Oleh Bulavenko’s death was captured in the footage filmed by his son on the outskirts of Kyiv, as they tried to take their pet dogs to safety
The sham of President Putin’s claims to not be targeting civilians was laid bare last night as video emerged of a family car being strafed by tank fire on a quiet country road outside Kyiv.
The Russian leader yesterday delivered an address claiming ‘gangster’ Ukrainian leaders using ‘human shields’ was the real reason so many civilians had been killed by his troops’ onslaught in the country.
But within hours footage emerged showing a father and his adult son having tank rounds unleashed on them as they attempted to rescue their three dogs, having already once fled their home town near Kyiv.
The son who shot the harrowing footage – who hasn’t been named by local media – was filming from the passenger seat as their car was forced to pull over by the side of the road after encountering a Russian convoy.
After they stop and as he is asking his father to reverse, and with the army a considerable distance away, bullets tear into the vehicle.
‘Get out and lie down,’ he shouts at his father, named by media as Oleh Bulavenko. ‘Can you hear me? Get back and duck to the right.’
Seconds later more rounds smash into the car. The dogs in the back can be heard wimpering in fear and pain.
The son, whose passenger door is closest to shelter, jumps out into undergrowth but his father must exit into the road. Dozens more shots ring out before the son crawls round the back of the car to find his father lying prone in the road.
‘Dad! Dad!’ he cries out in anguish. ‘Are you still there? Hang in there!’
He tells his father to stay down as the older man tries to sit up to look at his wounds. The footage shows the bullets have torn right through the family saloon leaving large exit holes on the boot despite entering from the front.
‘Dad, f***! Why?’ the son plaintively asks.
As the shooting subsides, the son crawls from the back of the car again.
‘My foot is torn off,’ the father growls in agony as he lies in a pool of blood.
The son bravely breaks cover and drags his father into the undergrowth.
The father could be seen lying motionless in the middle of the country lane after the pair were struck with gunshots from a distance
‘Please don’t die, I’m begging you,’ he implores.
But moments later his father died from his injuries, lying in the ditch he was dragged into.
Footage then shows the family pets ripped apart on the backseat of the car. One dog survived the attack, and went to sit with the dead man’s body in the gully, refusing to leave.
The heartbreaking footage, which was uncovered and verified by Radio Free Europe, was believed to have been filmed last Friday. The family fled their home in Ivankiv in the Kyiv region after Russian’s initial attacks, but returned to get their pets.
Local reporters said they had confirmed no Ukrainian troops were in the area of the attack, which witnesses said came from Russian military vehicles.
The footage graphically exposes the lies of the Kremlin regime who have repeatedly insisted civilians are not being targeted, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
Putin yesterday hailed his soldiers as heroes who are fighting to save innocent lives and blamed Ukrainian ‘neo-Nazis’ for holding citizens hostage.
The son, who said his foot had been ‘torn off’ in the fire, watched on helplessly as he begged for his father to stay alive as he lay in the middle of the road
The son screamed out to ‘get out and lie down’ as their car became the target of ammunition from what is understood to be a Russian tank
The pair had been driving along a quiet country lane when they are suddenly met with the sound of rapid gunfire and pull to the side of the road
The father and son discuss the state of a ‘nine-story building’ that is on fire as they try to flee the area
Bullet holes were visible all over the vehicle after the father and son exited the car to find cover from the tank
Putin made the claim in his address yesterday, his first since announcing the start of his ‘special operation’ eight days ago, which did little to reassure anyone that the war is close to being over, or that Russia can be brought to the negotiating table without more blood being shed.
But it also hinted that Putin is rattled as the fighting proves harder than Russian commanders anticipated, and western sanctions go harder and deeper than even European or American observers predicted. All hope of a swift victory has now been dashed, leaving Putin facing a long, bloody and expensive war to achieve his aims.
Ukraine‘s President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his Russian counterpart to sit down with him at the negotiating table in person during another impassioned television appearance shortly after the address.
Zelensky’s comments came as Putin’s forces continued their brutal assault on several of Ukraine’s cities, and on the same day negotiations between the two sides made little progress in deescalating the deadly war.
