As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters day 17, a stalemate between the two countries is nowhere to be found. The Russian forces have now moved closer to Ukraine’s capital Kiev and encircled civilian areas and other Ukrainian cities. This situation is also grim in the southern Ukraine’s Mariupol, which is under constant Russian shelling. Mariupol has been without water or power for 11 days. The city’s mayor has said that the city is being shelled every 30 minutes.
The latest satellite images show Russian military units continuing to deploy closer to Kyiv and actively firing artillery towards residential areas. In one of the images, one can see an artillery battalion actively firing in a Southeasterly direction. Multispectral and natural colour images show destroyed homes, impact craters and fires in town of Moschun. Other images show people and long line of cars trying to leave Kyiv.
Ukraine has claimed that Russia has kidnapped the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov and there is a high probability that Russia may intensify missile strikes and shelling. As the west rushes to impose new sanctions on Russia, Joe Biden has ruled out the possibility of fighting a direct war with Russia over Ukraine.
Biden said that US will defend every inch of NATO territory with full might of a united and galvanised NATO but it will not fight a direct war with Russia as a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would be World War 3 and that is something that must be prevented.
