Russian Missiles Strike Civilian Infrastructure Posing as Troop Barracks

"My neighbours are gone. No one is left." 

"Only the kitchens were left standing."

"An elderly woman, her daughter and two grandchildren lived on the ninth floor. They are gone." 

"A man with his son lived on the eighth floor. They are gone."

"A woman with her daughter lived on the seventh floor. They are gone."

"A young family lived on the sixth floor, their son was lucky ... he is alive." 

Serhii Lubivskyi, 58, Central Ukraine town of Uman  

 

"I couldn't understand what was happening. I went to the balcony and saw glass everywhere. It was horrible." 

"Russia is a terrorist state. You can see, there's no military object here. And it happened at four o'clock in the morning, as people were sleeping."

Oleksandr, 35, Uman resident    

 

"[I heard an explosion and] everything shook". 

"We tried to find ways to leave the building. I heard a voice of a child who was screaming in the flat next to ours. We wanted to help other people. There was smoke and fire everywhere."  

"Peaceful people were just sleeping."

Another resident, 60-year-old Vanda, Uman, Ukraine

Rescuers in Uman pulled casualties from the rubble during Friday morning   Ukraine State Emergency Service

"Another night of Russian terror. Missiles and UAVs."

"Russian evil can be stopped by weapons -- our defenders are doing it."

"And it can be stopped by sanctions -- global sanctions must be enhanced."

"This Russian terror must face a fair response from Ukraine and the world."

"And it will."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

"Russia's Air Force carried out a collective missile strike using long-range high-precision weapons overnight targeting temporary deployment sites of Ukrainian army reserve units."

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov

 

"Together with [Slovak President] Zuzana Caputova, we see the value of freedom and justice."

"It is hard to see with your own eyes how Ukrainians are paying the highest price for it. With the blood and lives of their own citizens."

"In the fight against the aggressor, they defend what we have in common. That is why we will back them."

Petr Pavel, President of the Czech Republic

Friday Russia hurled missiles at cities in Ukraine while people slept, its first large-scale airstrikes in almost two months. The long winter Russian offensive had seen little ground gained by Moscow. Only in Bukhov, a small mining town, was the grinding battle ongoing through the winter months. Ukrainian servicemen have been opposing the Russian plans of taking Bukhov for a year, despite that hundreds of thousands of reservists were called up, along with convicts recruited as mercenaries from prisons in Russian.

Kyiv, for its part, is deep in preparations for its spring counteroffensive, newly provided by foreign supporters with hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles. The plan is to drive Russia out of the close to one-fifth of Ukraine occupied by Moscow which President Vladimir Putin claims to have annexed. "As soon as there is God's will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it", stated Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskii Reznikov.

Ukraine is "to a high percentage ready", he said, in possession of new and modern weapons to provide an "iron fist". Meanwhile, thanks to Moscow targeting overnight strikes at Ukrainian reserve troops, successfully struck, preventing them from reaching the front, as it claimed, the campaign was a success, but of which there was no evidence, missiles having indiscriminately been sent into towns and cities across the country, far from front lines; civilians were targeted and killed. 

In Uman, central Ukraine, firefighters battled an apartment building blaze after an upper floor was struck by a Russian missile where at least 23 civilians were killed, four children among them. Rescue workers made their awkward progress through smouldering rubble, hoisting a body on a stretcher while a man wearing a face mask wept, watching, and a woman comforted him.

Kyiv too was rocked by explosions during the night, along with central cities of Kremenchuk and Poltava, and to the south Mykolaiv and Ukrayinka; far, far from the front lines...nowhere near where Ukrainian reserve troops were stationed, as Moscow claimed. Out of 23 cruise missiles fired by Russia, the Ukrainian military said it had shot down 21. 

 

And Moscow reiterated yet again that it does not deliberately target civilians, to Kyiv's statement that strikes on cities far from the front lines have no military purpose, other than intimidating and harming civilians.

Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree addressing the pathway to Russian citizenship for those people living in parts of Ukraine under Moscow's control. Those who choose to decline, or who have no wish to legalize their status as 'Russian citizens' could be deported. 

 

In the lead-up to a visit expected later this year to South Africa, the opposition premier of Western Cape Province said he plans to order local police to seize Putin and presumably hand him over to the ICC to stand trial on charges of war crimes. Premier Alan Winde condemned the ruling African National Congress government for welcoming the Russian Leader despite his arrest ordered by the International Criminal Court for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

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Russia's Version: Ukraine Committing War Crimes

"The situation in Mariupol is difficult and hard. Fighting is happening right now. The Russian army is constantly calling on additional units to storm the city."