And the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, was on fire in the early hours of Friday morning after an attack by Russian troops.
In an appeal to his Russian counterpart, Zelensky said: ‘Get off our land. You don’t want to leave now? Then sit down with me at the negotiation table. I’m available. Sit. Just not 30 metres away like with Macron or Scholz etc. I am your neighbour. You don’t need to keep me 30 metres away.
‘I don’t bite. I’m a normal bloke. Sit down with me and talk. What are you afraid of? We aren’t threatening anyone, we’re not terrorists, we aren’t seizing banks and seizing foreign land.’
Zelensky’s comments came during a press conference in Kyiv and in response to a reporter’s question on what ‘guarantees’ Ukraine can offer.
‘Guarantees for what?’ Zelensky fired back at the interviewer in Russian. ‘We aren’t attacking Russia and we have no intention of doing so. Guarantee what? We aren’t in NATO. We don’t have nuclear weapons. What am I supposed to say, what am I supposed to give, and to whom?
‘You must understand – this is also a huge thing that everybody is talking about – what am I supposed to give? Jesus, what do you want from us?!’
Ukraine’s president, who has become an inspirational figure both at home and abroad for his defiance in the face of Russian aggression, also called on the West to supply planes to help his military control the skies. It came after NATO members ruled out enforcing a no-fly zone over Ukraine for fear of igniting World War Three.
‘If you do not have the power to close the skies, then give me planes!’ Zelensky told a news conference. ‘If we are no more then, God forbid, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia will be next,’ he said, adding that direct talks with Putin were ‘the only way to stop this war’.
Zelensky – who just weeks ago sought to calm Ukrainians over US allegations that Russia was planning to invade his country – said: ‘Nobody thought that in the modern world a man can behave like a beast.’
Soon after Putin’s address, Ukraine announced that it has agreed with Russia to create safe corridors – backed by ceasefires – to evacuate civilians and deliver aid to areas under attack by Russian forces. Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky also said the agreement had been made during talks, describing it as ‘substantial progress’.
The agreement was the only tangible progress from a second round of talks between Moscow and Kyiv, according to an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, and it was not immediately clear how they would work.
Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia said afterwards that a third round of talks on the war will be held shortly.
So far, more than one million people have fled Ukraine as Putin’s armies have laid waste to key cities.
Meanwhile the Russian economy is tanking with the ruble at record lows, the stock market unable to open because it faces near-total collapse, and European countries seizing assets from billionaire oligarchs. Protests have also sprung up in Russia, coupled with high-profile political figures and celebrities calling for the war to end.
Just hours before the TV address, Putin had phoned Emmanuel Macron to tell the French President that he has no intention of pulling back from Ukraine or watering down his security demands, will achieve his aims ‘whatever happens’ and will continue fighting until ‘the end’.
Macron’s aides said after the call that they believe Putin intends to take the whole country, and that the ‘worst is yet to come’ as the Russian attacks step up, and that ‘there was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us.’
Mr Macron is said to have told Putin he is making a ‘major mistake’ and ‘lying to himself’. Macron said Russia would end up poor, weakened and under sanctions for a very long time.
‘There was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us. He showed great determination to continue the operation,’ Macron’s aide said, before adding that Putin ‘wanted to seize control of the whole of Ukraine’.
Putin’s two statements today – the first he has made in public since announcing the start of his ‘special operation’ eight days ago – will do little to reassure anyone that the war is close to being over, or that Russia could be brought to the negotiating table without more blood being shed.
News that the convoy has been at least partially damaged or destroyed will come as a huge boon to the people of Kyiv, as it was feared the vehicles would be used to surround and bomb the city into submission. The Ukrainian capital is still under attack by Russian rockets and missiles, but has largely escaped the intense fire being rained down on other locations.
Perhaps the hardest-hit has been the city of Mariupol, on Ukraine’s eastern Black Sea coast, which came under bombardment by Russian forces surrounding it yesterday – with the fire kept up near-continuously into today. Local officials say the city is without water, heat, or electricity, and cannot clear the dead from the streets.
Harrowing pictures revealed at least part of the civilian death toll, with a father seen weeping over the body of his son who was killed when a Russian shell destroyed his legs. Two elderly women were also pictured being evacuated from their homes and covered in blood after Russian attacks.
