Russian troops enter Kiev
The second day of Russia's lightning military operation on Ukrainian territory has put the troops sent by President Vladimir Putin practically in Kiev. As time has passed, the Russian army has quickly moved to the gates of the neighbouring country's capital in what amounts to an imposing advance that has completely overwhelmed a helpless Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry confirmed the arrival of Russian forces at the gates of Kiev in a message on Twitter on Friday. The tweet said Russian forces arrived in the Obolon district, about nine kilometres north of the parliament in the centre of the city. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of targeting civilians and said at least 137 civilians and army personnel have been killed and hundreds more wounded in the first 24 hours of the invasion. "They said civilians were not targeted, but it's another one of their lies," the Ukrainian president said in a video released in the early hours of Friday morning. "To intimidate the population of Ukraine, the enemy increasingly chooses to destroy civilian infrastructure and homes," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook statement.
Zelenski also denounced the lack of international assistance: "They have left us alone". The Ukrainian government has criticised the lack of international aid, apart from international condemnations and announcements of sanctions against Russia, there is no military assistance on the ground for a Ukrainian army that has little to do against the Russian armed forces, which are far superior in numbers and equipment. "We are alone defending our nation. Who is ready to fight with us? I don't see anyone. Who is ready to guarantee Ukraine's entry into NATO? Everyone is afraid," Volodimir Zelenski said in a media address to the nation.
The Ukrainian president decreed a general mobilisation and the participation of every citizen who can help in the defence of the country. The Ukrainian government has asked all males between the ages of 18 and 60 to stay in the country to fight. Such is the difficult situation in the Ukrainian country.
On the other hand, Ukraine's top leader said that Moscow will have to talk to Kiev "sooner or later" to put an end to the fighting: "The sooner the talks begin, the smaller Russia's losses will be". There is still hope for a dialogue with Putin, who with this military operation may have the upper hand in an eventual negotiation leading to the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.
The situation on the ground is complicated. The Russian army entered from all sides and explosions followed one after another in Kiev, in the face of the action of Ukrainian anti-aircraft defences. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry claimed to have shot down a Russian aircraft over Kiev and confirmed clashes with Russian tanks at the very gates of the capital.
Russian troops seized an airport near Kiev and also took control of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, where a new nuclear reactor that was installed in the area operates, and captured nuclear power plant personnel, as reported by Euronews.
In addition, according to Ukraine, Russia is using the Gomel airfield in Belarus to assault Kiev because of damage to the Hostomel military airport near the Ukrainian capital.
The Russian offensive is proving to be devastating with the entry of tanks and various bombardments. Vladimir Putin justified the attack as a defence against the threat from Ukraine and with the aim of protecting persecuted pro-Russian citizens in the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine and to "denazify" and "demilitarise" Ukraine, but attacks followed in different cities, including the capital Kiev, or enclaves further west such as Lviv. Russian armoured vehicles were quickly spotted in cities such as Odessa and Kharkov during the start of the offensive. All of this amounted to a full-scale attack on much of Ukrainian territory, despite Vladimir Putin's statement that Russia's objective was not to occupy or invade the country, but only to defend itself against the threat posed by Ukraine and its rapprochement with the West. The Russian president has never wanted to allow Ukraine into NATO's orbit, which would place the Atlantic Alliance on Russia's doorstep.
On the other hand, several analysts point out that Russia considers Ukraine and Kiev to be the cradle of the Russian nation and a highly symbolic element. It has been explained by various experts that there is what would be called "Great Russia", which would be the current Russian Federation, "White Russia", which would be Belarus, and "Little Russia", which would correspond to what is Ukraine. Ukrainian territory would therefore be of great value to Russia and Putin has been unwilling to allow a Ukraine-NATO alliance.
Internationally, there has been unanimous condemnation of the Russian offensive from several countries. The United States and the European Union have totally rejected this Russian attack and announced tough economic sanctions against the Russian nation. However, Russia has been very careful with regard to these sanctioning measures and, in order to deal with them, it has already reached various agreements, such as those signed weeks ago with China to supply Russian gas to the Asian giant, as well as coal. These trade agreements allow Russia to deal with the economic setbacks resulting from various sanctions, such as those applied by the US Treasury Department. The US Treasury Department ordered, among other things, that all US banks close any accounts held by Russian entities within a month. Punishments were announced for ten Russian financial institutions and some 90 associated institutions, as well as for other Russian core businesses. In addition to depriving Russia of access to the global financial system.
It remains to be seen what Putin's real intentions are with an offensive of this magnitude on Ukrainian territory. The Russian president has already said that he does not want to occupy the neighbouring country, but some experts suggest that he may try to overthrow the current government of Volodymyr Zelensky and set up a puppet government aligned with the Russian state.
On the other hand, other analysts go further and suggest that Vladimir Putin wants to restore something akin to the empire of the former Soviet Union by bringing together the former republics of the USSR under the Russian mantle, as could happen with other countries of the former Soviet orbit that currently maintain good relations with Russia, such as President Aleksandr Lukashenko's Belarus or other Asian republics with large energy resources.