"But as of now the Russians haven't managed to completely capture it."

Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, Ukraine Defence Ministry spokesman 

"The number and scale of missile strikes on targets in Kyiv will increase in response to any terrorist attacks or acts of sabotage on Russian territory committed by the Kyiv nationalist regime."

Russian Defence Ministry

In the city of Mariupol. The band of fighters who remain in the city are cut off from reinforcements, food and weapons

 

Russia invades and relentlessly attacks Ukraine, and has the unmitigated gall to warn Ukraine of severe consequences should it 'sabotage' Russian territory. The Ukrainian government's actions in defending itself marks it as a 'nationalist regime', but Russia's malevolent actions to destroy Ukraine's sovereignty doesn't betray the actions of a totalitarian nationalist regime. By fighting back, Moscow designates Ukraine's servicemen as 'terrorists'. Moscow really does believe that perception is reality and subjective interpretations however ridiculous, has the ring of truth.

Russia's invading troops laid siege to the Black Sea port city of Mariupol for close to a month, pounding it unstintingly with bombs and artillery shells, transforming a once-modern, vibrant city of 400,000 people to smouldering ruins, with those of the population not yet evacuated to safety, either dead or persisting in existing in the underground ruins of their once-stable city without light, heat, potable water and food.

This is medieval butchery writ large, that civilization was supposed to have overcome following the Second World War, in its vows that never again would such savagery be allowed to occur, and the world believed that never again would any state descend to the depths of humanity's most bitter and primitive urges to destroy what others have built, and in the process annihilate those with whom they disagree.

Russian President Vladimir Putin may not have surprised himself, but he certainly has taken the rest of the world by surprise in his decision that it would be worthwhile to make a pariah state of Russia in pursuit of his vision of power over a neighbour's destiny, including the power to command his troops to spare no one and destroy whatever represented the height of Ukraine's civil achievements in the interests of seeing it cower and beg for mercy.

The destruction continues apace, with ample evidence of the Russian military's willingness to obey their leader's instructions for annihilation and mayhem in pursuit of victory against a neighbour that resisted a proffered role as satellite revisited, preferring to go its own way. Leaving the Kremlin nonplussed and furious that a nation they felt would quickly fly a white flag of surrender instead fought back to wreak their own punishment on a presumptuous foe honouring neither courage nor the sanctity of life.

To its battle credits in its own defence, Ukraine has counter-assaulted, destroying tanks, armoured vehicles, warplanes and now the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet, the destroyer Moskva, leading to the evacuation of its 500-member crew and the sinking of the ship. The plan to mount a naval assault against Ukraine is now askew, to Moscow's incredulous rage.

 

Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

Bodies lie in the street in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, in Ukraine on April 2, 2022 after Russian forces withdrew from the town.

If a symbol of courage and determination were sought, none could offer the same dramatic effect as the missiles Ukraine sunk the Moskva with. If a symbol of Russia's inhuman acts of violent totalitarianism were to be sought, look no further than the body counts in Bucha and Mariupol. If proof were needed of the primitive nature of hatred and lack of conscience, it could be found in scenes of Russian soldiers shooting at Ukrainian civilians desperately attempting to escape scenes of carnage.

Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk spoke of Russia's use of long-range bombers in attacking Mariupol since February 24, and turning to other cities to capture in Ukraine's east. Clarifying its major intent now, since its efforts in encircling Kyiv with the intention of removing Ukraine's government and bringing the country to its knees failed, Moscow now says it aims to capture the Donbas's two provinces partially in the hands of ethnic Russian separatists.

 

Defenders in Mariupol fight from the stronghold of the Azovstal steel works, fending off Russian troops in the final remaining stronghold of Ukrainian resistance, while Moscow claims to have captured the second Illich steel works, both owned by Metinvest, an empire owned by Ukraine's wealthiest businessman representing the backbone of the country's industrial east.

 

"We believe in the victory of Ukraine and plan to resume production after the end of hostilities", declared Metinvest's statement, adding the enterprise would never operate under Russian occupation. The loss to the Russian fleet of its largest vessel equipped with guided missiles meant to shoot down planes and attack shorelines, with radar providing air defence cover for the fleet, is irreplaceable.

