The fronts of the Russian offensive in Ukraine increase

The fronts of the Russian ground offensive in Ukraine are multiplying, while bombings and explosions are recorded near all the major urban centers of the country. Moscow also took control of the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine, which in 1986 was the scene of the worst nuclear accident in history.

“After fierce fighting, we have lost control of the site,” said Mikhailo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency. Kiev had previously reported fighting near the site’s nuclear waste repository, raising fears of the danger of a radiation leak.

The invasion, announced by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as a “special military operation” to “demilitarize” and “denazify” the neighboring nation, began at 4 am in the Italian morning on Thursday 24 February. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the attack initially started from three directions: to the north from the border outpost of Senkivka, or from Belarus; to the east from the separatist areas, towards Kharkiv; to the south, from the Crimea. The land fronts subsequently moved even further north-west, along the entire border with Belarus, where Moscow had deployed 30,000 troops.

The situation on the ground is difficult to define, also due to the conflicting information coming from the two sides in the struggle. An example is Gostomel airport near Kiev. Zelensky announced its reconquest after Russian parachute troops had taken possession of it, as confirmed by a CNN reporter. According to France Presse, however, the battle is still ongoing.

Russian sources cited numerous cases in which Ukrainians surrendered without a fight. Kiev claims to have pushed the enemy back or held the line on most fronts and inflicted heavy casualties on the invader.

The most difficult situation for Kiev is in Kherson, near Crimea, where the authorities have admitted that they have lost control of the city. The presidency of the Sumy region in the Northeast also reported that it had lost control of the chief town and a section of the M02 Kiev-Moscow highway, while fighting over the city of Akhtyrka is ongoing.

In Donbass, where the separatist militias are trying to seize the areas of the two Donbass Oblast still in the hands of Kiev, the Donetsk forces, according to Moscow, have managed to penetrate seven kilometers into the opposing territory, while those of Lugansk are encountering a relentless resistance.

Zelensky guarantees that Kharkiv, in the North East, is safe and that the Russians are slowly advancing towards the northern region of Chernihiv, which would however have adequate defenses.

Ukrainian border guards report that ground forces have already entered the capital region Kiev, where a curfew and air alarm have been declared and the population has taken refuge in bunkers and the subway. The anti-aircraft sirens sounded, for the first time since the Second World War, even in Lviv, near the Polish border, where many diplomatic delegations had moved their staff.

The offensive began before dawn with a wave of cruise missiles, artillery shells and aerial bombardments that hit border posts and military infrastructure Explosions were heard in numerous Ukrainian cities: from Odessa to the capital Kiev, from Kharkiv to Dnipro. Reuters has released images showing tanks in Mariupol, the strategic port center on the Sea of ​​Azov, where hundreds of explosions of the heavy Russian attack underway have been heard in the last few hours.

The extent of the Russian operations is still not entirely clear

Putin said he does not intend to occupy the country’s territory and, three hours into the attack, the Russian defense ministry said it had “neutralized” Ukrainian air defenses. Most of the bombing is concentrated in the East, where the areas controlled by the separatists are located, who, a couple of hours after the start of the air offensive, attacked the positions of the Ukrainian army on the borders of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

However, air strikes have also been reported in the west, on Lutsk, Kherson and Ivano-Frankivsk, near the Polish border. The airspace was closed in the North East and all civil air traffic within the country was suspended.

Information about an amphibious landing in Odessa has been denied by some Ukrainian sources. In the port city on the Black Sea, 18 deaths from a missile attack were recorded. Six other victims were reported by local authorities in Brovary, near Kiev. In total, Ukraine reported 40 casualties in its ranks and a dozen civilians killed.

The Kiev army then claimed to have shot down five enemy planes and a helicopter and killed about fifty “Russian occupiers” in the east. No loss figures have yet arrived from Moscow. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the Moscow Armed Forces hit and destroyed 74 military targets in Ukraine, including 11 airbases. In addition, 18 radio localization stations for anti-missile systems were taken out of use, and a combat helicopter and four Bayraktar TB2 attack drones were shot down.

The Ukrainian resistance

The forces of Kiev, despite Western aid, suffer from a strong numerical disproportion in the face of the enemy. Moscow surrounded the north and east of Ukraine with about 190,000 troops, 30,000 of them in Belarus, amassed its naval forces in the Black Sea and closed the Sea of ​​Azov for navigation.

In total, Russia can count on 900,000 troops, two million reservists and half a million soldiers employed in other forces. Ukraine, on the other hand, has a land army of 145,000, plus 45,000 in the air force and another 11,000 in the navy. There are 900,000 reservists, plus another 100,000 employed in other forces. The gap is even wider in terms of armaments. Moscow has 16,000 armored combat vehicles, including tanks, compared to Ukraine’s 3,300.

The artillery equipment shows a similar disproportion, while the Ukrainian air force is a tenth of the Russian one. After the Russian annexation of Crimea, Ukraine received US $ 2.5 billion worth of weapons and American instructors trained the Ukrainian military to use the war material supplied by Washington: light armaments, patrol ships and Javelin anti-tank missiles.

However, the Russian armed forces have, in turn, undergone a decisive reform after the performance in the war with Georgia in 2008, which was judged lackluster. The Syria test bench contributed to this, where Russian commanders, alongside President Bashar al-Assad, fought jihadists and rebels, regaining much of the territory that Damascus had lost.

By Editor

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