Despite the vicious shelling, the city still remains in the hands of Ukrainian forces – as a defiant Zelensky vowed today that Ukraine will be rebuilt with Russian money as he praised his troops’ ‘heroic’ defence.
Kharkiv, in the east, and Chernihiv, in the north west, also remained under Ukrainian control despite coming under heavy rocket fire. Nine people died in Chernihiv after Russian rockets hit a school and nearby apartments. There were also fears the Russians were about to launch a major amphibious assault against the port city of Odessa after a large fleet of ships was spotted near Crimea in the early hours.
The Ukrainian president said that ‘all lines of defence are holding’ with the cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mykolaiv all resisting Russian attacks. He even claimed the city of Kherson remains in Ukrainian hands, despite the mayor seeming to confirm overnight that it had been taken by Russian forces.
‘They wanted to destroy us. They failed. We’ve been through so much. And if anyone thinks that, having overcome all this, Ukrainians will be frightened, broken or surrender, they know nothing about Ukraine,’ Zelensky said, adding: ‘We will restore every house, every street, every city and we say to Russia: learn the word ‘reparations’.
‘You will reimburse us for everything you did against our state, against every Ukrainian, in full.’
Separately, one of his presidential advisers said the Ukrainian army is now getting ready to launch counter-attacks on Russian forces after their initial assault on the country stalled – amid reported of fuel and food shortages, heavy casualties, and mismanagement of the operation.
‘Help to us is increasing every minute and the strength of the enemy is decreasing every minute. We’re not only defending but also counter-attacking,’ the adviser said in a televised briefing.
President Zelensky’s office said a second round of negotiations had concluded. A first round of talks on Monday ended without an agreement.
Ahead of the invasion, Washington had warned that Russia’s superior forces would be able to quickly overwhelm Ukraine’s 200,000-strong army – taking out air defences, achieving superiority in the skies, and then raining death down on those below.
But none of that has come to pass. Ukraine’s skies remain contested, US intelligence says, while attacks have been piecemeal with troops under-supplied and not fighting in a coordinated fashion, leading to large numbers of dead along with some abandoning their vehicles which have then been captured.
‘This is a colossal intelligence failure that vastly underestimated Ukrainian resistance, and military execution has been terrible,’ Michael Vickers, former US Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
‘[Putin’s] main attack has been underweighted. It’s been piecemeal. His reconnaissance elements have been captured, columns have been destroyed,’ he said. ‘It’s just a disaster, through and through.’
But many caution that Russia’s initial failures could simply pre-sage a secondary phase of the fighting in which it uses superior numbers and force of arms to surround and bomb Ukrainian troops into submission, causing large civilian casualties.
Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister, agreed with that assessment today as he issued a warning that the ‘worst’ is still to come as Russia switches to a ‘logic of siege’ with major cities in danger of being surrounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he speaks during a press conference in Kyiv on March 3, 2022. He made a plea to Russian President Valdimir Putin to sit down with him in person for negotiations
Russian President Vladimir Putin issues assessments during his meeting with the officials of Security Council of Russia, on March 03, 2022 in Moscow, Russia. Putin branded Ukrainians ‘extreme gangsters’, claimed their army is using civilians as ‘human shields’, hailed his soldiers as heroes who are fighting to save innocent lives and said his invasion is going exactly to plan and schedule in a stunning act of hypocrisy and outright denial
Units of Russian Armed Forces enter Kyiv region, Ukraine, in this screengrab obtained from a video by Reuters on Thursday
MARIUPOL: Serhii, a father from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, weeps over the body of teenage son Iliya at a maternity unit converted into a hospital to treat civilian victims of Russian shelling
MARIUPOL: Ilya is brought into hospital in the back of a car, with both of his legs destroyed by a Russian shell explosion. The mayor of Mariupol believes ‘hundreds’ of civilians have been killed in similar strikes
MARIUPOL: A civilian wounded in Russian strikes on the city of Mariupol is treated at a maternity unit of the local hospital that has been converted into a centre to treat the victims
