Team News Riveting
Russia turned its air force and artillery on cities and civilian infrastructure on the fifth day of the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine even as the latter continued its tactic of engaging Russian armored columns by ambush on picked ground.
Russian and Ukrainian officials met to discuss a possible ceasefire, without result.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba in a statement said the Russia Federation (RF) has launched more than 180 cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukrainian targets since February 24. The Ukraine Air Force (UAF) estimated that, as of Feb. 28, it had destroyed 29 jet aircraft, 29 helicopters, six drones, 191 tanks, 861 armored vehicles, 291 trucks and jeeps, 80 fuel trucks, and six anti-aircraft systems.
Vasylkiv, the site of a Kyiv-area airfield heavily fought-over since the second day of the war, saw renewed combat, both day and night. UAF forces used howitzer fires and anti-aircraft missiles in the battle. A UAF statement said that three RF aircraft were shot down in the vicinity overnight, and two more elsewhere in Ukraine.
Kyiv Post reported that RF tactical commanders across Ukraine appeared to shift focus from targeting mostly military targets to directing air strikes, artillery, missiles and rocket artillery against civilian homes, apartment buildings and infrastructure with little clear military value. In the north-eastern city Izium, according to social media images and media reports, the Russian Air force dropped unguided bombs into residential sections of the city. One set of images showed, unexploded air bombs, stenciled with Russian Air Force markings, lying on a sidewalk in Izium’s residential Severno-Saltykova district.
In Ukraine’s east, tension was centered on the cities Mariupol and Volnovakha, officials said. Both were in UAF hands but RF forces had cut some roads leading out of Mariupol, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the Donetsk Region Defence Council, told media. Work was in progress to set up a “green corridor” for civilian evacuation from Mariupol, he said. An afternoon attempt to bus civilians out of Volnovakha failed because RF forces fired rocket artillery at it, Kirilenko said.
Across Ukraine reports continued of small RF-controlled groups aiming to cause panic and confusion. Government information networks from national down to villages warned residents of RF saboteur teams possibly in the area. Martial law with road checkpoints, full lockdown to civilian movement and not visible lights at night was effect in Kyiv and other cities and towns.
Early news reports from Russo-Ukrainian talks on the Belarusian border said Kyiv’s and Moscow’s positions were diametrically opposed on issues like ownership of Crimea, Ukrainian NATO membership, and Ukrainian military capacity. News agencies said the talks started at 1300 and ended at 1800. Ukrainian officials called the talks “difficult” but said there would be another round of discussions. The primary topic would be a ceasefire, they said.
The Russian invaders have fired rockets this afternoon, March 1, at the Kyiv TV tower (Dorohozhytsi) in an apparent attempt to silence Ukraine’s TV channels. The attack came shortly after Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov warned that Russia is planning to disconnect Ukraine’s communication channels and launch a psychological attack.
