Ukraine war: Russia intensifies attacks - Kyiv under siege - This happened on Saturday night

Created: 03/12/2022Updated: 03/12/2022 07:12

By: Julia Volkenand

Ukrainians cross an improvised route under a destroyed bridge fleeing Irpin, northwest of Kyiv.

© Efrem Lukatsky/dpa

Russia intensifies its attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Large parts of the Luhansk region are now also occupied.

Kyiv – On Saturday night there was no relaxation of the situation in the Ukraine war*.

According to the Ukrainian army, attacks by Russian troops in the country are continuing.

Around the capital Kyiv, there are Russian offensives on the northern city limits near Sazymja and to the south near Vyschenky, according to a report by the Ukrainian General Staff published on Facebook on Saturday night.

These offensives were partly successful in some areas.

In order to block the north-east Ukrainian city of Chernihiv from the south-west, Russian units also attempted to capture Mykhailo-Kozyubinske and Shestovytsya, some 15 kilometers away.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj* said on Friday that an important water pipe in Chernihiv had been damaged by shelling.

As a result, the city with almost 280,000 inhabitants was without water supply.

The report goes on to say that Russian Air Force strategic bombers used cruise missiles in the cities of Lutsk, Dnipro and Ivano-Frankivsk.

Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk are located north and south of the city of Lviv, not far from the Polish border.

On the night of Friday, Russia had expanded its attacks on western Ukraine.

The information could not be independently verified.

War in Ukraine: 70 percent of Luhansk occupied

According to Ukrainian information, 70 percent of the Luhansk region in the east of the country is now occupied by Russian troops.

This was announced by the head of the regional administration of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajdaj, on Saturday night on Facebook.

Those places that are still under Kiev's control are exposed to constant shelling.

Dozens of civilians were injured and killed.

At the same time, there would be no escape corridors for people from the region.

This information could not initially be verified independently.

Luhansk is one of two areas claimed by pro-Russian separatists for their self-proclaimed People's Republics.

The separatists lay claim to the entire territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk administrative regions, which they controlled only about a third before the Russian invasion at the end of February.

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Ukraine conflict: Several cities under fire - flight alarm in Kyiv

"Scumbags, they won't let us sleep," Vitaly Kim, the governor of the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv, wrote on Telegram on Saturday night.

A few hours earlier, he had told a Ukrainian TV station that at least one person had been injured in the city of Mykolaiv and that several houses and cars had been damaged.

Two fires also broke out in the city due to rocket fire.

According to a local official, the city's cancer clinic was also damaged.

In the capital Kyiv, flight alarms were triggered at least three times on Saturday night.

"Minutes of" shelling could be heard in the city from afar on Saturday morning, according to CNN.

Ukrainian mayor kidnapped by Russian troops

According to Ukrainian sources, Russian soldiers kidnapped the mayor of the occupied southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol.

Ivan Fedorov was abducted by a group of "ten occupiers" during a visit to the Melitopol crisis center on Friday when he wanted to deal with supply issues, the Ukrainian parliament said on Twitter.

"He refused to cooperate with the enemy," the Twitter message said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyj confirmed the information in a video message in the evening.

“This is obviously a sign of the invaders' weakness.

They have moved to a new level of terror in which they are trying to physically eliminate representatives of legitimate local Ukrainian authorities," the president said.

The kidnapping is not just a crime against an individual and Ukraine, but a "crime against democracy as such".

The deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration, Kirillo Tymoshenko, published a video on Telegram, showing soldiers coming out of a building some distance away, leading a man dressed in black, his head apparently in a black sack.

Power supply partially restored in Chernobyl

Technicians have managed to repair part of the power lines at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

This was reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on Friday evening, citing the Ukrainian operator.

The power supply for cooling fuel elements was interrupted on Wednesday.

However, the IAEA saw no safety problem in this.

Emergency generators provide electricity there.

Despite the difficult situation caused by the Russian invasion and the fighting in the Ukraine, it was possible to deliver more diesel.

According to the IAEA, 8 of the 15 Ukrainian reactors at four locations are still running.

The radiation level there is normal.

At the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the automatic transmission of data to the IAEA in Vienna worked again after an interruption, but not in Chernobyl.

More on the background to the Ukraine crisis.