KYIV: A firefighter works to extinguish fire at a warehouse that caught flames, according to local authorities, after shelling, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the village of Chaiky in the Kyiv region, Ukraine March 3, 2022
Kherson, a city of 300,000 on the Black Sea, appears to have fallen under Russian control after the mayor said ‘armed visitors’ had taken over a council meeting and imposed curfews. If Putin’s men are in full control then it opens up the city of Odessa, home to Ukraine’s main naval port, to attack – with amphibious assault ships seen forming up near Crimea today
Pictured: A map showing the Kyiv region and the area occupied by Russian troops as they close in on Ukraine’s capital
MARIUPOL: A Ukrainian woman living in the Black Sea city of Mariupol is evacuated from her home during a brief break in Russian shelling, which has now been continuous for more than 24 hours
MARIUPOL: An elderly woman laying in a pool of blood inside her apartment in Mariupol is rescued by paramedics after being injured during shelling of the city
MARIUPOL: Ambulance paramedics move a wounded in shelling civilian onto a stretcher to a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward in Mariupol
MARIUPOL: The Black Sea city continues to be under heavy bombardment today, with the mayor saying there is no water, heat or electricity and that Russian fire is so intense they cannot collect bodies from the streets
KYIV: Smoke rises over Chaika, a residential area on the outskirts of Kyiv, as the city again came under bombardment
BELARUS: Ukrainian and Russian negotiators meet on the border with Belarus for talks on ending the war. Ukraine says it will demand a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all Russian forces from the country
KYIV: An apartment building in Borodyanka is seen on Thursday morning almost totally destroyed after a Russian missile struck it the day before, causing a large part of it to collapse
KYIV: Another view of the apartment block in Borodyanka shows it suffered heavy damage in a Russian strike on Tuesday, as Putin’s men continue to try and take the country
A view of heavy damage in the residential area of Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine
CHERNIHIV: A diesel fuel storage facility burns in Chernihiv after being struck with a Russian shell
CHERNIHIV: Ukrainian firefighters attempt to put out a burning diesel fuel depot in the northern city after attacks by Russia
A force of around a dozen Russian vessels including landing ships is massing off the coast of Crimea today, with experts saying an assault on Odessa could come later in the day
KYIV: Destroyed Russian vehicles are seen on a street in the settlement of Borodyanka, around 30 miles from the capital
KYIV: Destroyed Russian vehicles are seen on a street in the town of Borodyank, around 30 miles from Kyiv, after meeting ‘staunch’ Ukrainian resistance
KYIV: Damaged buildings and destroyed Russian vehicles are seen in the streets of Borodyanka, close to the capital of Kyiv, after a failed assault by Putin’s men
He spoke as Europe continued to step up its assistance to Ukraine, with Germany pledging another 2,700 anti-aircraft missiles to bolster the Ukrainian defences. That comes on top of 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger anti-aircraft weapons it has already sent, in a stunning reversal of its long-standing pledge not to supply weapons.
Kyiv has so-far escaped what observers feared would be Russian attempts to surround and bomb it into submission, after skirmishes in the outskirts led to Moscow’s men being pushed back. Sight of the convoy earlier this week seemed to confirm that Putin would resort to ‘siege’ tactics to force a bloody victory.
But, as of Thursday morning, the convoy was near-motionless – having stalled late Monday. The exact reason is unclear, but American and British intelligence believe it is due to a combination of Ukrainian resistance and logistical problems within the convoy itself.
Reports from the ground indicate that Russian vehicles have been running out of fuel, while pictures also appear to show some vehicles have been poorly maintained and their tyres are falling apart.
A Pantsir missile system bogged down and abandoned in a muddy field lost several of its tyres when Ukrainian forces tried to tow it away, with Trent Teletenko – a former Department of Defence civil servant – wrote on Twitter that it appears Russia has failed to maintain the tyres on its vehicles properly, leaving them brittle.
According to his analysis, it means lowering the pressure in the tyres – which is typically done so they can drive off-road – will cause them to shred, meaning the trucks and artillery systems will be confined to highways or else risk getting bogged down in mud.
Other images showed armoured vehicles bogged down and abandoned after Russian forces tried laying sawed-down trees under their wheels to keep them out of the muck.
