On Thursday, Russian tanks reached the northeastern tip of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, which they threatened to encircle after having already reached the northern and western suburbs.
Posted at 8:25 am
An AFP team saw plumes of smoke rising from the village of Skipin, hundreds of meters from the last checkpoint of Ukrainian forces before entering Kyiv from the northeast.
Ukrainian soldiers told AFP that they fought hard through the night to control the last stretch of highway before the capital, its main entrance to the northeast.
“Military operations are underway in Skybet,” a soldier named Sergei told AFP, adding that a column of Russian tanks had been partially destroyed.
Late Thursday morning, rain from Russian Grad rockets fell on the desert village of Velika Demirka, about five kilometers from the Kyiv border, some of which fell about 20 meters from the AFP team.
The rockets hit several houses in the village that had been closed off by Russian forces in recent days and where Ukrainian forces had a small presence.
“The Russians entered the village this morning,” said Vasyl Popov, 38, a resident of the village. “It’s terrifying, but what do you want us to do, we live here and we have nowhere to escape or turn to.”
Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russian forces have advanced on several fronts around Kyiv, leading the Ukrainians to fear a fairly rapid siege of their capital.
From the first days, they reached the northeastern edge, especially near the towns of Irben and Bucha, where they were shelled intensely for more than a week and from where the population fled en masse.
Northeast of Kyiv, more rural and open, Russian shields advanced in less than a week more than 80 kilometers to reach in recent days the villages bordering Kiev, such as Velika Demirka.
Around the Kyiv agglomeration, which had approximately 3.5 million inhabitants before the war, the Ukrainian authorities now have only roads heading south to evacuate civilians and supply the city.
