This blog about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is over.
A radioactive garage site in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev pierced a missile early Sunday, Forbes Ukraine reported, bringing up the State Inspectorate of Nuclear Regulation. The state emergency service said the missile hit a fence and that the construction and garage tanks were intact. , while regulators said an initial assessment found no risk to the general public.
Several items containing hazardous materials have been broken in the fighting since Russia announced its invasion of Ukraine earlier this week:
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite web service is now active in Ukraine, and other communication formula terminals are “on their way” to the country, the company’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk tweeted Saturday night. Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, had publicly suggested. Musk to provide Ukraine with the Starlink service in a tweet last Saturday.
Ukraine has faced sporadic web outages since Russia invaded the country on Thursday, a U. S. defense official said. The U. S. Department of Homeland Security told reporters Saturday morning that the web was still accessible at times.
Russian troops “are not making the progress they had planned” in their invasion of Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry tweeted Saturday night, amid “demanding logistical situations and strong Ukrainian resistance. “The Russian military has caused casualties and Ukraine has imprisoned Russian soldiers. said the United Kingdom.
Similarly, a senior U. S. defense official. The U. S. military claimed Saturday morning that the Russian military had moved Ukraine at a slower-than-expected speed due to the sharp increase in Ukrainian forces, which made Russia “increasingly frustrated. “
Still, heavy fighting was reported in the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Saturday night, and an obvious missile attack on an oil depot 20 miles south of Kiev triggered explosions that lit up the night sky near the Ukrainian capital, Forbes Ukraine reported. The mayor of Kiev told citizens to prepare for another complicated night.
An oil depot in Vasylkiv, about 20 miles south of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, caught fire after a missile attack, Forbes Ukraine reported early Sunday morning, showing a Facebook post by Vasylkiv’s mayor. Massive explosions lit up the sky near Vasylkiv, according to CNN.
A major nighttime attack in Kiev is to be feared, with a giant contingent of Russian forces piling up on the northern outskirts of the city, Forbes Ukraine reported. Kiev’s mayor warned citizens on Saturday that the city of nearly 3 million people can just face a difficult night.
Large-scale attacks are also taking place in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, according to Forbes Ukraine deputy director Volodymyr Landa. A fuel pipeline exploded near Kharkiv, the State Communications Special Service said on Sunday.
The United States and its Western allies vowed on Saturday to apply a series of new sanctions on Russia to stifle its monetary formula in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.
“Selected” Russian banks will be removed from the SWIFT interbank messaging formula, which is imperative for transaction attrition, and Russia’s Central Bank will be subject to measures to limit its ability to use its foreign exchange reserves, according to a set of the United States, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada.
They pledged to restrict the sale of so-called “golden passports” that allow wealthy Russians to citizens of Western countries and move assets abroad.
They will also launch an active organization to coordinate the search for and freeze the assets of sanctioned Americans and companies, and have pledged to impose sanctions and other enforcement measures on more Russian officials and elites linked to the Kremlin.
To learn more about the main points about sanctions, read here.
A Ukrainian lawmaker warned that Kiev could be “under a never-before-noticed attack” on Saturday night, and warned that “Russia will hit us with everything it has,” as air alarms sounded in the capital. Forbes Ukraine reports that giant attacks are expected overnight. , with a giant concentration of Russian army apparatus concentrated on the northern outskirts of the city.
The United States thinks the fighting was of maximum intensity in the northeastern component of the country, near Kharkiv last Saturday. The Ukrainian military said it blew up a rung with 56 diesel fuel tanks carried in a Russian convoy in the Chernihiv region and destroyed several pieces of army apparatus in the Luhansk region.
The number of other people enlisted in the Territorial Defense Forces, a volunteer corps that the government has sought to expand to combat the invasion, has reached 37,000, said the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny.
Russia’s advance had slowed on Saturday due to strong Ukrainian resistance, according to tests conducted by the British Ministry of Defense and the U. S. Department of Defense. The U. S. official told reporters on Saturday. However, Russia is “increasingly frustrated” by its lack of momentum, the official said.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council on Saturday tweeted orders on how to make Molotov cocktails as the country sought to mobilize civilians to fight Russian forces. The Lviv-based Pravda brewery said it went from bottling beer to making improvised incendiary devices.
The government has worked for months to recruit Ukrainians to fight in territorial defense units, and 18,000 rifles with ammunition had been distributed in the Kiev region in recent days.
Russian police have arrested at least 3,052 other people protesting against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian human rights organization OVD-Info said on Saturday.
On Saturday alone, at least 469 Russians in 34 cities were arrested, a portion of them in Moscow, according to OVD-Info. To learn more about the crackdown on protests, read here.
Germany will send 1,000 anti-tank guns and 500 Stinger portable surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz said on Saturday, in a clear break with the country’s post-World War II policy of retaining lethal weapons from the conflict.
The announcement comes after the German Defense Ministry said it would allow the Netherlands to send 400 German-made rocket launchers to Ukraine.
Twitter said on Saturday that access to the app had been limited in Russia, a day after the Russian government announced it would restrict access to Facebook. NetBlocks, a web-tracking group, reported Saturday morning that it was observing failed or seriously limited connections to Twitter at all major Russian telecom providers, yet it was still imaginable to access the app by using a VPN. it took a while. “
Twitter and Facebook, the only downed Internet sites in Russia: At least six Russian government websites, in addition to the Kremlin’s official online page and the Defense Ministry’s online page, were not loaded on Saturday. offline government websites” in a tweet, though the Russian Defense Ministry denied it was hacked through the state-run Tass news agency. Forbes Ukraine reports that some Russian TV channels, in addition to Russia 1 and NTV, also appear to have been pirated and broadcast Ukrainian Songs.
