UKRAINE WAR. Russia continues its offensive in Ukraine, three weeks after the start of the war. On Thursday March 17, 2022, a missile hit a building in kyiv, killing at least one person, while the Mariupol theater was bombed, “where more than a thousand people had taken refuge.”
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08:33 – Ukraine connected to European electricity
Ukraine’s electricity grid is now linked to that of the European Union. While Russia has notably seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, “this will help Ukraine maintain the stability of its electricity system, heat homes and keep the lights on in this dark time”, underlined the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson.
08:11 – War in Ukraine: what is the human toll?
Three weeks after the start of the war in Ukraine, it is difficult for the authorities to establish an accurate human toll. According to a UN report, at least 700 civilians have been killed since Russia launched its invasion operation. The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, had also announced that 97 children would have been counted among the victims. On the military side, Ukraine assures that nearly 14,000 Russian soldiers were killed. An unverifiable figure and very probably very exaggerated. No other indication, Ukrainian or Russian, was given as to the state of the military troops.
07:59 – “A clear military threat in Ukraine, in every corner”
Three weeks after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior affirmed, Wednesday, March 17, 2022, that the country faces “a clear military threat in all corners, without exception”. “Unfortunately, there are no more places in Ukraine today where there is no clear military threat,” added Denis Monastyrsky.
07:50 – Still no report following the bombardment of the Mariupol theater
In the aftermath of the bombardment of the Mariupol theater in which “more than a thousand people” were refugees according to the municipality, no human toll has, for the time being, been given by the authorities.
07:47 – Near Kharkiv, a school and a cultural center destroyed in a bombardment
Target of numerous attacks, the region of Kharkiv, in the east of Ukraine, suffered a new bombardment, Wednesday March 17, 2022. Around 3:30 a.m., a school and a cultural center in the city of Merefi, south-west of Kharkiv, were destroyed following an airstrike. Several houses were also damaged but no deaths or injuries were recorded.
07:43 – A missile hits a building in kyiv: at least one dead
This Thursday, March 17, 2022, a missile hit a building in kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It was at 5:02 a.m. that the emergency services were informed that a strike had taken place in the Darnytskyi district, in the south-east of the city. The first toll reported one dead and three injured.
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The toll has still not been established on Thursday, March 17, 2022. How many people died or were injured in the bombardment of the Mariupol theater on Wednesday, where “more than a thousand people had taken refuge” according to the authorities local? At the end of the afternoon, a bomb was dropped on this cultural place, located in the heart of the port city in southern Ukraine. Quickly, images showing the gutted theater circulated, raising fears of a heavy human toll. An attack condemned by the municipality, which says it is appalled by “the level of cynicism and cruelty with which the Russian invaders are annihilating the peaceful inhabitants.” Especially since according to satellite images, the people taking refuge in the building had written the word “children” on the ground in front of the entrance as well as at the back of the theater, so that it was visible from the sky. “My heart is broken,” commented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia defended itself from any offensive, accusing a Ukrainian nationalist battalion of having carried out the strike.
If for several years, tensions have been high in the separatist regions of Ukraine, where the conflict escalated in the days preceding the Russian invasion of February 24, war was finally declared throughout the country. Although Russia borders only to the east of Ukraine, it is all the main cities of the country, everywhere on the territory, which are under the bombings and armed raids. Starting with the capital kyiv, and its surroundings, attacked by Russian forces. Yet located several hundred kilometers from the Russian border, the country’s first city is only 150 km by road from Belarus, a country friendly to Russia through which Vladimir Putin’s forces entered Ukraine. .
Southern Ukraine and the shores of the Black Sea are the scene of fierce fighting between Russians and Ukrainians. The Soviet army got the better of the towns of Kherson and Berdiansk, it is in a position of strength along the entire coast as far west as Odessa, where an assault by the Russian navy is preparing. In the southeast, Mariupol is the last city to resist and to block the junction between the conquered territories of Donbass and the Russian advance in the south of the country. To the north and east the Kremlin soldiers are advancing and striking at Chernihiv and Kharkiv in addition to Donetsk and Lugansk, which have been concentrating tensions for eight years and the beginning of the war in Donbass. Western Ukraine was spared despite isolated attacks and bombardments near Poland, in Lutsk, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk.