Ukraine: ‘Russia changes tactics of war in Kyiv’ – Allegations over the ‘minefield’ of the Mediterranean

LAST UPDATE: 23.32

Russian forces around Kiev have lost their offensive capability and are changing tactics to favor long-range attacks despite direct clashes, the deputy chief of staff of Ukraine’s ground forces said today.

Speaking on a teleconference on defense in the Ukrainian capital, Oleksandr Gruzevich said: “The enemy has almost exhausted its offensive capabilities, but the forces that remain perimeter of Kiev they are not small “.

A senior Pentagon official said Russian forces had left the Khostomel airport north of Kiev.

At the same time, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that the main fronts of the battle are now becoming the Mariupol and a “corridor” between them Izium and Βολνοβάχα in the east of the country.

“(Russia) is withdrawing forces in the Kiev region, but it is too early to say that the same is happening in the Chernihiv region,” said adviser Vadim Denishenko.

In fact, on Thursday afternoon, near Chernihiv A convoy of five buses carrying volunteers to the besieged city was hit by Russian fire, killing one person and injuring four.

According to Lyudmila Denisova, who’s in charge of human rights in the Ukrainian parliament, “Russian fighters fired on a convoy of volunteers near Chernihiv. Five buses were heading towards the city.

The Ukrainian official accused the Russian troops of “leaving no chance of civilians being evacuated from the besieged Chernihiv, leaving tens of thousands of civilians without food, without water, without heating.”

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree for the spring mobilization, as reported by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti. According to the report, 134,500 people will be added to the Russian armed forces. Shoigu said the mobilization this spring will be shorter than a year ago.

At the same time Russia has destroyed “Almost the entire Ukrainian defense industry,” the adviser to the Ukrainian president, Oleksiy Arestovich, said on Thursday in a videotaped speech, in which he welcomed the terms of the proposed peace agreement as a victory for Ukraine, as reported by Reuters. “They have essentially destroyed our defense industry,” Arestovic said.

Russian soldiers were exposed to radioactivity

Russian troops have withdrawn from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant they seized after the Russian-led invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday night.

“There are no other foreigners (soldiers) inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” Ukraine’s government said on Facebook.

Russian forces have also withdrawn from the neighboring town of Slavutich, where Ukrainian Chernobyl workers live.

Meanwhile, the information of Ukrainian officials, according to which, is of concern Hundreds of Russian soldiers found in the area of ​​the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine have been infected with radioactivity.

According to the British newspaper Daily Mail, the Russian soldiers undergo special treatment in the city of Gomel in Belarus.

Workers at Ukraine’s nuclear plant claimed that the Russian soldiers did not have the proper equipment and that their stay in the wider area was “suicide”.

According to a Belarusian news channel, at least seven buses carrying Russian soldiers arrived in Gomel this week at the Medical Center, which specializes in treating those infected with radioactivity.

Yaroslav Cemelianenko, an official with the Ukrainian state service overseeing the Chernobyl exclusion zone, claims that Russian soldiers are being treated for radiation exposure.

He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture and that his confession had been obtained through torture.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will set up online surveillance missions at Ukraine’s Chernobyl and Zaporizhia nuclear power plants, the head of the Ukrainian company that manages the units announced today.

Furthermore, IAEA announces plans to send shipment to Chernobyl radioactive waste facility after Ukraine informed it that the Russian troops controlling the site had withdrawn and that the remaining Russian forces were likely to withdraw as well.

“The IAEA is in close consultation with the Ukrainian authorities to send the Agency’s first aid and support mission to Chernobyl in the coming days,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.

Ukraine: Kherson is in danger of being left without food and medicine

Residents of Hersonissos who spoke to Agence France-Presse reported that Russian forces block food deliveries and humanitarian aid to the city, while a shortage of drugs is beginning to be observed.

“If we spend another month like this we will no longer need to be bombarded. Hunger and disease will do the same job,” said Kirillo, an ambulance driver.

Food stocks are constantly declining. There is still meat and vegetables, at twice the normal prices, but pasta and barley are rare. “They are not letting humanitarian aid get here. For a month now, there have been no food deliveries,” said a resident who works in the communications sector.

All residents who spoke to AFP also said they had seen or heard of “visits” by Russian soldiers to apartments. “They are looking for people whose names are on various lists. They are entering homes, they are armed, you can not resist,” said Tetiana, a university employee.

A resident of the neighboring city of Kahofka, which is also under Russian control, said Russians were “arresting people”, mostly local activists and militants. “We do not know where they are going,” he said.

The situation in Kharkov is “stable”, the Russian army will “attack again”,

The Russian military is currently “reorganizing” its forces to attack “eastern and southern Ukraine,” the head of the 92nd Brigade, which is defending Kharkiv (northeast), the second largest city in the country, said today. stable “.

“They (the Russians) believed that they would cross into Ukraine as they did in Crimea. But that did not happen, that is exactly why the enemy withdrew and is currently being reorganized,” General Paestro Maestro told AFP.

“They are regrouping to attack and concentrate the maximum force in the area or in the direction of Slobozanschina,” the northeastern part of the country stretching from Kharkiv to Luhansk and Mariupol, “the general said.

“We should never underestimate the enemy, whose” forces “are” enormous, “said the 47-year-old senior officer, who was honored on March 3 by President Volodymyr Zelensky as a” hero “in his defense. Kharkov in the first days of the war.

Repulsed on the outskirts, the Russian army remains in the northern and northeastern suburbs of the city, from where its artillery bombs residential areas daily.

“In Kharkov the situation is stable,” said General Maestro, a nickname he acquired during the 2014-2015 war in Donbas (east).

“We are defending in every direction and trying to repel the enemy.”

Commenting on the recapture earlier this week by Ukrainian forces in the village of Mala Rogan and a perimeter highway where Russian forces suffered heavy casualties, the Ukrainian general said it was “a classic operation like the ones we carry out daily.”

“The morale of our troops is high. We are here for our country, we are protecting our families and our victories are raising our morale,” he said.

“To the Russian forces that are attacking us, this is the message I am sending: Take your soldiers, take your children, take all your vehicles and return to your homes while you are still alive,” concluded General Maestro.