The Russian army is still trying to take over Ukraine. The troops captured Kherson, an important port city. I keep seeing tweets saying air raid sirens in Kyiv but so far the Russians have not entered the heart of the city.
I wish the major media companies would keep the camera on Maidan Square live 24 hours. Here are other live streams:
The mayor of the Ukrainian town of Energodar said a column of Russian troops was headed toward the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, late on Thursday.Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian troops were stepping up efforts to seize the plant in southeast Ukraine and had entered Energodar with tanks.”Loud shots can be heard in the town,” said Mayor Dmytro Orlov in an online post.Russia has already captured the defunct Chernobyl plant, some 100 km north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
ITV has a report from Kharkiv.
The more Putin speaks the more I believe something is way off with him:
In a live address, the president described Russian soldiers as “real heroes”, and though he admitted to having “lost a few small towns”, he insisted that Russia’s special military operation was going “according to plan”.The “success” of the Russian army in Ukraine was an example of that “heroism”, Putin claimed.He said Ukrainians and Russians were “one people” but that Ukrainians were “threatened and brainwashed”.Putin went on to claim that Russian troops were providing humanitarian corridors for civilians to flee – in direct contradiction of what Ukraine has said.
If you get in arrested Russia…Better yet, you know, just get out while you can.
Chernihiv is located about 88 miles north of Kyiv.
Rumors floating around say Putin will impose martial law on Friday. A lot of people have packed planes out of the country today.
Oh, look. Nothing Happened.
Moldova is Europe’s poorest country. But this is huge:
Moldovan President Maia Sandu signed a formal application for Moldova to join the European Union on Thursday and said it would be delivered to Brussels in the coming days.”We want to live in peace, democracy, freedom,” she said at a briefing in the capital Chisinau
I’ve written about Moldova’s own breakaway region: Transnistria. It’s a battle between Moldova, Romania, and Russia.
After the breakdown of the USSR, Moldovia had an uprising of Romanian nationalism. The official language became Moldovian and they used the Latin alphabet. Others wanted unity with Russia, keeping it as the official language and using that alphabet.
The BBC has a Moldova timeline. It’s fascinating.
Not a lot of people know about it. You can trace the origins of Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, back to 1924.
Separatists and Moldovans fought a war between 1990-1992. It ended with a ceasefire. Russia has a military in the region. It also helps “keep the peace.”
Zelenskyy did not hold back:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when asked by Fox News’ Trey Yingst Thursday about his conversations with President Biden and overall support from the U.S., said, “It’s a pity it began after the beginning of this war, but we have it.”Yingst asked: “You spoke this week with President Biden. How would you describe your conversations with the U.S. leader? Do you believe the Americans waited too long to give Ukraine the support you need to push back this Russian offensive?”“We have good contact. I can tell you the truth,” the Ukrainian leader responded. “It’s a pity it began after the beginning of this war, but we have it. My appreciation to him and to his team. We can speak now often.”
He also wants to meet Putin:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling Thursday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.“Sit down with me to negotiate, just not at 30 meters,” Zelenskyy told reporters, in an apparent reference to a long table that has appeared in recent images of Putin meeting with other world leaders.“I don’t bite. What are you afraid of?” Zelenskyy added, according to the Associated Press. “Any words are more important than shots.”
You know Russia will not stop until Ukraine bends the knee.
A Polish zoo took in animals from Ukraine:
A truck carrying six lions, six tigers, two caracals and an African wild dog from a sanctuary east of Kyiv reached Poland on Thursday after a two-day drive to escape the Russian invasion, a Polish zoo official has said.The owner of the sanctuary had asked for help from Poznan zoo in western Poland to get the animals to safety.”They had to go a long way around to avoid Zhytomyr and other bombardment zones. They had to turn back many times, because all the roads were blown up, full of holes, impossible to pass with such cargo, which is why it took so long,” said Poznan zoo spokesperson Malgorzata Chodyla.”But here they are, and we just can’t believe it.”A first attempt to make the journey failed after the truck encountered Russian tanks and could not get through.
It’s not looking good for Mariupol.
Estonia is a member of the EU and NATO.
The UN said the war has killed 227 civilians:
The UN said Wednesday that it had recorded nearly 230 civilian deaths in Ukraine, including 15 children, since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, warning that the true toll was likely far higher.The UN rights office, OHCHR, said it had registered 752 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 227 people killed and 525 people wounded, between February 24, when Russia invaded, and midnight Tuesday.”OHCHR believes that real figures are considerably higher,” it said in a statement.This was particularly true in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government, it said, pointing out that “the receipt of information from some locations where intensive hostilities have been going on was delayed and many reports were still pending corroboration.”The UN rights agency said that most of the casualties were “caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and air strikes.”
Of course, Communist China knew Putin would invade Ukraine. But instead of talking Putin out of war, the Commies asked him to wait until after the Beijing Winter Olympics:
The report indicates that senior Chinese officials had some level of direct knowledge about Russia’s war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing on Feb. 4 before the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Moscow and Beijing issued a 5,000-word statement at the time declaring that their partnership had “no limits,” denouncing NATO enlargement and asserting that they would establish a new global order with true “democracy.”The intelligence on the exchange between the Chinese and Russian officials was classified. It was collected by a Western intelligence service and considered credible by officials. Senior officials in the United States and allied governments passed it around as they discussed when Mr. Putin might attack Ukraine.However, different intelligence services had varying interpretations, and it is not clear how widely the information was shared.One official familiar with the intelligence said the material did not necessarily indicate the conversations about an invasion took place at the level of Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin. Other officials briefed on the intelligence declined to give further details. The officials spoke about the report on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the intelligence.
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