Photo by Reiseuhu on Unsplash
According to Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin’s army appear to be contemplating an invasion of Moldova. Today, Putin’s war-mongering ally addressed security forces in front of a battle map depicting a planned operation from southern Ukraine into its neighboring country. The map also showed Russian military fighting plans for the whole country. It outlined Russian offensive plans for Ukraine, some of which have already manifested in the first few days of the invasion, such as soldiers invading Kyiv from the north and Kherson from Crimea.
Conversely, Putin’s military has suffered a series of humiliating setbacks while attempting to carry out pinpoint strikes on vital targets in an apparent effort to rapidly and conclusively win the war. Fears have grown that Putin is ready to deploy Russian heavy equipment and artillery in an attempt to brute-force his way to victory, a tactic that might result in massive civilian fatalities. A 40-mile-long ‘terrifying’ convoy of tanks and artillery is currently on its route to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in an apparent attempt to surround it.
After urging residents to flee or face being killed, Russian soldiers began bombing the city today, destroying a TV tower and a neighboring Holocaust memorial. According to local accounts, some of the city’s neighborhoods are now under siege. Russian bombers hit Vyshneve, a town west of Kyiv, at 23:29 local time (21:29 GMT), according to the Kyiv Independent. It further claimed that the Rusanivka, Kurenivka, and Boiarka neighborhoods, as well as the region around Kyiv International Airport, were under attack. Rusanivka, in particular, is quite important.
According to the UNIAN news agency, a big explosion was heard at Bila Tserkva, a city in Kyiv Oblast, when a weapons depot was struck. According to the stated attack sites, Russian soldiers are closing in on the capital tonight from numerous directions, mainly from the west.
Lukashenko’s chart is divided into four areas that correspond to Ukraine’s military command regions, depicting Russian strikes from Belarus, along Ukraine’s eastern border, and from seized Crimea.
A two-pronged pincer operation is depicted, with soldiers moving out of seized Donetsk and Crimea before joining up at Melitopol, which Russia had conquered.
However, attacks are shown reaching Dnipro, which has yet to be attacked — probably because the soldiers ordered to attack it has been held up by stiff opposition in Kharkiv, which is on the way.
A further offensive looks to be headed for Cherkasy through Sumy, where Russian soldiers have also been stranded, while a third appears to be breaking away from the Kyiv assault and going for Zhytomyr.
The most perplexing depicts forces storming Transnistria, a breakaway territory of Moldova occupied by Russia, from Odesa, Ukraine’s coastal city.
Is Russia likely to attack Moldova?
Moldova’s deputy prime minister, Nicu Popescu, confessed today that his nation is in a “very risky zone,” with citizens experiencing “anxiety and fear.” However, he stressed that he does not anticipate being invaded and that the main issue he faces is dealing with a refugee surge.
Without going into detail, a Ukrainian military officer claimed Belarusian forces entered the conflict in the Chernihiv area in the north on Tuesday. However, Lukashenko had previously stated that his country had no plans to join the conflict.
The image also shows what seems to be Ukrainian military equipment and missile batteries in areas where Russian missile attacks were launched on the first day of the incursion.
Lukashenko can also be heard discussing missile attacks fired from Belarusian territory against Ukraine before the major Russian invasion in footage of the conference broadcast online.
‘Missiles hit those [Ukrainian] positions in the Mazyr area, and we didn’t see them again,’ Lukashenko told his senior cabinet.
‘That is why I declare that yes, missiles were launched from Belarusian soil, and we have openly disclosed whose targets we struck.’
The graphic also includes a depiction of the US mainland and Canada, which may be concerning for the war’s future path.
The emblem of the US Army Air Cavalry is displayed in a box on the right-hand side outlining what appear to be military units, while a map of Europe is displayed below it, perhaps detailing NATO army placements.
Russia has been invading Ukraine for six days, and the conflict does not look to be going as planned.
Previously, explosions exploded around the capital’s 1,300-foot TV tower, which was erected on the site of a ravine where almost 34,000 Jews were slaughtered by SS forces in two days during Adolf Hitler’s assault against the Soviet Union in 1941.
Around 5.30 p.m. local time, at least two massive explosions were heard near the foot of the tower, some three miles from central Kyiv. The first missile hit the television tower, but the second impacted the monument.
At least five people were murdered in the most recent assault, which happened only hours after Russia warned Ukrainian citizens to flee because it was going to start bombing strategic locations. The immediate aftermath of the explosions was captured on video, which revealed corpses in the streets below.
This was unclear if the tower was the focus of the missiles or whether they were aimed at neighboring structures.
‘To the world: what is the sense of declaring ‘never again’ for 80 years if the world remains silent when a bomb drops on the same spot as Babyn Yar?’ Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted after the incident. At least 5 people have been killed. ‘History repeating itself…’
‘Russian military fired on the TV tower at the Memorial complex #BabynYar,’ the Ukrainian foreign ministry said. In their brutality, Russian criminals will stop at nothing. ‘Russia is a barbaric country.’
It occurred after Moscow’s defense ministry announced that ‘precise bombs’ will be used in attacks against Ukraine’s security services and intelligence agencies in the capital.
After the cities of Kharkiv, Mariupol, and Kherson were pounded by indiscriminate shelling earlier in the day, this fuelled suspicions that Kyiv was going to be bombarded.
Day 6 of Europe’s largest land conflict since World War II has seen Russia become further isolated as a result of harsh economic sanctions that have thrown the country’s economy into chaos and left it essentially friendless, with the exception of China and Belarus.
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