 

Naval power was used to blockade Ukrainian ports with the threat looming of an amphibious coastal landing. The menace to Ukraine from the sea appears now to have been hugely diminished. A diplomatic note was delivered from Moscow to the United States with the caution of "unpredictable consequences" should Washington continue to provide Ukraine with weapons shipments.

 

Bodies of civilians are seen along a street in Mariupol. An estimated 100,000 people remain in the city — trapped without food, water, heat or electricity — during a siege that has made the city the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Syrians and Ukrainians Unite Under the SUN

"From our experiences in Syria, we might be among those most able to understand the pain of the people of Ukraine."

"Syrians have lived the shelling, killing and displacement brought on them by Russian forces."

"The time and place have changed,but the victim is the same -- civilians -- and the killer is the same -- the Russian regime."

"If Putin was held accountable for his crimes in Ukraine, this means that he will be held accountable for his crimes in Syria as well."

"But if Putin gets away with it, then the next crime will only be a matter of time."

Raed al-Saleh, head, Syria Civil Defence Force/White Helmets 

Civil defense workers known as the White Helmets carry children after airstrikes hit a school housing a number of displaced people, in the western part of the southern Daraa province of Syria, on June 14, 2017. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)

 

The White Helmet group, volunteer Syrians who risked their lives rushing to the scenes of bombed out buildings in Syria when the Syrian and Russian air forces pursued a joint campaign of mass murder and demoralization of the Syrian Sunni opposition against the Alawite regime of Bashar al-Assad -- shoving away all normal scruples of international rules to avoid civilian infrastructure during times of conflict -- targeting hospitals, bread lines, schools and medical clinics are now watching a replay in Ukraine of what they suffered in Syria.

Their experience of the lethal hardships they faced as targets for Syrian rage that found it offensive they would rescue people from bombed-out buildings and dig into the rubble to release people being crushed to death, rushing them to medical care in a world where survival was uppermost in everyone's mind as barrel bombs fell around the civilian population, and as chemical weapons were rained down on them requiring urgent care to avoid death of children for whose lives the regime was unconcerned as it committed war crimes against its own.

Many of the White Helmet members not only express their empathy for the plight of Ukrainians being mortally bludgeoned by the Russian military at the Kremlin's decree, but prepare to offer practical help born of their familiarity of the deadly techniques being utilized. The commander of the Russian forces in Syria in 2015 has now been appointed to lead the Russian ground forces in Ukraine. His mission is to correct an attack plan that has to the present failed miserably for Russia, as Ukraine has fought back wreaking lethal damage to Russian troops and equipment.

 

In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrian White Helmet civil defense workers carry a victim from destroyed houses hit by Russian airstrikes, in Maaret Musreen village, in Idlib province, Syria, March 5, 2020. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)

 

General Alexander Dvornikov, 60, proved his inhumane mettle in Syria and is now prepared to continue to  unleash his brand of warfare in Ukraine, as an "old school" general, as a "blood and soil nationalist", trained in the military doctrines of the Soviet era that never hesitated to target civilians as an upper-hand methodology. He had been responsible for launching over 9,000 combat flights and bombing raids in Syria, targeting hospitals, schools, bread lines and various elements of civil life.

Ukraine has, even before this new assignment for this Soviet veteran, become accustomed to this type of strategy, set to intensify as Russian troops move en masse to the Donbas region. "This commander is a war criminal", Syrian army defector Lt.Col.Fares al-Bayoush asserted from haven in Turkey. The "Butcher of Syria" is prepared to live up to his hard-earned reputation in this new assignment to render unto Ukraine what Syria had suffered in his campaign there.

A coalition named the Syria Ukraine Network (SUN) has been formed by Syrian and Ukrainian organizations. Senior fellow Olga Lautman, of the Center for European Policy Analysis has connected Syrian groups from war crime experts to the White Helmets, to Ukrainian organizations on the ground in Ukraine, enabling Syrians to advise and teach their hard-earned best practices in dealing with Russian Forces to Ukrainians under Russian fire. 

 

Syrian doctors have travelled to Ukraine, and from Idlib MDs and nurses at the Academy of Health Sciences train their Ukrainian counterparts through online the production of video tutorials. Following reports that Mariupol had suffered a chemical attack, Ukrainians sought out advice from SUN; "They want to benefit from our experience", explained the Idlib Academy's president, Abdullah Abdulaziz Alhaji. 

