Satellite images showed a 3.25-mile long deployment of Russian forces advancing on Kyiv on Sunday, as attacks to the north-west of the capital and an attempted incursion into the eastern city of Kharkiv were both repelled.
In the southern coastal regions, the Russian military appeared to be gaining strength, and there were signs of a change in tactics as missile strikes were deployed against fixed targets.
Kyiv
Russian forces are continuing to slowly bear down on the city, but were repelled in Bucha and Irpin, on the north-west outskirts, after what appears to have been a poorly coordinated attack by irregular forces.
A string of videos emerged on social media showing the aftermath of the fighting, with images of multiple destroyed armoured vehicles and several dead soldiers. Irpin’s mayor said the town remained in Ukrainian hands on Sunday morning. Reports circulated that Chechen soldiers were among those killed.
And this is the road between Bucha and Irpin.
— Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) February 27, 2022
Part of my usual bike route in the Kyiv region.
Today it is a Russian Death Valley. pic.twitter.com/qR79LZOcJM
There have been several days of heavy fighting in the area since Russia staged an airborne landing of forces in the nearby Hostomel military airport. Three bridges in the area have been reportedly blown up by Ukrainian forces to slow down the Russian advance.
In an interview with Associated Press, the capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, appeared to say that the city had been encircled, though this was later clarified by his press team who said Klitschko was speaking figuratively and that Kyiv wasn’t literally blocked. Routes to the south remained free on Sunday.
Klitschko separately said there were no Russian troops in the capital itself. He said that nine civilians, 18 fighters and four unidentified persons had been killed in the capital since the start of fighting on 24 February. A total of 106 had been injured, 46 of whom were civilians.
Ukraine remained in control of Chernihiv, north-east of the Kyiv, but Russian mechanised forces bypassed the city as they headed south, according to British defence intelligence, which has been monitoring the conflict closely.
Satellite images showed a large, 3.25-mile long deployment of forces in a convoy north-east of Ivankiv, moving in the direction of Kyiv approximately 40 miles to the south. The convoy contains fuel, logistics and armoured vehicles.
Russian forces west of Sumy were still making progress westward, according to the military intelligence group Rochan Consulting, and were believed to be about 150km east of Kyiv on Saturday night and likely to advance further on Sunday.
There were also signs of a switch in tactics, with Russia more actively targeting fixed infrastructure with missile attacks. An oil terminal was set ablaze in Vasylkiv, nearly 40km south-west of Kyiv. The blast sent huge flames and billowing black smoke into the night sky.
Russian Iskander ballistic missiles were fired from Belarus at around 5pm, Ukraine’s interior ministry said. Earlier in the day, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, confirmed that more missiles had been fired from the country, as he hinted that Belarus’s own forces would join the war on the Russian side.
Kharkiv
An incursion by Russian forces into the eastern city of Kharkiv on Sunday was defeated, the Ukrainians said, by lunchtime, a verdict largely confirmed by reporters on the ground.
The attack, by Russian Spetsnaz special forces, appeared not particularly determined, with social media images showing the invaders only using trucks and lightly armoured vehicles rather than battle tanks.
The city’s governor, Oleh Synyehubov, said that Russian troops were giving themselves up, and images appeared on social media apparently showing captured Russian troops. Dozens had surrendered, city authorities said, suggesting a low degree of organisation and morale on the Russian side.
The Black Sea and the south
The Russian military continued to make progress in the south, aided by its naval superiority in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Ukrainian defence sources said that Russian forces captured part of Kherson, the city at the mouth of the Dnieper River.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had blockaded Kherson and also Berdyansk, on the Sea of Azov. Video emerged of a Russian Buk missile system – the type that shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 – which was geolocated to Berdyansk. Russia also said it had taken control of an airbase between Kherson and Henichesk, a city on the Sea of Azov.
Although Mariupol, close to the Russian border, remained in Ukrainian hands, Russia is believed to have created a land corridor that connects the nearby self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk to the Crimea by going around the city. Russian forces were also reported to have reached on the eastern side of the Dnieper River.
Turkey, saying the fighting in Ukraine amounted to a war, vowed to implement the Montreux convention, allowing it to close access to the Black Sea to Russian warships, although an exemption applies to ships returning to base.
Air forces
Ukraine still appears able to conduct limited air operations, much to the surprise of western military analysts who had expected a determined and far larger Russian air force to have destroyed Ukrainian planes almost immediately.
A video circulated on Sunday morning of a Turkish TB2 drone, no match for a fully deployed Russian air force, purportedly attacking a Russian military column. Analysts said it appeared to be genuine, and the video was posted by Ukraine’s military as a propaganda statement.
Casualties
Ukraine’s health ministry said that at least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, had been killed in the invasion. Ukraine’s defence ministry said that 4,300 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded and that 27 planes, 26 helicopters and 146 tanks had been lost – but none of these figures could be verified. Russia has not released casualty figures.
