The Invasion That Isn't A War

The paediatrics ward of this Kyiv hospital was forced to shelter in the basement as Russian forces attacked  Getty Images

"We have moved the dial for the process from zero to at least having the possibility for a discussion."

"But the indications of troop movements toward Kyiv may indicate that the worst may still be ahead of us."

Jonathan Eyal, Royal United Services Institute, London

"[The Friday detention of southeastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol is a] crime against democracy."

"Melitopol mayor Ivan Federov's detention is] a sign of the weakness of the invaders. They did not find any support on our land although they counted on it."

"Because for years they've been lying to themselves that people in Ukraine were supposedly waiting for Russia to come."

"This is Ukraine here. It is Europe here. It is a democratic world here."

"[The mayor's detention was] not only against a particular person, not only against a particular community and not only against Ukraine."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

A satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies purports to show a closeup of burning homes in the town of Moschun, north-west of Kyiv. Photograph: Maxar Technologies Handout/EPA

 

Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov was seen on video ushered out of a government building in the city surrounded by armed men, early on Friday. Some time afterward, the rebel-breakaway, Russian-backed Luhansk regional prosecutor stated that Mayor Fedorov had committed crimes of terrorism leading to an  investigation. 

According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, some 549 civilians at the very least, have lost their lives, with another estimated 957 wounded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine was initiated on February 24. Though the office has officially given those figures, at the same time it concedes them to be significantly under-counted.

In Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped in their towns and cities while sheltering from Russian air strikes. There is mounting military and civilian casualties yet accurate figures of the numbers of killed and wounded are evasive. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now entering its third week with no sign of any resolution leading to a cessation of hostilities despite a series of negotiations for ceasefires.

 

 Russian and US presidents have spoken several times via video link and over the phone  Reuters

 

Local municipal officials in some regions continue to announce high civilian death tolls. In Mariupol a mayoral adviser noted that 1,300 people were killed in that city alone, with over 3,000 more people having been injured in the constant shelling. Ukraine is fighting for its survival while at the same time locked in a propaganda war with Russia, where there is limited access to reliable information.

Ukrainian authorities this week claimed that over 12,000 Russian servicemen had been killed, while Russia has revealed its own numbers, that 498 deaths have occurred in their military, with 2,597 wounded. However, the Russian military has lost three of its most experienced, elite-ranked military heads. In the first two weeks of the conflict two Lieutenant-Generals. And then came the third, the decirated commander of the 6th Tank Regiment, Col.Andrei Zakharov.

 

At the head of a column of 30 Russian tanks and armoured vehicles, he was caught in the Ukrainian military's artillery fire while attempting to push into Kyiv. High-ranking Russian officers have their orders from the Kremlin to instill morale in their troops -- demoralized by losses to the Ukrainian military, by insufficient food and ammunition -- through the medium of moving forward further than would be usual to "impose their personality" on the stalled advance. 

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Turkey for talks where, according to Dmytro Kuleba, Lavrov refused to hold fire to allow aid distribution and evacuation along humanitarian corridors for civilians. No concessions were forthcoming from the aggressors with Lavrov insisting the 'operation' was moving along to plan, and thatUkraine posed a threat to Russia through its aspiration to join NATO.

 

Press handout showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the front line   EPA

 

Previous negotiations in the hopes of sending aid and effecting evacuation convoys have all failed. Aid agencies speak of humanitarian assistance that is urgently required in Mariupol. There, residents are short of food, water and power. Russia's goal is to capture the city they're pounding into the ground to enable a ground link between the Donbas pro-Moscow enclaves and the Crimea, in Russian hands.

Petro Andrushenko, adviser  to the mayor of Mariupol, spoke of Russian warplanes targeting convoy routes. "They want to absolutely delete our city, delete our people. They want to stop any evacuation", he reported. Lavrov pointed the finger of responsibility at the West for having armed Ukraine, inflaming the situation. When asked whether the conflict could become nuclear he said: "I don't want to believe, and I do not believe, that a nuclear war could start".