LAST UPDATE: 15:49
In the seven days since the beginning of the conflict, southern Ukraine has become a critical front against Russia’s progress. Moscow has chosen to besiege many cities there, considering the region to be of strategic importance for the success of the project as a whole. Coastal control would not only cut off the rest of Ukraine from the sea, but would also create a direct link between Russian annexed Crimea and the Russian-speaking Donbass region under the old Novorossiya plan.
THE Hersonissos It has a population of 280,000 and is by far the largest city to have fallen to Russian forces. It is located on the banks of the Dnieper River, giving those who control it access to critical water supply channels in Crimea. At the same time, Ukrainian officials today confirmed the presence of the Russian army in Kherson, a large city in southern Ukraine that Moscow announced yesterday morning that it was occupied after heavy fighting.
Another great port is Mariupol, a population of 430,000, which is being bombed and surrounded by Russian forces, who are bombing critical urban infrastructure in the port city, leaving the area without water, heating and electricity and blocking the entry of supplies or the evacuation of people. If successfully occupied, Russia will have established a direct link between eastern Ukraine and Crimea, which are already controlled by Russia.
Crimea is a Russian-speaking part of Ukraine annexed by Moscow in 2014. There, Russia launched much of this southern offensive a week ago.
THE Odessa is the third largest city in Ukraine and the most important port of the country in the Black Sea, as well as an important oil terminal. So far one million inhabitants have escaped the worst battles. This is due to the fact that Russia has not made any concerted effort to move west of the Peninsula at this time – apart from isolated reports of paratroopers landing. In a separate incident, late Thursday afternoon, a cargo ship of an Estonian company with a Panama flag sank off the port of the city, after an explosion. It is likely that he fell asleep. Four crew members are missing, according to the company.
Roadblocks in its central points Kiev Ukrainian military forces, with the assistance of civilians, are set up to stop Russian troops attempting to invade the Ukrainian capital. The makeshift blockade has been going on in Kyiv for days, but the latest information indicates that since Thursday morning, the preparations of the Kiev residents for a Russian attack have intensified.
Confusion with the second round of negotiations
The second round of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian governments, which will focus on a possible ceasefire, was expected to begin this morning, but did not take place, Lavrov said at a news conference in Russian. state television how “The Ukrainian delegation again found some reasons to postpone the talks“It probably took a line from Washington.”
It was initially said that there was disagreement over where the talks would take place. Russia favored Belovezhskaya Pusha, the mansion where the break-up of the Soviet Union was signed, in the Brest region of Belarus, near the border with Poland. At the same time, Ukraine denied that there was an agreement.
Confusion later erupted after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “Kyiv has found a way to postpone the talks”, a statement that gave the impression that they had been postponed. Nevertheless Belarus’s Belta state news agency later reported that a second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine could begin in Belarus at 1200 GMT (14:00 GMT), citing Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky.
The representative of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arahamiya, as well as the advisor to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, Mikhail Pontoliak, said at 14:00 Greek time that the talks are expected to start “in a few hours”.
Shortly before 16:00 Greek time, it was announced that the Ukrainian mission had arrived in Belarus for the scheduled talks.
More than 575,000 Ukrainians have taken refuge in Poland
More than a million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion, according to the UN. The EU estimates that up to four million people could try to leave the country altogether.
Poland has received more than 575,000 people since the beginning of the conflict, according to the Polish border guard service.
The agency said 95,000 people entered Poland from Ukraine on Wednesday alone, slightly below Monday’s record high of 100,000. By 08:00 Greek time today, another 27,100 people had crossed the border, he added.
Explosions in Kyiv
Many loud explosions were heard in the early morning hours in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, where air defense sirens sounded. Residents were immediately called to shelters, the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported.
The situation in the Ukrainian capital is “difficult but under control,” said city mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Klitschko stressed that there were no casualties during the night and that the nighttime explosions came from the Ukrainian air defense that hit incoming Russian missiles.
Ukrainian media report on fighting on the borders of Kiev and the possible downing of a Russian aircraft. It is not possible to verify this information independently.
BREAKING: Several large explosions reported in Kyiv, #Ukraine. #UkraineRussianWar pic.twitter.com/TTroKd8biP
– Eretz Israel (@EretzIsrael) March 3, 2022
Fifth Explosion in #Kyiv
A huge explosion rocks the #Ukrainian capital Kyiv # UkraineUnderAttaсk #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/1isvFzgRQH
– PURUSHOTTAM SINGH (@ singhpuru2202) March 3, 2022
According to a statement from the governor of the city of Chernivtsi, located a few kilometers north of Kiev, Russian forces bombed a school in the city, killing nine people and injuring 14 others.
Attacks and deaths in Kharkov
Russian bombings and attacks have killed 34 civilians in the eastern region of Kharkiv in Ukraine in the last 24 hours between March 2 and 3, Ukraine’s emergency services said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Russian forces captured the town of Balakliya near Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.
The advance of Russian forces on the Ukrainian capital has made little progress in the last three days and the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol remain under Ukrainian control. according to the British Army intelligence service.
Destroyed 134th school in #Kharkivshelled by #Putin‘s occupants. pic.twitter.com/6zSfPwsys4
– NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 3, 2022
“Besieged Leningrad or Mariupol”
Mariupol has been surrounded by Russian forces, said Anton Herashenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.
“The occupying forces want to turn it into besieged Leningrad,” he said, referring to the siege by Leningrad Nazi troops, as St. Petersburg was called, during World War II. About 1.5 million people lost their lives during the siege of Leningrad.
At the same time, the city council of Mariupol complained today that Russia is constantly and deliberately bombarding critical urban infrastructure in this port in southeastern Ukraine, leaving it without water, heating or electricity and preventing the entry of supplies or the evacuation of people.
“They are stopping food supplies, they are excluding us, as in old Leningrad,” the Mariupol city council said in a statement.
“They are deliberately destroying critical living infrastructure for seven days. We have no light, no water or heating again,” the city council said, adding that it was seeking to build a humanitarian corridor to Mariupol and was trying to repair the damage. .
“Mariupol is still under fire. Women, children and the elderly are suffering. They are destroying us as a nation. This is a genocide of the Ukrainian people,” he said.
Pro-Russian forces may launch targeted strikes on Mariupol unless Ukrainian forces surrender there, Donetsk separatist commander Edward Basurin said on Thursday, according to Interfax news agency.
Russian soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces in the southern city of Nikolaev
Ukrainian forces arrested several Russian soldiers Wednesday in the southern city of Nikolaev, where heavy fighting has broken out in recent days, according to the regional governor and a member of Ukraine’s parliament who is pictured with the captured soldiers.
Roman Kostenko, a member of parliament and secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, told CNN that a reconnaissance unit of the 10th brigade of the Russian GRU was intercepted on the outskirts of Nikolaev.
Source: Capital
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