Despite predictions by some military experts that Ukraine would fall within 2-3 days from a full-scale Russian invasion, no major city has fallen. Moscow isn’t disclosing its mounting casualties as the invasion enters its fifth day and talks now taking place.
After more than 100 hours of renewed war, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported that approximately 5,300 Russian troops had been killed, and 29 aircraft, 29 helicopters, 191 tanks and 816 combat armoured vehicles destroyed.
The unprovoked onslaught was based on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal to eliminate Ukraine’s military capability and “denazify” the country.
President Volodymyr Zelensky is at the Belarus border with a delegation for negotiations with a Russian team on the invasion. Ever since the political novice was elected president in 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin has eschewed entreaties to meet bilaterally to resolve the ongoing war the Kremlin started unprovoked in 2014 by forcibly seizing territory leading to 14,000 deaths.
Street fighting continues in Kharkiv, the second largest city in the east 40 kilometers from Russia. In the south, Russia is attempting to establish a land bridge to Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula that it forcibly seized in 2014.
A new defense line has been established near the southern city of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhya oblast and Kherson is reported to still stand.
Kyiv has withstood attacks from multiple directions on the outskirts after facing subversive groups who penetrated the city earlier the invasion, leading also to street fights.
As the air, ground and sea invasion persists unabated, more civilian infrastructure has been damaged and the United Nations said at least 368,000 people have fled their homes in Ukraine.
The U.S., Britain, European Union and other countries, including Japan, have since imposed an array of crippling sanctions on Russia.
Russia’s central bank was targeted, limiting its access to a war chest of foreign currency reserves and no-flight zones have been imposed throughout most of Europe and North America. U.S. President Joe Biden established a task force to enforce restrictive measures on Russian tycoons – and their offspring and luxury assets – who are close to the Kremlin.
Since Russia expanded its war before dawn on Feb. 24 beyond the eastern Ukrainian Donbas territories where it has waged a war since 2014, 352 civilians have been killed and 1,684 wounded, the Interior Ministry said.
According to a Feb. 26-27 poll by Kyiv-based Rating Group, 91 percent of respondents approved of Zelensky’s performance, more than double the pre-war level, and 70 percent were confident of the country’s ability to repel the Russian attack, up from 64 percent in mid-February and 56 percent in January.
The current second war-time president is a Russian-speaking Jew and the prime minister he inherited after election in 2019 was also Jewish, as are a number of national lawmakers.
