Politic?: Ukrainian Optimism Prevails

"You can't invade a country on a one-on-one ratio [of troops]."
"Nobody has done it, which means that either something was wrong or they had very wrong assumptions moving into this war."
Mathieu Boulegue, expert, Chatham House think tank, London

"[Ukraine has reached a] strategic turning point [in the conflict with Russia]."
"It is impossible to say how many days we still have [ahead of us] to free Ukrainian land."
"But we can say we will do it."
"We are already moving toward our goal, our victory."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zeenskyy

A Ukrainian firefighter works at an apartment building after it was hit by artillery shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 14. (Vadim Ghirda/AP)

Russian forces continue to bombard cities across the country. And indications are that they are also regrouping for an assault on Kyiv. The stalled convoy appears to have been broken up into smaller, more maneuverable units, positioning themselves slowly but with purpose on the Russian troop-occupied areas of the smaller towns and villages ringing the capital city, for a closer final spurt into Kyiv. "The situation is critical", Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko noted in a rare admission.

Russian troops have now moved to the north of the country; until now spared the attacks seen in the east and the west, repositioning close to Lubyanka in the north with artillery howitzers in firing positions, confirmed by U.S. satellite company Maxar. Russia, assessed Britain's defence ministry, appears to be gearing up for a new strategy in offensive action in coming days. Likely to include action against Kyiv.

The only relief is the observable limited progress being made by Russian ground forces, continuing to be hampered by logistical issues. Ukrainian resistance to the Russian troop movement has clearly had and continues to have, an adverse effect on Russian troop intentions according to a British intelligence report.

And according to the Ukrainian general staff, heavy losses holding back Russian forces have turned it toward regrouping, having been pushed by Ukrainian forces to "unfavourable positions" close to the Belarus border in the rear of the main Russian column.

Kyiv has enough essential supplies to last several weeks, its mayor, Vitali Klitschko said with assurance, reflecting the fact that for the present, supply lines remain open. Near the eastern town of Izyum, a psychiatric hospital was hit,\. A report from Emergency Services was that there was no one hurt, the patients already sheltering in the basement. The governor of Kharkiv characterized the attack as a war crime.

And in heavily embattled Kharkiv, a report from the city's mayor that almost fifty schools had been destroyed. A humanitarian corridor to try again to evacuate civilians from Kharkiv appears to have failed, even as Moscow continues to deny its soldiers have been targeting civilians. The central city of Dnipro suffered three air strikes near a kindergarten, leaving one person dead.

Russian strikes have been moving deeper into the west in the last few days, aimed at preventing airfields from being put to use by Ukrainian forces. An attack on an airfield distant from the battlefields in the north, east and south had left four dead and six wounded in Lutsk. In and around Ukraine sees Russian jets flying roughly 200 sorties daily.

In Mariupol, the city council reported 1,582 civilians dead, resulting from Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade. Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in Mariupol, with no food, water, heat or power.

The Black Sea port is now completely encircled, leading Ukrainian officials to accuse Russia of deliberately preventing civilians from leaving, and conversely not permitting humanitarian convoys to enter.