Russian land attacks are becoming increasingly ferocious, air and sea against Ukraine, which has been putting up a stirring resistance for ten days as it sees Putin's army bombing Mariupol to cut off the entire eastern part of the country, preparing to invade Kiev, which is experiencing nightmarish times, and attempting to control its nuclear plants.
With heavy losses, but with relentless persistence, no mercy or willingness to retreat, Putin is pounding Ukraine to end the war as quickly as possible, as the unexpectedly strong resistance of the Ukrainians has dealt him huge and multiple blows.
Ukrainian President Zelensky will try again today, in a new speech this time to the U.S. Senate, to pressure the West to help Ukraine by providing direct military assistance, such as blockading the country's airspace with warplanes, but Europeans, Americans and NATO are refusing military assistance, fearing that direct involvement in a war with the Russians could trigger uncontrolled situations, including Putin's use of nuclear weapons.
Yesterday Zelensky strongly criticized NATO for refusing to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying the decision gave "the green light for further bombing of Ukrainian towns and villages."
This despite the fact that last night US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for the first time ever so optimistically estimated that Ukraine could win the war, citing the "extraordinary resilience" of the Ukrainian people and a "war that has not turned out the way Putin planned".
However, since the previous weekend, already after the first three or four hours of the Russian invasion and while the Ukrainian resistance had surprised with its strength, Volodymyr Zelensky had made the request to the West. Perhaps for this reason, and in order to prevent the creation of a front in which Western military forces would also be confronted, Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov made the threat to use nuclear weapons if Russia's security was threatened.
Zelensky will speak via the Internet, of course, to the US Senate on the 4th.30 in the afternoon and is expected to reiterate some of the criticisms he made yesterday against NATO for its "no" to his request to create a no-fly zone in Ukraine's airspace, reacting to the decision taken earlier by the Pact's leadership. "If Ukraine falls, Europe falls next," Zelensky states at every opportunity.
War in full swing
Russian forces have continued to bomb cities and other locations across Ukraine, launching rocket and artillery attacks. At the same time, still stalled is the large Russian convoy - a 64-km-long convoy of military vehicles heading towards Kiev, according to the Associated Press.
The mayor of Mariupol, a city with a strategic port that has suffered heavy Russian attacks, said the city has been "blockaded" by Russian forces. Mayor Vadym Boychenko has previously warned that the city has no water, heating or electricity and that food supplies are running out. He has called for military aid and a humanitarian corridor.
At the same time, major news organizations including the BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, CBS News and the Canadian Broadcasting Company have suspended their broadcasts in Russia after Moscow imposed a law threatening up to 15 years in prison for spreading "false news" about the war in Ukraine. Russia has also blocked Facebook, Twitter and the websites of the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America in an attempt to control the flow of information and eliminate independent media coverage.
Control of cities, nukes and the sea
The focus of Russian military operations at the moment is mainly on three fronts, plus dozens of smaller ones, but all of strategic importance, in order to create a suffocating situation for Zelensky and force the Ukrainian president to accept capitulation during the third round of talks between the delegations of the two countries, which may take place over the weekend, as Putin himself told German Chancellor Solz.
The first of Putin's three main targets at the moment is Mariupol, as with its capture, Russian control of the Sea of Azov is complete, as is the eastern part of the country, where the Moscow-recognized Donbass Republics are located. It thus links Donbass to Crimea, which is perhaps the Kremlin's most central and critical objective for the next day of the war.
The second objective is to regroup the forces, after several days of stagnation, so that the convoy that has arrived from the north outside Kiev, as well as forces coming from the south, can attempt the final invasion of the capital, which is already suffering from the bombardment.
And the Kremlin's third key objective is to complete control of Ukraine's nuclear power plants, as after seizing the facilities in the city of Zaporizhzhya - the largest plant in Europe - Russian forces are also heading for the Yuzhnukransk station, the second largest in the country.
At the same time, operations are continuing in other cities, large and small, with the aim, on the one hand, to seize critical points in the north-east, but also to form a "Russian line" along the Dnieper, which will cut Ukraine in half, and on the other hand, to control, after the Azov Sea, the Black Sea, as to the possibility of the tested country having any sea access.
All this at a time when the refugee wave is growing, with more than 1.2 million Ukrainians having already fled the country.
Source: Proto Thema
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