Lviv (Ukraine). An airstrike alert was sounded in the war-torn Ukraine capital Kyiv early Wednesday morning and residents were urged to move to safer places as soon as Russian missiles were threatened. At the same time, the strategically important port city of Mariupol has been cordoned off, adding to the humanitarian crisis there.
The head of the Kyiv regional administration, Oleksiy Kuleba, issued an airstrike alert, saying there was a “missile attack” on the Ukrainian capital. “Everyone should immediately move to safer places,” he said. However, the alert was later removed. For days, Russian forces have cordoned off Ukrainian cities and efforts to build humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians have failed.
Kuleba said the crisis for citizens is increasing in the capital and the situation is particularly dire in the city’s suburbs. “Russia is artificially creating a humanitarian crisis in the Kyiv region, obstructing the evacuation of people and bombing small communities,” he said. There is information that thousands of people, including military and civilian civilians, have died across the country in this fighting that has been going on for two weeks.
At the same time, the advance of Russian forces has been stopped due to strong resistance from the Ukrainian army and people in many areas including around Kyiv. Nearly two weeks after invading Ukraine, however, Russian forces have gained an edge along the country’s coastline to build a land bridge to Crimea, which Moscow took from Ukraine in 2014. Mariupol, located on the Azov Sea, has been besieged by Russian troops for several days and the humanitarian crisis in the city of 430,000 people is increasing. Dead bodies are lying on the streets of the city. Hungry people are breaking down shops in search of food and melting ice for water.
Thousands have taken shelter in underground sites to escape Russian bombings. Weeping in a basement full of women and children, Goma Jana said, “Why shouldn’t I cry? I want my house i want my job I feel very sad for the people, the city and the children.” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said Mariupol was in a “devastating situation”. Meanwhile, Poland has offered to supply all of its MiG-29 fighters to the US to help Ukraine’s military.
However, the US Defense Ministry says the proposal raises serious concerns for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and that the plan is “not rational”. UN officials said that about two million people have left Ukraine so far. Efforts are on to isolate Russia at an economic level. US President Joe Biden announced sanctions on Russian oil imports, and Shell, a multinational oil and gas company, said it would no longer buy oil and natural gas from Russia.