Russians besiege ports

About 1 million people have fled Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. This is the quickest refugee withdrawal this century, the United Nations stated Thursday, as Russian forces pressed their knock out on the country’s second-largest city and two strategic seaports. About 2percent of Ukraine’s population being forced out of the country in seven days. The large evacuation could be seen in Kharkiv, a city of approximately 1.5 million people where residents demoralized to escape falling shells and bombs crowded the city’s train station and pressed onto trains, not always knowing where they were going. A column of tanks and other vehicles apparently stalled for days outside the capital of Kyiv, fighting continued on several fronts across Ukraine. A second round of talks aimed at ending the fighting was expected later Thursday in neighboring Belarus though the two sides appeared to have little common land. A large city on the Azov Sea was encircled by Russian forces. The status of another vital port, Kherson, a Black Sea shipbuilding city of 280,000, remained not clear. Forces claimed to have taken complete control of Kherson, which would be the biggest city to fall in the invasion thus far. The mayor said there were no Ukrainian forces in the city but he said the Ukrainian flag was still flying over it. Almost 227 civilians have been killed and another 525 wounded since the invasion began. Moscow’s separation increased when most of the world lined up against it at the United Nations to demand it withdraw from Ukraine. The mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolykhaev, stated Russian soldiers were in the city and came to the city administration building. He asked them not to shoot civilians and to allow crews to gather up the bodies from the streets. The mayor said Kherson would maintain a strict 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew and restrict traffic into the city to food and medicine deliveries. The city will also require pedestrians to walk in groups no larger than two, obey commands to stop and not to infuriate the troops Russia reported its military casualties for the first time in the war, saying nearly 500 of its troops have been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. Ukraine did not disclose its own military losses. Ukraine’s military general staff stated in Russia’s forces had suffered some 9,000 casualties in the fighting. It did not clarify if that figure included both killed and wounded soldiers. The senior U.S. defense official mentioned a large Russian column of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles appeared to be stalled hardly 25 kilometers from Kyiv and had made no real progress in the last few days. Convoy, which earlier in the week had seemed determined to launch an attacks on the capital, has been disturbed with fuel and food shortages. On the far border of Kyiv, volunteers well into their 60s manned a checkpoint to try to obstruct the Russian advance. Around Ukraine, others crowded into train stations, carrying children wrapped in blankets and slowing wheeled suitcases into new lives as refugees.
Russian troops have captured seized their first important Ukrainian city since the start of an invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The port city of Kherson, located 126 miles east of Odessa, has a population of roughly 300,000, which would make it the largest locality to come under the control of Russian forces since Russia began its invasion last Thursday, if reports of its capture are true. Russian forces entered Kherson’s City Hall Wednesday, and told the mayor that they were establishing up a new military administration. Russian troops encircled the city, and local officials reported that there were hundreds of Ukrainian casualties. Several Volunteers came to help gather up bodies and are burying them immediately because many of the bodies have been blown apart. Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense denied beginning reports that the city had come under Russian control. The port city of Kherson, located 126 miles east of Odessa, has a population of roughly 300,000, which would make it the largest locality to come under the control of Russian forces since Russia began its invasion last Thursday, if reports of its capture are confirmed.
Past President Trump called the Russian invasion into Ukraine “a holocaust” and pressed Russia to stop fighting, a large shift in a feeling since last week when the former president praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump’s remarks came during a Wednesday interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, widely seen as a Trump ally. The Ex President stated that Russia has to stop killing these people and proposed a deal could be worked out to end the war. His remarks were a part of a comprehensive interview, which included criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, which served as the opening note to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Trump has frequently put out statements saying the conflict would never have happened if he was still president. The former president has often boosted Putin, and held a generally criticized summit with the Russian leader in Helsinki during his presidency where he said he believed Russia had not interfered in U.S. elections. During the interview, Trump stopped to say whether he believed Ukraine should be afforded membership into the NATO military alliance, saying it is a decision that’s going to have to be made.