Whatever the case, the longer the Russian convoy remains stuck the more vulnerable it becomes to Ukrainian counter attack and the longer the people of Kyiv get to go about their lives without the risk of being shelled.
In just seven days of fighting, more than 2% of Ukraine’s population has been forced out of the country, according to the tally the U.N. refugee agency released to The Associated Press.
The mass evacuation could be seen in Kharkiv, a city of about 1.4 million people and Ukraine’s second-largest. Residents desperate to escape falling shells and bombs crowded the city’s train station and pressed onto trains, not always knowing where they were headed.
At least 227 civilians have been killed and another 525 wounded in that time, according to the latest figures from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. It acknowledges that is a vast undercount, and Ukraine earlier said more than 2,000 civilians have died. That figure could not be independently verified.
As the toll of war mounted, a second round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations was expected later Thursday in neighboring Belarus – though the two sides appeared to have little common ground.
‘We are ready to conduct talks, but we will continue the operation because we won’t allow Ukraine to preserve a military infrastructure that threatens Russia,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, repeating an accusation Moscow has repeatedly used to justify its invasion.
Lavrov said that the West has continuously armed Ukraine, trained its troops and built up bases there to turn Ukraine into a bulwark against Russia.
The U.S. and its allies have insisted that NATO is a defensive alliance that doesn’t pose a threat to Russia. And the West fears Russia’s invasion is meant to overthrow Ukraine’s government and install a friendly government – though Lavrov said Moscow would let the Ukrainians choose what government they should have.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier raised the specter of nuclear war, putting his country’s nuclear forces on high alert, but his foreign minister shrugged off questions of whether Russia could escalate the conflict with nuclear weapons, saying such talk comes from the West.
In Kherson, the Russians took over the regional administration headquarters, Hennady Lahuta, the governor of the region, said Thursday – while adding that he and other officials were continuing to perform their duties and provide assistance to the population.
Kherson’s mayor, Igor Kolykhaev, previously said that the national flag was still flying, but that there were no Ukrainian troops in the city. Britain’s defense secretary said it was possible the Russians had taken over, though not yet verified.
The mayor said the city would maintain a strict curfew and require pedestrians to walk in groups no larger than two, obey commands to stop and not to ‘provoke the troops.’
‘The flag flying over us is Ukrainian,’ he wrote on Facebook. ‘And for it to stay that way, these demands must be observed.’
Earlier Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian land forces have stalled and Moscow is now unleashing air attacks, but that they are being parried by Ukrainian defense systems, including in Kherson.
‘Kyiv withstood the night and another missile and bomb attack. Our air defenses worked,’ he said. ‘Kherson, Izyum – all the other cities that the occupiers hit from the air did not give up anything.’
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions heard overnight in the Ukrainian capital were Russian missiles being shot down by air defense systems.
From Kherson, Russian troops appeared to roll toward Mykolaiv, another major Black Sea port and shipbuilding center to the west along the coast. The regional governor, Vitaliy Kim, said that big convoys of Russian troops are advancing on the city but said that they will likely need to regroup before trying to take it over.
A group of Russian amphibious landing vessels is also heading toward the port of Odesa, farther west, the Ukrainian military said.
A building is engulfed in flames after shelling in Kyiv, with the Ukrainian capital under heavy attack on Thursday afternoon
Heavy smoke blankets an area of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, after it was hit by Russian shelling
A Ukrainian serviceman walks past as fire and smoke rises over a damaged logistic center after shelling in Kyiv
A badly damaged car and destroyed buildings are seen in central Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, after being hit by artillery
The interior courtyard of a building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, are pictured after being hit by a missile
Heavily damaged buildings in downtown Kharkiv are pictured after a strike by Russian rockets on Thursday
KHARKIV: A view of damaged civil settlements after Russian attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine
KHARKIV: Flattened buildings and a destroyed apartment block are seen in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, after it came under attack by Russian forces
KHARKIV: A view of damaged civil settlements after Russian attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine
A view of heavy damage in the residential area of Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine
A woman walks next to a damaged house following recent shelling in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk
Images have been steadily emerging of Russian vehicles getting stuck, including one where the tyres shredded (left) after apparently being poorly maintained
A satellite image shows southern end of convoy armour towed artillery trucks, east of Antonov airport, Ukraine
Ukrainian soldiers patrol in front of the Independence Monument during Russian attacks in Kyiv
A Ukrainian soldier tasked with defending Kyiv is pictured patrolling the streets shortly after airstrikes on the city
Ukrainian soldiers patrol in front of the Independence Monument during Russian attacks in Kyiv
A woman cooks for Ukrainian soldiers at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
Ukrainian soldiers share a light moment at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
A Ukrainian soldier walks next to a camp fire at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
Moscow’s isolation deepened when most of the world lined up against it at the United Nations to demand it withdraw from Ukraine. The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into possible war crimes. And in a stunning reversal, the International Paralympic Committee banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Winter Paralympic Games.
