compared to estimates on Friday that a third of the Russian force is participating in the fighting.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal US assessments, did not say how many Russian troops had arrived inside Ukraine, but the US estimated the total Russian forces deployed near Ukraine at more than 150,000.
The official said that the advancing Russian forces were standing about 30 kilometers outside Kiev as of Saturday, and that an unspecified number of Russian military “reconnaissance elements” had entered the capital.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Saturday that “the speed of the Russian advance has probably slowed temporarily as a result of severe logistical difficulties and strong Ukrainian resistance.”
“Russian forces are bypassing the main Ukrainian population centers while leaving the forces to cordon off and isolate them,” the ministry said.
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