The Russians bombed a children’s hospital in Mariupol, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted with a lot of video. Here are the latest military maneuvers in Russia’s war in Ukraine analyzed by Pietro Batacchi, editor of Rid (Italian defense magazine)
The Russians bombed a children’s hospital in Mariupol, destroying it. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky reported this by posting a video on social media showing the devastation. “Mariupol. Direct attack by Russian troops on the maternity hospital. People, children are under the rubble. Atrocity ”, wrote the Kiev leader, urging the world to impose a fly-zone.
Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror
Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity. pic.twitter.com/FoaNdbKH5k
– Wolodimir Zielienskij (@ZelenskyyUa) March 9, 2022
The BBC also reports the attack on the children’s hospital in Mariupol, citing local military authorities according to which “Russian forces dropped several bombs” causing ” a colossal destruction “.
There were 3 dead and 17 injured.
The city is under constant attack, underlines the deputy mayor of Mariupol, Sergiy Orlov, according to the Guardian. Orlov spoke of 1170 people killed, 47 buried today in a mass grave.
“Russia – said the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba – continues to hold over 400,000 people hostage in Mariupol, blocks humanitarian aid and evacuation. Indiscriminate bombing continues. Nearly 3,000 newborns lack medicine and food. I invite the world to act! Force Russia to stop its barbaric war against civilians and children! ”.
For the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, the hospital was the base of the Azov Battalion.
+++ HERE IS THE ANALYSIS OF PIETRO BATACCHI, DIRECTOR OF THE RID MAGAZINE, ON THE LATEST MILITARY MANEUVERS OF RUSSIA AND UKRAINE:
The war in Ukraine is entering its probably decisive phase.
Russian forces are consolidating their positions in the Hsotmel “quadrilateral”, Borodyanka, Irpin, Bucha, and are pushing deeper into the southwestern part of Kiev where they reached Yasnohorodka. In the meantime, new Chechen light infantry units and pure Wagner contractors have arrived on the capital front. In the eastern part of Kiev the Moscow avant-gardes advanced along the Nova Basan and Bobrovytsia lines entering Bohdanivka, a few kilometers from the city center, and occupying a section of the M-01 motorway (Kyiv – Chernihiv).
The goal is to isolate the Ukrainian forces fighting in the Cernihiv sector and reunite with the Russian forces who are trying to envelop Kiev from the southwest, also cutting it off from the aid arriving by land from the Polish border and from the “sanctuated” area of Lviv.
The maneuver is very complex in itself and further obstacles are represented by very long and insecure logistic lines, constantly attacked by the Ukrainians, especially in Sumy Oblast, and by an insufficient number of forces in our opinion.
On the other hand, however, the Ukrainian forces are also dealing with high losses, ammunition that is starting to run low, waiting to receive the new aid sent by the West, and a lowering morale among the civilian population. In short, the next 7-10 days will be decisive to understand if this maneuver will be successful or if it will come to a standstill, and to establish what will be the respective positions of strength at the negotiating table.
On the Donbass front, the militias of the Lugansk “republic” continue to advance, supported by the Russian regular troops, which are trying to complete the encirclement of the salient Severodonetsk-Lysychansk; if this were to happen, the Ukrainian device in the north-eastern Donbass area would be definitively put in crisis. Further south, in Mariupol, the Russian grip around the city is still tightening, while in Mykolaiv, after the rejected attempts to capture the city and the airport, the Russian forces are maneuvering to operate a bypass, but even in this case the “blanket” seems a bit short to us. Mykolaiv is strategic because it is heavily defended and because it represents an obstacle to Odessa and Transnistria.
In general, the Russian action on the ground now seems to enjoy more incisive support from the VKS (the Russian Air Force), which has significantly increased its activity, while the “hunt” for mobile ground-to-air systems by helicopters Ka-52 attack seems to bear its first fruits, so much so that in the last 2-3 days the rate of killing of Russian aircraft by the Kiev anti-aircraft has dropped.
Article published on rid.it