Russia reported its military casualties Wednesday for the first time in the war, saying nearly 500 of its troops have been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. Ukraine did not disclose its own military losses.
Ukraine’s military general staff said in a Facebook post that Russia’s forces had suffered some 9,000 casualties in the fighting. It did not clarify if that figure included both killed and wounded soldiers.
In a video address to the nation early Thursday, Zelenskyy praised his country’s resistance.
‘We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,’ he said. ‘They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.’
He said the fighting is taking a toll on the morale of Russian soldiers, who ‘go into grocery stores and try to find something to eat.’
‘These are not warriors of a superpower,’ he said. ‘These are confused children who have been used.’
Meanwhile, the senior U.S. defense official said an immense Russian column of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles appeared to be stalled roughly 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Kyiv and had made no real progress in the last couple of days.
The convoy, which earlier in the week had seemed poised to launch an assault on the capital, has been plagued with fuel and food shortages, the official said.
On the far edges of Kyiv, volunteers well into their 60s manned a checkpoint to try to block the Russian advance.
‘In my old age, I had to take up arms,’ said Andrey Goncharuk, 68. He said the fighters needed more weapons, but ‘we’ll kill the enemy and take their weapons.’
Around Ukraine, others crowded into train stations, carrying children wrapped in blankets and dragging wheeled suitcases into new lives as refugees.
Among the million-plus refugees who have fled Ukraine in recent days were some 200 orphans with severe physical and mental disabilities who arrived from Kyiv by train in Hungary on Wednesday.
Some of them spent more than an hour in underground shelters during a bombing, said Larissa Leonidovna, the director of the Svyatoshinksy orphanage for boys.
Overnight, Associated Press reporters in Kyiv heard at least one explosion before videos started circulating of apparent strikes on the capital.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had knocked out a reserve broadcasting center in the Lysa Hora district, about 7 kilometers (4 miles) south of the government headquarters. It said unspecified precision weapons were used, and that there were no casualties or damage to residential buildings.
A statement from the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces didn’t address the strikes, saying only that Russian forces were ‘regrouping’ and ‘trying to reach the northern outskirts’ of the city.
‘The advance on Kyiv has been rather not very organized and now they’re more or less stuck,’ military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told the AP in Moscow.
Ukrainian soldiers unload weapons from the trunk of an old car, northeast of Kyiv
A Ukrainian soldier holds an anti-tank launcher at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
A Ukrainian soldier flashes the victory sign at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
A worker from a local construction company prepares an anti-tank obstacle to be place on road around Kyiv
Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tanks obstacles to be place on road around Kyiv
Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tanks obstacles to be place on road around Kyiv
Civilians build iron barricades and traps to block armored vehicles in Lviv, as Russia attacks other cities in the country
Metal workers in Lviv, western Ukraine, help to make barricades that can be used to defend the city in case Russia attacks
Civilians build iron barricades and traps to block armored vehicles in the city of Lviv, western Ukraine
Clusters of metal spike traps designed to puncture the wheels of Russian armoured vehicles are manufactured by metal workers in Lviv, western Ukraine
At least 227 civilians have been killed and another 525 wounded since the invasion began, according to the latest figures from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Earlier, Ukraine said more than 2,000 civilians have died, a figure that could not be independently verified.
The U.N. office uses strict methodology and counts only confirmed casualties, and admits its figures are a vast undercount.