Germany will allow the Netherlands to send 400 rocket launchers to Ukraine, the German Defense Ministry told Reuters on Saturday. This is a significant reversal of the country’s longstanding policy of blocking the movement of deadly German-made weapons that could end in a clash. zone. This comes after Germany was the subject of anger and ridicule for sending 5,000 helmets to Ukraine while ending calls to replace its position and prevent other countries from bringing lethal aid into its airspace. Read more about the move and Germany’s position here.
The advance of Russian forces in their invasion of Ukraine has slowed, most likely due to strong resistance from Ukrainian troops and “acute logistical difficulties,” the British Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
Taking Kiev remains the number one target of Russia’s military, he said, but Russian troops have struggled to encircle the city. The nighttime fighting in Kiev likely involved only a small number of “previously positioned Russian sabotage groups,” he said.
More than a portion of the combat forces Russia has assembled along Ukraine’s borders have now entered the country complexly, a senior U. S. defense official said. Reports of fighting in Ukraine intensified. resistance of our minds” from Ukraine, which led Russia to be “increasingly frustrated” by its lack of momentum.
The official specified how the United States knows Russia is frustrated, but said the invading troops appear to have made less progress than they likely expected.
The Russian military has not taken any Ukrainian cities and has not established air superiority, as Ukrainian air defenses are still operational, according to the senior defense official.
The fighting appears to be of maximum intensity near the northeastern city of Kharkiv, according to the United States, but Russia also faces “fierce resistance” as it moves toward the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. The defense official estimated that Russian forces were around 20 miles north of Kiev, sets of “reconnaissance” were detected in and near the city. Gunfire and explosions were heard overnight in Kiev, Forbes Ukraine reported, and the Ukrainian military claimed to have destroyed a column of Russian cars in western Kiev early Saturday morning. .
The United States has counted more than 250 Russian missile launches since the invasion began, most of which were short-range ballistic missiles. were intentionally targeted, according to the U. S. defense official. USA A missile hit a residential skyscraper in Kiev on Saturday morning, causing extensive damage, according to Ukrainian officials.
Gas masks are being distributed to Russian troops and local militants in the separatist Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Ukraine’s Security Service wrote in a Telegram article on Saturday. Ukrainian Army of Sabotage of Civilians.
The Donbass region in eastern Ukraine is home to about 900 commercial facilities, according to a 2015 World Bank assessment. The United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe warned in 2017 of an environmental and fitness crisis if Russian bombings hit commercial facilities. storage places for hazardous chemicals.
According to the World Bank report, clashes broke out in the region in 2014 and dozens of mines were damaged, leading to contamination of water, soil and land. Power plants, chemical production sites, water infrastructure and sewage systems have also come under attack. Bellingcat reports.
Ukraine’s national road company has suggested local governments remove symptoms from the country’s roads to confuse Russian forces. “Priority 1: symptoms, names of settlements. The enemy has a pathetic bond, not concentrated on the ground. Let’s help pass directly to hell,” the firm said in a statement, according to Forbes Ukraine.
More and more European countries have come out for removing Russia from SWIFT’s foreign invoice formula this morning, adding Hungary, Italy and Cyprus, Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. Reuters reports that this could happen within a few days.
The Belgium-based payment formula, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, is used in thousands of banks around the world and greatly facilitates payments abroad. Exclusion from the formula has serious consequences for Russia’s economy and monetary activity. they would also be countries that would buy key resources from the country.
Major U. S. banks, in addition to JPMorgan and Citigroup, have pleaded with U. S. lawmakers. The U. S. and Biden’s management take that step, according to Bloomberg, warning that it can only inspire the progression of an election to the SWIFT system, eliminating the dollar’s central role in the global market. and that forcing Russian monetary establishments to use other means of communication to conduct transactions would make it difficult for countries to do so. Westerners to stick to what they do.
Learn more about SWIFT and what it is here.
Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko on Saturday extended the city’s curfew between 5 p. m. and at five and eight in the morning after Ukrainian security forces repelled a series of attacks in and around the Ukrainian capital overnight.
In a series of tweets, Klitschko suggested citizens not to pass the hours and said the curfew will last until Monday morning. Anyone seen on the streets during those hours will be considered “a member of sabotage and reconnaissance groups,” Klitschko wrote. .
The move came after a night of fierce fighting that extended into Kyiv’s streets, with gunfire and blasts heard in the heart of the city at Maidan Square. The Ukrainian military said it destroyed a column of Russian vehicles in a western Kyiv neighborhood Saturday morning.
A giant apartment building in western Kiev was badly shattered by a missile attack on Saturday morning. The extent of the injuries is unclear, Forbes Ukraine reported.
Klitschko also called on citizens to be on the lookout for saboteurs who hit markings around the city looking for problems to attack, such as fuel pipelines, according to Forbes Ukraine.
Fighting with Russian forces arriving in the city, the Ukrainian military shot down a Russian Il-76 airlift plane about 80 km south of Kiev, near Bila Tserkva, the Associated Press reported, bringing up two unnamed U. S. officials.