War in Ukraine: Fierce fighting on the outskirts of Kiev - Agony for Mariupol
The pounding in Ukraine continues for the 27th day, while the reports of deaths are constantly increasing. The Russians deny targeting civilians.
Behind sandbags and with a gun rather than feet, Kiev is waiting. On the 27th day of the invasion, the advance of Russian forces seems to have stopped in the northwest of the Ukrainian capital where the movement of all has been banned once again.
Sirens, bombings and explosions were heard throughout the day - the drums of war in a ghost town bathed in an almost spring sun, under the rays of which shine the golden domes of the orthodox cathedral of Hagia Sophia.
In this universal curfew, the third since the start of the war, all stores remain closed. Everyone was left at home, ordered to go down to the shelters when the sirens sounded, according to mayor and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko.
"For the people, who have been under so much pressure since the beginning of the invasion, it is an opportunity to catch their breath," said Alexis, a pre-war German teacher who accompanies a French Agency team in the city. "Anyway, they have no appetite to go out," he explains.
Deserted roads - Kiev has been turned into a huge camp
Of the 3.5 million inhabitants of pre-war Kyiv, thousands, mostly women and children, have fled the city. Some elderly people and the men participating in the defense of the capital were left behind.
The curfew "is like taking a break, with the temperature rising," says 29-year-old lawyer Maxim Kostetsky. "We do not know if the Russians will continue to try to encircle the city but we are much more optimistic, morale is high," said Kostetsky, who is a member of a group of volunteers.
On the deserted streets of the city there are only patrol cars, some military trucks and a few civilian cars that pass at high speed - their drivers are armed or men in uniform.
"Glory to Ukraine " or simply "Stop" have been written by the volunteers on the concrete blocks they have placed in the streets, around the countless checkpoints throughout the city. To the west, north and east of the city there is not a single corner, side street or avenue that is not cut in half by a "wall" of sandbags or anti-tank "hedgehogs", metal bars placed crosswise.
The forest of the northern suburbs of the city, where residents used to go on weekends to pick mushrooms or eat as a family at their cottage, has now been turned into a huge, encircled camp. The appearance of a car immediately raises the suspicions of soldiers and volunteers who, with their finger on the trigger, wait to hear the "password" that will allow the driver to continue on his way.
Drones and saboteurs
There has not been much talk in recent days about Russian "saboteurs" having infiltrated the city, but investigations into any saboteurs continue.
After the rocket attack on Sunday, in a shopping center where, according to Moscow, ammunition and weapons were stored, now residents are afraid of unmanned aerial vehicles - spies or "kamikaze" - but also the photos posted on social networking sites and could reveal the positions of the Ukrainian army.
At least one person was killed today in an attack by an Orlan drone on a high-rise building in the northwest of the city. In total, 228 people have been killed in the capital since the beginning of the invasion, including 4 children.
Dense black smoke rises from the Irpin region, 10 kilometers northwest of Kiev. Journalists are now barred from approaching this community.
"The military knows what they have to do, they know their job. "There is a reason for the traffic ban," said Olga Alievska, 38. But she believes that "the Russians do not want and, above all, can not occupy Kyiv."
"Their bombings are mainly aimed at military targets for the time being, the time has not yet come for civilians to be bombed," said Alievska, a pre-war marketing executive who decided to stay in the city.
In the heart of the capital, on the hills overlooking the imposing Dnieper River, where only two bridges remain open to traffic, the war still seems distant. At the base of the Cave Lavra wall, Kiev's famous monastery, soldiers are more discreet. Indifferent to the curfew, a 60-year-old woman has been walking her dogs, as if nothing were happening, on the lawn of the Monument to the Victims of the Great Famine of Ukraine in the 1930s.
"Today we are optimistic, even if we have no choice. "We are protecting our country from someone, Vladimir Putin, who just wants to destroy it."
The battles are raging in Mariupol
A local governor in Ukraine said on Tuesday that Russian and Ukrainian forces were fighting in Mariupol and accused Russian forces of firing indiscriminately on residential areas and Ukrainian military targets.
The Russians deny targeting civilians. Speaking on national television, Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kirilenko said civilians were receiving Russian fire, in addition to fighters from Azov's military unit.
One hundred thousand civilians want to leave Mariupol, but they can not
At the same time, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Verestsuk said at least 100,000 civilians wanted to leave Mariupol in southern Ukraine but could not because of the lack of safe corridors leading out of the besieged city.
She said bombings by Russian forces also prevented rescue teams from gaining access to the bombed-out theater in Mariupol, where city officials say hundreds of people are believed to have taken refuge in its basement when it was hit by an air strike. raid last week.
Russia has denied that it bombed the theater or attacked civilians.
Rockets destroyed a train station in the Dnipro area
Rockets destroyed a train station in Ukraine's central Dnipro region, killing one person and damaging railroad tracks to the point of blocking trains indefinitely, Governor Valentin said.
The rockets hit a station in the city of Pavlograd about 60 km east of the regional capital Dnipro.
