March 4: On Friday morning, up to a dozen explosions were heard in central Kyiv, along with air raid sirens, indicating that Russian missile strikes on and around the city were intensifying.
Witnesses in the heart of the 3.4 million-people city could not immediately confirm the cause of the explosions, but they were more frequent and louder than in recent days. There were no reports of casualties right away.
While no major assault on Kyiv has yet been started, the capital has been shelled, and Russian soldiers have unleashed heavy gunfire in the nearby town of Borodyanka in an attempt to crush resistance.
On Thursday, drone footage from the town to the northwest of Kyiv showed crushed houses and a badly damaged apartment tower, with some apartments still burnt and on fire. The main road was littered with burned-out military vehicles.
The twisted metal fragments of a missile, which Ukrainian air defenses allegedly downed overnight, lay in the middle of a street a few meters from a bus station in Kyiv’s Borshchahivka neighborhood, some 18 kilometers west of the city center.
Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants have evacuated the capital to the west of Ukraine and neighboring countries, where they have found relative protection. Many residents remain, and on Friday, they sent a strong message to the Russian military.
Russia claims its actions in Ukraine are a “special operation” aimed at destroying Ukraine’s military capability and apprehending “dangerous nationalists,” rather than occupying territory.
Ukraine and its Western supporters deny this, calling the invasion an illegitimate invasion. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the largest attack on a European country since WWII, and over a million people have fled to other countries.
The streets of Kyiv’s downtown were a far cry from their pre-war vibrancy. People went about their everyday lives, as soldiers sharing breakfast at a roadblock made of concrete blocks and metal spikes laughed.
As the air raid sirens sounded, some neighbors waited outside pharmacies and grocery stores, while others were taking a stroll in a park.
During a News Broadcast, Explosions were heard in Kyiv, and the Reporter goes Off Air
March 3: Huge explosions shook Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Wednesday, lighting up the night sky as Russia escalated its invasion of Ukraine one week in. The incident was captured on film by a journalist in Kyiv who was recording a video when abrupt explosions lit up the sky, forcing the reporter to get off the air.
On Tuesday, various significant sites in the capital city were shelled, killing at least five people and injuring many more.
The Russians took control of Kherson, a key port city, on Thursday, and now Odessa, Ukraine’s third-largest city, is the next target. The United States has stated that a strike on Odessa is on the cards.
Meanwhile, significant fighting is taking place in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and air sirens have been sounded in key Ukrainian cities, with citizens being told to seek shelter.
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