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News War in Ukraine
Nowhere to hide for civilians as
Richard Spencer Kyiv
Larisa Brown Defence Editor
spread sideways through the block’s 144
homes.
“This is a war crime, genocide,”
shouted Oleksiy Goncharenko, a
Ukrainian MP who arrived to watch
the rescue efforts early in the morning,
dressed in the uniform of the volunteer
territorial defence forces. “This is what
Putin is doing in the heart of Europe.”
He referred to Russian claims that
any attacks on civilian areas like this
must be a mistake. “Maybe it’s a
mistake,” he said. “But maybe also it’s a
mistake like Mariupol is a mistake,
like Volnovakha is a mistake, like when
pregnant women are killed it’s a mistake.
“Or maybe it’s a mistake in Putin’s head,
and in the heads of people in Europe
who will not protect us.”
Other residents of the estate re-
counted how they had been woken by
the whoosh of the shell’s arrival, then
the explosion. As the stairs collapsed,
some climbed to the roof to escape,
others on the lower floors jumped from
windows. Mrs Martiasheva, 45, found
her way into the smashed flat of a
neighbour, and together they found
their way to a staircase that was clear
farther along the block.
The apparently random strike on this
complex was a new feature of the war in
Kyiv. But the artillery fire into and out
of Kyiv’s outer northwestern suburbs,
where a battle continues to rage
between Russian and Ukrainian forces,
could be heard in the background.
Benjamin Hall, a British journalist for
Fox News, was injured in the area and
taken to hospital last night.
The Russians are said to hold about
a third of the town of Bucha, in the
forests on the northwest fringes.
There was also sporadic shooting
and fighting around the neighbouring
town of Irpin, where an American
videographer, Brent Renaud, was
killed on Sunday. A colleague who was
with him and was also injured, Juan
Arredondo, underwent surgery at
Ohmatdyt Hospital in Kyiv yesterday
to remove shrapnel. The hospital said
that his condition was stable.
A separate strike on the Antonov
aircraft factory, the country’s largest
and famous for its originally Soviet
brand of giant cargo planes, killed two
civilians and injured seven others,
officials said. The factory is in the west-
ern suburbs.black sea
The Russian navy is building its
strength off Ukraine’s Black Sea coast.
The Ministry of Defence in London
warned that a naval blockade had
begun to cut off supplies by sea. An The Russian bombardment of residential areas in Kyiv has now spread across the country, leaving many Ukrainians seriouslyAZOV SEADniproPoltavaChernihivOdesaUKRAINERURUSSSSIAIAABELARUSBELARUSCRIMEAMLuhansk
DonetskSumy
Kyiv
KharkivKonotopKhersonZaporizhzhyaChernobyl100 milesZhytomyrVinnytsiaMykolaiv MariupolVolnovakhaDirection of
Russian troop
advance
Previous advance
Russian-held
territory
Russian advances
Surrounded by
Russian troopsSource: Institute for
the Study of War
and AEI's Critical
Threats Project and
Ministry of Defence.
Updated March 13intelligence update said: “Russian
naval forces have established a distant
blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast,
in effect isolating Ukraine from inter-
national maritime trade. Russian naval
forces are also continuing to conduct
missile strikes against targets through-
out Ukraine.”
The MoD said Russia had already
conducted one amphibious landing in
the Sea of Azov and “could look to
conduct further such operations in the
coming weeks”. Cruise missiles that
targeted an airport at Vinnytsia last
week were thought to have been
launched from a vessel in the Black Sea.
Western officials believe that
capturing the strategically important
port city of Odesa is Russia’s primary
objective, but fear that once it has done
so, its forces could move towards the
Moldovan border and try to link that
country’s own breakaway republic ofTransnistria to Russian held-territory
in Ukraine.donetsk
Russia also accused Ukraine of a war
crime. It said that 20 people, all civilian,
had been killed when a Soviet-made
Tochka-U ballistic missile, fired by
Ukraine, landed in Donetsk, the city at
the centre of the separatist region which
broke away with Russian backing in
2014.
Major General Igor Konashenkov,
the defence ministry spokesman, said
that another 28 civilians, including
children, were seriously wounded. He
claimed that the missile was fired from
Ukrainian-held territory northwest of
the enclave and that there were no
military facilities in the area. Videos
from the scene showed corpses in the
street. The Ukrainian authorities
denied firing any missile in the area.The war against Kyiv’s residential
apartment blocks has begun. At 5am an
artillery shell slammed into the wall of
the flat under Svetlana Martiasheva’s
bed, and killed her elderly neighbour.
“Just a week ago we were all together
in the bomb shelter,” she said as she
watched residents of the block lower
what remained of their possessions to
the ground with ropes.
“He was a lovely man.” His wife was a
school dinner lady. “But Putin is a dick-
head,” her brother, Mikola, interjected.
“I’m sorry if it is politically incorrect to
say so, but he is.”
Cities across eastern Ukraine have
suffered the Russian blitz, with homes,
hospitals, office blocks bombarded. The
town of Volnovakha in the southeast has
been all but destroyed, despite President
Putin saying that civilians were not a
target.
In Kyiv the Russian military has so
far focused on establishing its tanks and
armoured columns, advancing around
the city to try to encircle it. It has held
off random bombing and shelling till
now. But there was little sign of any
military target near the apartment
complex in Obolon district, three miles
north of the city centre.
The residential block that was hit sits
on the northern side of the Soviet-era
estate. Opposite is a sports track, and
beyond that, a primary school. Similar
grey concrete, tile-clad blocks spread
out as far as the eye can see.
The authorities said two people were
killed, both elderly men, one in his flat
— Mrs Martiasheva’s friend — and one
in an ambulance on the way to hospital.
Nine people were injured, and many
more made homeless as the blast
A hospital in the southeastern town of
Volnovakha. Residents are continuing
to use a shelter under the building
The old tyres stacked on street corners
would be unlikely to stop a Russian
shell or bullet, but the civilian militia
preparing to defend Mykolaiv hoped
they would at least give the advancing
forces pause for thought.
As shells flew overhead yesterday,
hitting residential buildings across the
city, Ukrainian fighters braced them-
selves for an onslaught they feared
would lead to battles on the streets. The
tyres were there to provide cover, butAskold
Krushelnycky
MykolaivCity’s militia
ky
Banca do Antfer
Telegram: https://t.me/bancadoantfer
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