"No Rules Now" Putin's Latest Assaults on Human Rights

"The capital is in a very dramatic situation."

"It's no longer possible to pretend that we can live now as we lived in peacetime."

"The enemy is tearing Kyiv apart."

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko 

 

"The Russians couldn't occupy us. So now they are doing massive attacks and massive killings."

"They are increasing the number of people they recruit through various methods. It is important that the governments of countries from which Russia recruits people for its army take action against this." 

"New interceptors are being actively tested. Some combat groups are using them, but, of course, some details still need to be refined to achieve enough effectiveness and scale. "

"We are speeding up the developers." 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

Flames are seen at Kyiv's Dobrobut Hospital on Monday in the aftermath of a Russian drone strike. (Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press)

 

What is left of the 8,000 North Korea soldiers sent over to fight with Russia against Ukraine, is being fortified with the arrival of another 10,000 North Korean military operatives, as Russia ramps up its recruitment efforts for its ongoing offensive. The plan is to strike civilian infrastructure as the Russian military has always done, but now the focus has turned to Kyiv, which up until a short while ago managed to escape most of the missiles and drones targeting other parts of Ukraine.

 

Residents of Kyiv, while becoming accustomed to energy infrastructure hits, particularly in the winter months -- meant to demoralize them, suffering from unheated interiors and difficulties with food preparation in freezing weather -- were mostly able to go about their business as usual, as soon as energy was restored. During aerial attacks, people flooded into shelters, where the subway system tunnels proved a great asset. More latterly, however, transportation systems have been targeted to fully interrupt illusions of normalcy.

 

More recent aerial strikes have brought a standstill to traffic with a bridge linking Kyiv's east and west put out of commission. A fuming Volodymyr Zelenskyy once again ripped Vladimir Putin for his savage attacks on civilian areas in Ukrainian cities. The grinding conflict reaching into its fifth year with Moscow ordering massive nighttime raids whose effects are the destruction of municipal infrastructure, apartment buildings, government offices have reached a new low in violations of international rules of war. President Zelenskyy revealed Putin having declared "no rules now", gained through intelligence.

 

The ground combat in the east has morphed into a focus on massive aerial attacks, which until latterly Ukraine managed to mostly intercept, with most damage on the ground caused by pieces of shrapnel, from exploded missiles and drones. Russia's production of a new type of drone based on the Iranian Shahed, have been proven all too difficult to intercept. Their speed and deadly impacts allow them to evade interception and strike their targets with efficient violence.

 

In Kyiv the closure of its main bridges and restricted movements follow yet another wave of deadly strikes by fast-moving, jet-powered drones. Main roads are gridlocked while commuters seek out alternative routes or simply abandon their vehicles and attempt to walk to their destinations. Of eight bridges connecting Kyiv east and west over the Dnipro River, because of those damaged, vehicles going in both directions can move neither backward nor forward.  

 

A man escapes from an administrative building in Kyiv which caught fire after being hit by a Russian jet-powered drone. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

 

The aerial bombardments of recent months have placed Ukraine's capital city on constant alert, daily life completely disrupted. Approaching aerial threats cause air raid sirens to sound close to constantly throughout the course of a day, allowing an estimated three minutes for residents to seek shelter. Trains and gas stations have suffered repeated strikes. Rail and road networks have been hit, and attacks on energy facilities constantly threaten power and heating outages with the approach of a Ukrainian winter.

 

Some city residents, given the continual raids, have been forced to spend overnight in subway stations. People face air raid obstacles to reaching their work sites during the day, the loss of earnings added to the trauma faced now on a daily basis. "You just spend the whole day feeling completely beaten down", remarked one woman who spent fruitless hours attempting to reach her place of employment. This, as a 24-storey residential building was hit in southeast Kyiv, killing several and injuring many.

 

Intercepted jet drone, Kyiv.

President Zelenskyy calls for urgent measure to be taken for tougher sanctions to prevent Russia from its manufacture of the jet-powered drones, so difficult for Ukraine to intercept. Just days ago, the Ukraine military was able to use its own FP-7 tactical ballistic missile for the first time in combat. A small hint of future manufacturing success to come, but in the meanwhile, pleading with  Ukraine's western allies for greater military support, in particular for U.S.-manufactured Patriot missile interceptors.

 

Even as Ukraine buckles, but does not collapse under the newer and more powerful Russian attacks, Ukraine's military struck an oil refinery in Volgograd, and another in Samar, in southwest Russia. Disabling their capacity to supply fuel to Russian forces.   

"[Russia's production of jet-powered drones are] critically dependent [on foreign components."

"Every Russian drone can actually be stopped right at the production line. What is needed is the political will of these countries." 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy  

Ukraine's National Academy of Science building burns in Kyiv after a Russian drone strike. (Dan Bashakov/The Associated Press)