Tonight, Russian troops attacked airfields in western Ukraine with an eye toward achieving air supremacy, they also poured missiles into an industrial city in the east. The Russian convoy once stalled outside of the capital Kiev has redeployed to nearby towns and forests. Satellite images show artillery has been moved into firing position. Military analysts fear this could be a prelude to the encircling of Kiev and a punishing siege. The tempo of airstrikes on residential neighborhoods with inevitable civilian casualties has increased. Among the targets, a kindergarten and apartment complex in eastern Ukraine. Two and half refugees have fled Ukraine. Tens of thousands of others remain trapped by artillery and missile blasts.
It’s clear tonight that Russian forces are edging closer to the capital, explosions are becoming louder and more frequent and new satellite images show units deploying closer to the city, and it comes Russian troops advance across the country. Russia widened its punishing military offensive and extended its reach today. Unleashing air strikes and bombarding new cities like Dnipro for the first time since the invasion began and closed in on areas already in its grip like some of the suburbs surrounding the capital where residents fled in terror. Preparing for the kind of siege already underway in Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, where Russia too is paid a heavy price. Evidence in the bodies of its soldiers laying face down in the snow. In that horrific air strike on the maternity hospital in Mariupol and haunting images of a wounded pregnant woman, she gave birth to a baby girl today. Hospitals are supposed to give some level of protection in times of war and obviously a civilian target. Yet the World Health Organization says at least eighteen medical facilities have already came under attack.
:::tip prelude
- : an introductory performance, action, or event preceding and preparing for the principal or a more important matter. 前奏，序曲
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:::tip tempo
- : rate of motion or activity : PACE. 节奏
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