March 1, 202211:16 PM GMT+1Last Updated 7 min ago
Russia bombards Ukraine urban areas as armed convoy stalls
By Aleksandar Vasovic

6 minute read

KYIV, March 1 (Reuters) - Russia bombed a TV tower in Ukraine's capital on Tuesday and rained rockets on the city of Kharkiv as Moscow intensified its bombardment of Ukrainian urban areas in a shift of tactics after its six-day invasion stalled.

A U.S. official said a miles-long armoured column bearing down on the capital Kyiv had not made any advances in the past 24 hours, frozen in place by logistics problems, short on fuel and food, and perhaps pausing to reassess tactics.

Russia's defence ministry urged Kyiv residents to flee and said it would strike unspecified areas used by Ukraine's security services and communications.

Speaking in a heavily guarded government compound in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia must "first stop bombing people" before peace talks could make any headway.

In a joint interview with Reuters and CNN, Zelenskiy also urged NATO members to impose a no-fly zone to stop Russia's airforce, something the military alliance has ruled out.

As Zelenskiy, unshaven and wearing simple khaki clothes, spoke, news came that a Russian missile had struck a TV tower near the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site in Kyiv, killing at least five people.

Zelenskiy, who also spoke by phone for 30 minutes with U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday, said the artillery barrages on the eastern city of Kharkiv amounted to "state terrorism".

Biden and Zelenskiy discussed how Russia had intensified attacks on sites used by civilians, the White House said. The U.S. president is expected to highlight Western unity over Ukraine in his State of the Union address later on Tuesday. read more

'SHAMBOLIC'

President Vladimir Putin has drawn global condemnation and sanctions that have already sent the rouble into freefall and forced Russians to queue outside banks for their savings.

The West has imposed heavy sanctions on Russia to shut off its economy from the global financial system, pushing international companies to halt sales, cut ties, and dump tens of billions of dollars' worth of investments. read more

But nearly a week since Russian troops poured over the border, they have not captured a single major Ukrainian city after running into far fiercer resistance than they expected.

"Looking at the Russian operation so far, they're having tremendous problems with logistics and communications. The whole effort seems shambolic," Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at Washington's Wilson Center, wrote in a tweet.

Many Western military analysts fear that Russia will now fall back on tactics which call for crushing bombardment of built-up areas before trying to enter them.

A senior U.S. defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said:

"One reason why things appear to be stalled north of Kyiv is that the Russians themselves are regrouping and rethinking and trying to adjust to the challenges that they've had."

The Russians have been surprised not only by the scale of Ukrainian resistance but also by poor morale among their own forces, some of whom surrendered without a fight, the official said, without providing evidence. read more

Russia still has more forces to throw into the fight, though.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the "special military operation" would continue until it had achieved its goals, defined by Putin as disarming Ukraine and capturing the "neo-Nazis" he says are running the country.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ru ... 022-03-01/

https://200rf.com/

Here you can track POW and casualties from the Russian side. Only captives on the website but in the telegram channel they post also the corpses.

It's a service provided by Ukraine so that these soldiers families might get to know the fate if their sons.

32m ago 08:52
Russia has claimed that its forces had taken control of the first sizeable city on Wednesday, seizing Kherson in the south.

Strategically located on the Dniepr river, the provincial capital would be the biggest city to fall to Russian forces so far.

The southeast city of Mariupol had been under intense shelling since late Tuesday and was unable to evacuate wounded, according to its mayor.

However, we are still awaiting confirmation from the Ukrainians about the current status of Kherson.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... ve-updates

Interviews with captured Russian soldiers.
Many seems to not really know why they are there.

The big five freight shippers are refusing to move Russian cargo.

https://www-freightwaves-com.cdn.amppro ... -cargo/amp

But Germany still buying thier gas

Supposedly Russian troops have been punching holes in their own tanks in order to avoid advancing.
There is your fuel shortage, the reason the convoy is stalled for 2 days.

This has already dragged out longer than Putin expected, and the longer it takes to overthrow the Ukrainian government the worse it’s going to be for Putin. Hell, even Switzerland took a side. He may have thought he was prepared for all these sanctions, but I don’t think he was THIS prepared. And the soldiers? It’s hard to fight someone and win when you don’t know what you’re fighting for.

atst wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 9:20 pm But Germany still buying thier gas

Very interesting point. Our reliance on fossil fuels has caused many wars.

Kenr wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 9:44 pm This has already dragged out longer than Putin expected, and the longer it takes to overthrow the Ukrainian government the worse it’s going to be for Putin. Hell, even Switzerland took a side. He may have thought he was prepared for all these sanctions, but I don’t think he was THIS prepared. And the soldiers? It’s hard to fight someone and win when you don’t know what you’re fighting for.

Something interesting I read today.

But the Biden administration still expects Russia to learn from its early mistakes. In the 1990s and 2000s, Russia conducted two assaults on Grozny, the Chechen capital, getting repelled the first time after a mostly conscript army was pushed back by unexpected resistance. But Russia was able to overtake the city in a second effort with new doctrine and better-trained troops, said John Spencer, a retired U.S. Army major who’s now the chair of urban warfare studies at the U.S. Military Academy’s Modern War Institute.

A bit concerning I think, I'm a terrible historian and was not aware of this up until today.