Explosions were heard Friday morning in Kiev – “horrible” firing of Russian missiles according to the head of Ukrainian diplomacy – the day after the attack launched by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, whose president decreed the general mobilization.
“Horrible Russian missile fire on Kiev. The last time our capital experienced something similar was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba said on his Twitter account.
Two loud detonations were heard Friday at dawn in the center of Kiev, noted an AFP journalist, on the second day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where deadly fighting opposes the belligerents until at the gates of the capital.
The Ukrainian army indicated that “missile fire” was aimed at Kiev, specifying that it had destroyed two in flight. According to the mayor of the city, Vitali Klitschko, these shots injured three people, one of them seriously, in a residential area in the south-east of the capital.
The progression of Russian forces raises fears of an assault and the multiplication of targeted attacks on Kiev and strategic and government targets.
According to Western military sources, the Russian army was closing in on Kyiv, where a curfew was imposed, with the intention of “beheading the government” of Ukraine and installing a pro-Moscow government there instead.
The governor of the Sumy region (north-east), Serhiï Zhvytskiï – quoted by the UNIAN press agency – declared that “machines (Russians, editor’s note) left Sumy in the direction of Kiev, a lot of machines” .
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry also reported on Friday an early morning Russian missile strike against a border guard unit in the Zaporizhia region, which the source said resulted in “deaths and injuries”.
” Alone “
In order to counter the Russian invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky decreed on Thursday evening the general mobilization and the recall of reservists within 90 days in all Ukrainian regions.
The leader also regretted that Ukraine was “left alone” against the Russian army, while the Atlantic Alliance indicated that it would not send troops there to support it. “Who is ready to fight with us? I do not see anyone. Who is ready to guarantee Ukraine NATO membership? Everyone is scared,” he said.
The military forces of NATO states have been placed on alert and some units will move to reinforce the eastern flank of the alliance. An Atlantic Alliance summit devoted to the crisis in Ukraine will take place by videoconference on Friday.
The United States, which will not send troops to Ukraine, will defend “every inch of NATO territory”, assured President Joe Biden. The Pentagon will, however, send some 7,000 more troops to Germany.
For its part, France will accelerate the deployment within the framework of NATO of soldiers in Romania, a country bordering Ukraine, announced President Emmanuel Macron after an exceptional EU summit, judging also useful to “leave the way open” for dialogue with Moscow to obtain a halt to its offensive.
The invasion caused an outcry in the international community, especially on the Western side.
The United States and Albania called for a UN Security Council vote at 8:00 p.m. GMT on Friday on a draft resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine and calling on Russia to withdraw its troops immediately.
Joe Biden, for whom the master of the Kremlin will become “a pariah on the international scene”, has imposed restrictions on the export of technological products to Russia.
The leaders of the 27 EU countries have tightened sanctions against Russia, in the energy, finance and transport sectors, without going so far as to exclude it from the Swift international banking system. “Russia’s leaders will face unprecedented isolation,” promised Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Moscow, for its part, promised a “severe” response to these measures.
At least 137 dead on the Ukrainian side
The day after the start of the Russian offensive, President Zelensky on Friday took stock of the losses on the Ukrainian side, civilians and soldiers: at least 137 dead and 316 wounded.
The Ukrainian army estimated Russian material losses at more than 30 tanks, some 130 armored fighting vehicles, seven planes and six helicopters.
Both sides were making unverifiable claims, but the Russian army was gaining ground. In the Kherson region, it is present in several areas and controls Genichesky, a town 300 km west of the Russian border.
The Russian offensive began Thursday at dawn, after the recognition Monday by Vladimir Putin of the independence of Ukrainian separatist territories of Donbass.
“I took the decision of a special military operation” with the aim of “a demilitarization and a denazification of Ukraine”, hammered the Russian president on television when announcing this operation, but “we do not have in our plans an occupation of Ukrainian territories”.
To justify this intervention, he reiterated his unfounded accusations of a “genocide” orchestrated by Kiev in the pro-Russian rebel “republics”, cited a call for help from the separatists and denounced the “aggressive” policy of NATO. .
“I quickly packed my bags”
About 100,000 people have fled their homes in Ukraine and thousands have left their country, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said. The EU said it was “fully prepared” to welcome them.
Some 200 of them spent the night in the Polish station of Przemysl (southeast). “I heard the explosions next to my building…and I quickly packed my bags, I took almost everything with me,” said Olha, a 36-year-old teacher from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. .
In Moscow, anti-war rallies were held in the center of the capital as well as in St. Petersburg. More than 1,700 people were arrested across Russia, according to an NGO. Other rallies were held in several cities around the world.
Vladimir Putin warned Westerners “who would try to interfere”, that “Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead to consequences you have never experienced before”.
The Russian offensive comes eight years after Russia annexed Crimea and Moscow sponsored the takeover of parts of Donbass by pro-Russian separatists, sparking a regional conflict that has claimed more than 14,000 lives.