Guwahati: Even as Russia continues with its invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said 137 civilians, including 10 military officers, have been killed and 316 people injured so far.
The dead included all the border guards on the Zmiinyi Island in the Odesa region, which was taken over by the Russians. Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ‘left alone’ to fight Moscow. Zelensky also said that Russian “sabotage groups” had entered the capital, Kyiv, and urged the city’s citizens to remain vigilant and observe a curfew.
Ukraine also said it has lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site, the site of the 1986 disaster. A senior official wrote on Facebook that the staff at the Chernobyl plant had been “taken hostage” when Russian troops seized the facility, a move the US termed “incredibly alarming and greatly concerning.”
A senior US defense official said Russia may be intent on seizing Kyiv, the capital, and other key cities and ultimately installing a more friendly government.
World leaders have decried the invasion; the US and its allies said they will block the assets of four large Russian banks, impose export controls and sanction oligarchs. The countries on NATO’s eastern flank, especially the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, have all received the first batches of US military troops and equipment. China, meanwhile, continues its support of the Kremlin with its customs agency approving imports of wheat from all regions of Russia, a move that could help to reduce the impact of possible Western sanctions.
