Vladimir Putin turned his air force and artillery on cities and civilian infrastructure on the fifth day of the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. Regional centers held against the Russian attacks. Ukraine continued its tactic of engaging Russian armored columns by ambush on picked ground. According to Ukrainian official, independent media, and social media, Russian forces were taking continuous and possibly serious casualties. Nevertheless, Russian Federation (RF) pressure in the southern sector of fighting, and against the capital Kyiv continued to mount. Russian and Ukrainian officials met to discuss a possible ceasefire, without result.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba in a statement said the RF has launched more than 180 cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukrainian targets since February 24. The UAF estimated that, as of Feb. 28, it had destroyed 29 jet aircraft, 29 helicopters, six drones, 191 tanks, 861 armored vehicles, 291 trucks and jeeps, 80 fuel trucks, and six anti-aircraft systems.
In the north, according to a General Staff statement, RF forces continued attempts to bypass Kyiv to the west with the construction of a military bridge over the Irpin River. Ukrainian media widely covered western news reports, citing Maxis satellite images, that a 60 km-long column of armored vehicles was heading south towards north-east Kyiv. UAF official statements said a line of prepared defenses protected the city from all routes of attack.
Vasylkiv, the site of a Kyiv-area airfield heavily fought-over since the second day of the war, saw renewed combat, both day and night. UAF forces used howitzer fires and anti-aircraft missiles in the battle. A UAF statement said that three RF aircraft were shot down in the vicinity overnight, and two more elsewhere in Ukraine.
Russian Federation tactical commanders across Ukraine appeared to shift focus from targeting mostly military targets to directing air strikes, artillery, missiles and rocket artillery against civilian homes, apartment buildings and infrastructure with little clear military value. In the north-eastern city Izium, according to social media images and media reports, the Russian Air force dropped unguided bombs into residential sections of the city. One set of images showed, unexploded air bombs, stenciled with Russian Air Force markings, lying on a sidewalk in Izium’s residential Severno-Saltykova district.
Images from the northern town Akhtyrka showed civilian buildings flattened or gutted by fire, and a petroleum plant set on fire. An Akhtryka city statement said the artillery and air strikes also killed 70 Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) service members, many in a flattened barracks.
In the northern city Chernihiv an Epitsentr household construction materials store was set afire, according to Ukrainian news agencies. An Army command north statement said RF forces fired cluster munitions into the town Kiinka, near Chernihiv, and published images of unexploded shells loaded with anti-personnel sub-munitions. The Kyiv region localities Borodyanske, Vasykiv and Brovary were shelled or bombed, a UAF report said. A statement by the Vasylkiv mayor said 2 civilians died and 4 were injured when rockets hit their apartment building.
The north-eastern city Kharkiv was by all accounts the most heavily pounded. Interior Ministry images made public in the morning showed more than twenty artillery rockets detonating in and near a Kharkiv power plant. Adjacent civilian buildings were visibly hit by the powerful area fire weapon. UAF official statements, news agencies and social media reported an RF light vehicle column attempting to break into the city center was wiped out, with UAF forces taking prisoners.
One photograph, published by Novoe Vremya news magazine, showed an unexploded Smerch artillery rocket stuck in pavement in front of a Kharkiv pet supply store. Other Kharkiv images showed a demolished school and civilian corpses lying in the street. According to a statement by Kharkiv health services, more than 46 civilians received hospital treatment following the RF bombardment, and at least seven were killed.
In the RF-occupied Black Sea resort city Berdyansk,RF soldiers shot to death a local resident refusing to surrender his mobile phone, Ivan Arefev, head of the Zaporizhia Defense Council, told the censor.net news service. Later in the day unconfirmed social media images appeared showing Berdyansk homes and apartment buildings damaged after an RF armored column opened fire on them. In the afternoon between 100 and 1,000 Berdyansk residents, depending on the report, gathered in the city square to protest. There were no reports of RF reaction to the demonstrators.
Elsewhere in the south, RF armored columns appeared to have stopped on the outskirts of Mykolaiv, Kriviy Rih and Enerhodar. Ukrainian officials said defenses were being built.
In Ukraine’s east, tension was centered on the cities Mariupol and Volnovakha, officials said. Both were in UAF hands but RF forces had cut some roads leading out of Mariupol, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the Donetsk Region Defence Council, told media. Work was in progress to set up a “green corridor” for civilian evacuation from Mariupol, he said. An afternoon attempt to bus civilians out of Volnovakha failed because RF forces fired rocket artillery at it, Kirilenko said.
Across Ukraine reports continued of small RF-controlled groups aiming to cause panic and confusion. Government information networks from national down to villages warned residents of RF saboteur teams possibly in the area. Martial law with road checkpoints, full lockdown to civilian movement and not visible lights at night was effect in Kyiv and other cities and towns.
Early news reports from Russo-Ukrainian talks on the Belarusian border said Kyiv’s and Moscow’s positions were diametrically opposed on issues like ownership of Crimea, Ukrainian NATO membership, and Ukrainian military capacity. News agencies said the talks started at 1300 and ended at 1800. Ukrainian officials called the talks “difficult” but said there would be another round of discussions. The primary topic would be a ceasefire, they said.
Kyiv Post Special Blog Correspondent
