STORY: Pictures of the destruction in a suburb of Kyiv. The Russian army’s attack on Ukraine has now been going on for 18 days and the level of human suffering is increasing. Several Russian rockets have hit Byzhiv, around 50 kilometers south-west of the Ukrainian capital. Miraculously, only one person died. But the residents are shocked by such senselessness: “I have no idea why we were fired upon. We don’t have any military bases or anything. There are only civilians here, workers. It’s a village. What is there supposed to be here?” “I don’t know what’s on their minds and why they’re doing such things. We were peaceful civilians and we didn’t do anything. I don’t know how to explain it.” According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the number of German soldiers who have died so far in the war is around 1,300. Losses on the Russian side are said to be many times higher. Also, some smaller towns would simply cease to exist. However, Russia will only be able to take the capital Kyiv if the city is razed to the ground, Zelenskyj said at a press conference in Kyiv on Saturday. The wave of people fleeing their country therefore continues. Most of them were women and children. The men between 18 and 60 have to defend their country. According to the United Nations, around 2.5 million people are already fleeing. Like this family in western Kyiv on Saturday: “We are shocked. We are here with children. Several rockets landed twenty meters away from us. There was no more food, no water, nothing. We fled and are trying to protect ourselves to rescue.” Most Ukrainians flee to Poland. And a further escalation in the war cannot be ruled out. NATO warns Moscow against attack with weapons of mass destruction.
War in Ukraine: wave of refugees continues, attacks escalate
Watch the video: Between shock and flight – attacks in Ukraine escalate