The battle of Kiev intensifies with an urban fight

The attack on Kiev does not stop. The Ukrainian capital, in the crosshairs of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has woken up with shootings and detonations in the streets after a night in which the rumble of the explosions has not stopped. Early this Saturday morning there was a huge impact on an apartment block in the upper part of the city. The Ukrainian government assures that it has been attacked by a Russian missile. A video released by the National Emergency Service shows the detonation of what looks like a rocket and the images from the home security cameras of one of the apartments show the moment of the reach. A total of 35 people, including two children, have been injured in heavy fighting in Kiev overnight, according to the city’s mayor.

Putin’s attack on what he has called a “Nazi and drug addict regime” continues as thousands take refuge in the metro of the capital of 2.8 million people. Many others have already abandoned it. In Kiev, the Ukrainian Army has blown up several bridges in an attempt to stop the advance of the troops sent by the head of the Kremlin. Small arms fire and explosions in various parts of the capital evidenced the traces of urban struggle. The Army, with the help of armed civilians, is placing tire barricades to cut off streets and establish checkpoints. There are shootings in various parts of the capital, which tries to resist the attack. The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, had warned before that a hard night of siege was approaching in the city.

But the attacks have been repeated throughout the country. Russian forces have launched a coordinated missile and artillery attack on several cities in Ukraine. Putin’s forces have also fired cruise missiles from the Black Sea at the Azov Sea cities of Sumi, Poltava and the port city of Mariupol, where there is heavy fighting. Russia is sure that it has taken control of the city of Melitopol, a southeastern city of 150,000 inhabitants, after what would be an amphibious landing of naval infantry that would also facilitate the taking of Mariupol. The mayor of the city, however, issued a statement in which he assured that Melitopol remains under Ukrainian control. If the seizure of Melitopol is confirmed, it would be a very important advance for Putin.

The Ukrainian Army is resisting the harsh Russian offensive. The authorities have raised their requests to the public to prepare for all scenarios, including going out with Molotov cocktails. On the radio, some programs on Friday explained how to make this homemade explosive.

In the government-controlled part of Donbas, territory claimed by the Kremlin for pro-Russian separatists from Donetsk and Lugansk who control a third of the mining region, and in the Dnipro region, dozens of armored vehicles and military trucks, some with missiles They plant the roads. Near Pavlograd, uniformed men were digging trenches on Saturday morning in the woods near the main road, where they were also preparing barricades.

Zelensky refuses to leave the country

After another hard night and rumors about the United States offering help to the Ukrainian president to leave the country, Zelensky has spread another message through a video on his social networks in which he has urged citizens not to believe the “fake news” about accepting a surrender. “I’m here,” he has said in an undated recording in which he appears downtown, dressed in military green clothing. “We will not lay down our arms, we will defend our State,” stressed this former comic actor who swept the 2019 presidential elections.

 

As the battle rages on and the Ukrainian Army struggles to resist the harsh offensive, a channel of diplomatic negotiation could advance. On Friday, when the attacks against Kiev, the heart of the country, intensified, Zelensky reiterated his invitation to Putin to sit down to negotiate to “stop death.” After long refusals and with Ukraine on the brink of the abyss, the Kremlin assured that the Russian leader would be willing to return to Minsk, where the peace agreements were signed in 2015 for Donbas, which did not bring peace to a conflict that has caused 14,000 deaths since then, but which froze the line of contact dividing the separatist-controlled zone from the rest of the government-controlled region. Belarus is no longer, however, the buffer between Russia and the West that it was at the time. The Belarusian authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukachenko, an ally of Moscow, is in favor of Putin and is increasingly dependent on the Kremlin. Late Friday night, Zelensky asked Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to organize and help mediate negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel told CNN. In any case, Putin does not believe in Zelensky’s legitimacy as president. On Friday he made a strong appeal to the Army to take power, overthrow the president and sit down to negotiate. Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel told CNN. In any case, Putin does not believe in Zelensky’s legitimacy as president. On Friday he made a strong appeal to the Army to take power, overthrow the president and sit down to negotiate. Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel told CNN. In any case, Putin does not believe in Zelensky’s legitimacy as president. On Friday he made a strong appeal to the Army to take power, overthrow the president and sit down to negotiate.