Status: 02/25/2022 02:42 am
The situation is becoming increasingly difficult for Ukraine. The country registered more than 130 deaths after the first day of the invasion by Russia. President Selenskyj now ordered a general mobilization.
Ukraine continues to defend itself against widespread Russian attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered a general mobilization. The order provides for the conscription of conscripts and reservists, the Unian agency reported, citing the Presidential Office in Kiev. It is valid for 90 days.
“We need to operationally replenish the army and other military formations,” he said. There will also be military exercises in the territorial units. He did not say how many men will be affected. Selenskyj had previously ordered a partial mobilization of reservists.
Fighting is currently going on in many places in Ukraine. The separatist areas in the east of the country can be seen hatched.
18 to 60 year olds are apparently not allowed to leave the country
According to Ukrainian authorities, male citizens between the ages of 18 and 60 are also not allowed to leave the country. They will not be allowed across the border, said the head of the Ukrainian customs authority in Lviv, Danil Menshikov. He asked people not to panic and not try to cross the border on their own.
After the first day of the attack, Ukraine reported more than 130 dead. “Today we lost 137 of our heroes, our citizens. Military and civilians,” Zelenskyj said in a video speech on Friday night. In addition, 316 people were injured in the fighting. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, around 100,000 people are fleeing the country.
According to the Ukrainian general staff, the Russian army has already advanced into Ukraine with a large part of its assembled troops. A military spokesman gave the figure of 60 tactical battalion groups (BTG) from Russia. These are highly flexible and fast combat troops with 600 to 1000 soldiers. According to Ukrainian sources, the Russian army assembled around 90 such groups for the invasion.
Ukraine in shock after Russian attack
Birgit Virnich/Susanna Zdrzalek, WDR, daily topics 10:15 p.m., February 24, 2022
Warning of saboteurs
The enemy is concentrating its troops in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in the east and south, the spokesman said. The main goal seems to be to blockade the capital Kiev. In addition, the opposing troops wanted to create a land corridor from the Crimean peninsula to the separatist areas in the east. Another goal is a corridor to the separatist region of Transnistria in the Republic of Moldova. There is fighting in the southern Ukrainian region of Cherson.
The Russian army tried to land 200 of its airborne troops at Gostomel airfield west of Kiev, the spokesman for the general staff said. The Ukrainian army managed to repel the landing of the main contingent. There were fights with the Russian vanguard until Thursday evening.
Russian units had also advanced from Belarus in the direction of the capital Kiev. The federal government therefore issued a travel warning for Belarus. According to the Federal Foreign Office, the border crossings to Ukraine are closed.
UN mission required
The US government sees Ukrainian President Zelenskyy as a “primary target for Russian aggression”. “President Zelenskyy embodies in many ways the democratic aspirations and aspirations of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told CNN. Therefore, he remains a prime target for the Russians.
“According to our information, the enemy has declared me target number 1, my family target number 2,” said Zelenskyy. There are false reports that he left Kiev. “I’ll stay in the capital, stay with my people.”
Selenskyj warned of Russian saboteurs who are said to have already entered Kiev. He called on the EU special summit to support a UN peacekeeping mission in his country. The UN Security Council plans to vote today on a draft resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The former German Brigadier General Erich Vad assumes that the Ukraine war will end soon. “From a military point of view, things went well. And my assessment is that it will only be a matter of a few days and no more,” said the former military-political adviser to ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on Thursday evening on the ZDF program “maybrit illner special”.