Still, the tally eclipses the entire civilian casualty count from the fighting in 2014 in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces – which left 136 dead and 577 injured.
In a videotaped address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to keep up the resistance. He vowed that the invaders would have ‘not one quiet moment’ and described Russian soldiers as ‘confused children who have been used.’
Moscow’s isolation deepened when most of the world lined up against it at the United Nations to demand it withdraw from Ukraine. The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into possible war crimes. And in a stunning reversal, the International Paralympic Committee banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Winter Paralympic Games.
Felgenhauer said with the Russian economy already suffering, there could be a ‘serious internal political crisis’ if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not find a way to end the war quickly.
‘There’s no real money to run to fight this war,’ he said, adding that if Putin and the military ‘are unable to wrap up this campaign very swiftly and victoriously, they’re in a pickle.’
Several parts of the country were under pressure.
Ukraine’s military said Russian forces ‘did not achieve the main goal of capturing Mariupol’ in its statement, which did not mention the another important port, Kherson, whose status was unclear.
Putin’s forces claimed to have taken complete control of Kherson, and U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Thursday that it was ‘possible – it’s not verified yet – that Russia is in control’ there.
A senior U.S. defense official earlier disputed the Russians controlled the city.
‘Our view is that Kherson is very much a contested city,’ the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Zelenskyy’s office told the AP that it could not comment on the situation in Kherson while the fighting was still going on.
The mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolykhaev, said Russian soldiers were in the city and came to the city administration building. He said he asked them not to shoot civilians and to allow crews to gather up the bodies from the streets.
‘We don’t have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to LIVE,’ he said in a statement later posted on Facebook.
The mayor said Kherson would maintain a strict 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew and restrict traffic into the city to food and medicine deliveries. The city will also require pedestrians to walk in groups no larger than two, obey commands to stop and not to ‘provoke the troops.’
People board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
People board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Children look out from an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv as they say goodbye to their father at Kyiv central train
Pictured: Footage from Kiyv overnight showed a huge explosion light up the night sky. Reports said at least two huge blasts were heard in the city air raid sirens warned residents to urgently seek shelter
Burned buildings which were hit by shelling is seen in small city of Borodyanka near Kyiv
A view shows damaged buildings following recent shelling, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the settlement of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region, Ukraine March 2, 2022
‘The flag flying over us is Ukrainian,’ he wrote. ‘And for it to stay that way, these demands must be observed.’
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the attacks there had been relentless.
‘We cannot even take the wounded from the streets, from houses and apartments today, since the shelling does not stop,’ he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Russia reported its military casualties for the first time in the war, saying nearly 500 of its troops have been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. Ukraine did not disclose its own military losses.
Ukraine’s military general staff said in a Facebook post that Russia’s forces had suffered some 9,000 casualties in the fighting. It did not clarify if that figure included both killed and wounded soldiers.
In a video address to the nation early Thursday, Zelenskyy praised his country’s resistance.
‘We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,’ he said. ‘They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.’
He said the fighting is taking a toll on the morale of Russian soldiers, who ‘go into grocery stores and try to find something to eat.’
‘These are not warriors of a superpower,’ he said. ‘These are confused children who have been used.’
Meanwhile, the senior U.S. defense official said an immense Russian column of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles appeared to be stalled roughly 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Kyiv and had made no real progress in the last couple of days.
The convoy, which earlier in the week had seemed poised to launch an assault on the capital, has been plagued with fuel and food shortages, the official said.
On the far edges of Kyiv, volunteers well into their 60s manned a checkpoint to try to block the Russian advance.
‘In my old age, I had to take up arms,’ said Andrey Goncharuk, 68. He said the fighters needed more weapons, but ‘we’ll kill the enemy and take their weapons.’
Around Ukraine, others crowded into train stations, carrying children wrapped in blankets and dragging wheeled suitcases into new lives as refugees.
In an email, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams told the AP that the refugee count surpassed 1 million as of midnight in central Europe, based on figures collected by national authorities.
Shabia Mantoo, another spokesperson for the agency, said that ‘at this rate’ the exodus from Ukraine could make it the source of ‘the biggest refugee crisis this century.’