Members of the White Helmets film an instructive video intended for Ukrainian rescuers, in the war-ravaged Syrian town of Ariha in the rebel-held northwestern Idlib province, on March 16, 2022. Photo by Omar OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images

The Drums of War

"Peace on our continent has been shattered. Russia is using force to try to rewrite history, and deny Ukraine its free and independent path."

"This is a deliberate, cold-blooded and long-planned invasion. Russia's unjustified, unprovoked attack on Ukraine is putting countless innocent lives at risk with air and missile attacks."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg

Missiles pounded Kyiv on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022, as Russian forces advance to the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital — a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine that has shocked the world. Here, Natali Sevriukova is seen next to her home in Kyiv after a rocket attack. (Emilio Morenatti/The Associated Press)

 

NATO plans to create combat units in Romania and Bulgaria, possibly Hungary and Slovakia as well, to reflect those already set up several years earlier in Poland and the Baltic states, as a deterrent to potential Russian aggression in Vladimir Putin's pathological delusion that he will go down in history with a legacy project fulfilled; the reincarnation of the Soviet Union by re-creating the forcible union that most of its neighbours dread.

No NATO troops were to be sent to Ukraine to aid its resistance to the Russian invasion. Ukraine is on its own. Its delicate state of ongoing oppression by Russia was what led NATO to keep Ukraine at arm's length, even though other former USSR satrapies have been accepted into the Alliance. Foreseeing just such an event occurring at some future date -- albeit not quite in the violent form currently seen -- led NATO to err on the side of caution.

"As recently as 2016, an operation on this scale would have required every battalion tactical group in Russia's ground forces; with more contract personnel, and thus more BTGs, Moscow can now undertake such a move while still retaining substantial forces elsewhere in Russia."

IISS Military Balance 2022 global military capacity survey

Ukraine, the second-largest country in Europe, is hugely outmatched against the largest geographic country in the world, Russia, despite materiel support that NATO countries have provided to the Ukraine military to help beef up its military arsenal. In 2020, military spending in Ukraine came in at about $6 billion, roughly a tenth of the figure for Russian military expenditures for the same year; $62 billion.

Russia has had quite a bit of practise in nipping away bits and pieces of the geography of former Soviet member-countries. As it did in Georgia, and that former Soviet satellite was left to defend itself and still lost two of its territories to Russia. Russian warplanes have had ample practise, not just the war games of recent vintage with Belarus, but real-time conflict flying aerial missions over Syria where it bombed civilian enclaves, along with hospitals.

Its practise run in 2014 with ethnic Russian rebels culminating for the time being with the seizing of the Crimean peninsula and portions of eastern Ukraine in the Donbas gave it ample practise for a long-range plan for total control and absorption of Ukraine in its bid for imperial influence over the former Soviet Union states. Ukraine has been viewed by President Putin as the jewel in its imperial crown, first to be wholly re-absorbed, leaving other former states in fear.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when Russia was left a crumbling vestige of its former self, the ascension of Vladimir Putin to the presidency several decades ago saw Russia's vast reserves of gas and oil in huge demand throughout Europe. That source of income built Russia a formidable treasury, quite a bit of it used for rebuilding its military.

Enabling him at this juncture to deploy over 100,000 troops to the border with Ukraine and 30,000 in Belarus, a show of purpose for that military investment in the past 35 years. Reclaiming Abkhazia and South Ossetia were mere trifles to practise on; the absorption of Ukraine is more to the point for Mr. Putin's reemerging Greater Russia ambitions.

12 Russian battalion tactical groups were put into action around northeast Ukraine in 2015 during the war that wasn't quite a war, but as U.S. President named it, a 'minor incident'. Not, however, so minor to Ukraine which lost Crimea in that bitter encounter. Now, well over 100 battalion tactical groups have been deployed to make for this full-scale invasion from Russia and Belarus.

Ukraine has 290,000 military personnel, to Russia's 900,000, and Russia can call up another two million reservists, as compared to Ukraine's 900,000. The Russian army has over 12,000 tanks, with Ukraine in possession of less than 3,000. A similar imbalance exists in the numbers of armoured vehicles and artillery. Ukraine with its 34 attack helicopters and 98 jets is up against Russia's 500 attack helicopters and 1,500 fighter jets.

Ukrainian President Vlodomir Zelensky insists he's not leaving Kyiv as Russian forces close in on the Ukrainian capital.