This is my hometown, the place where I was born, raised and fell in love for the first time. At least 28 Chernihiv residents have died in Russian aerial bombing today.
This beautiful family doesn’t exist any more. Mykhailo Soloshenko, his wife Inna and son Yefrem were killed when a Russian tank fired on their car. Mykhailo was a Sumy University graduate - they confirmed his passing and released this photo.
This is Natalia and her 11-year-old twins Yana and Yaroslav. When Russian cluster bomb struck Kramatorsk train station, Yaroslav was inside the building. Natalia and Yana were on the platform waiting for tea offered by volunteers. They are now in Lviv. Pic by Iryna Zaslavets.
As Ukraine was getting ready for the 14th night of the war, Russia hit the town of Malyn in Zhytomyr region, destroying 7 private houses, killing, among others, two babies born in 2021. This is impossible to hear, read or write. But here we are.
Today in Irpin, my brother’s apartment was looted by Russian invaders. His neighbour calmly asked RU soldiers why they decided to break down his door when she in fact had the keys. They stole a safe with no valuables inside. This is the world’s 2nd strongest army at its finest.
"We, the people of [Russia-occupied] Snihurivka [Mykolaiv region], have gathered to protest against the illegal referendum. Snihurivka has always been Ukraine. We've never wanted to join Russia and we won't"
Mariupol mayor Boichenko: 50% of Mariupol residents were ethnic Russians. They [Russian troops] are just killing everyone. This is genocide, there’s no other word for it.
Kyiv bids farewell to Roman Ratushny. So young, so bright, so strong and so very determined.
He had his whole life ahead of him.
Russia’s war killed him near Izyum.
Praying for his family, crying with everybody who knew and loved him. Heroes don’t die.
Top takeaways from Russia’s war on Ukraine so far: 1. Putin is not as strong as he wants to be seen, he’s a delusional KGB operative. 2. Russia’s army might is a myth. 3. Russia is not a superpower altogether. 4. Ukraine will fight till the end. 5. No way to avoid Hague Tribunal.
Russia is well aware it can’t win its war vs Ukraine. That’s why it’s taking Mariupol hostage, terrorizing Ukrainians inside the town and mentally abusing the whole nation. This whole war is a punitive operation against Ukraine’s determination to live freely and democratically.
Fighter jets are a game changer. It’s a tectonic shift that Russia has been dreading and Ukraine has been hoping for. Aircraft tops the wish list of both the Ukrainian government and the army. And it’ll surely boost morale within Ukrainian resistance.
In Melitopol, defiant residents gathered near occupied district administration demanding that Russians release the kidnapped Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov - video by Odessa reg governor Maksym Marchenko
Valeria was a new mother, her baby daughter Kira was just three month old. Russia took away their lives today when its rocket hit a residential building in Odesa.
Valeria’s husband and Kira’s father Yuri posted these pictures of them.
“I think I’ve died today”. This is how Ukrainians are reacting to harrowing images from Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs. Yes, we’ve all died, part of us is lost forever. I don’t think the pain will ever go away. We know there’s more Russian atrocities to witness. Unbearable.
This is how Ukraine’s Eurovision presenter and commentator Timur Miroshnychenko reacted to the news of Kalush Orchestra’s victory. Due to Russia’s never-ending rocket attacks, Timur had to go on air from a bomb shelter.
Putin hit Lviv as Biden was giving a speech in Warsaw.
Putin hit Kyiv when Guterres was in the city after Bucha trip.
Putin hits Kyiv on a massive scale as G7 leaders are gathering in Elmau for a summit.
And he's going to do it over and over again. This is his way of negotiating
Every captured Russian soldier repeats the same mantra saying he never knew he was actually going into Ukraine. These documents provided by Mykolaiv region governor Vitaly Kim debunk those lies.
It was meant to be a story of a poor Russian soldier who got killed in Ukraine and his family got nothing.
At his home, we see a fridge with the Ukrainian warranty on it.
What are the chances for a fridge in the middle of Siberia to have a UA warranty?
This is how Mariupol civilians emerged from under the Azovstal steel works to flee the ruined city in UN-led evacuation. 100+ women and children were evacuated and are expected to reach Ukraine-controlled Zaporizhia tomorrow morning. Video by MP David Arakhamia via Azov regiment
⚡️ Ukraine knocks Russian military out of Snake Island. “No more Russians left on Snake Island. Ukrainian armed forces carried out a brilliant operation. Everything will be Ukraine,” says chief of staff in Zelensky administration Andriy Yermak
Putin gets a statue in Kyiv. But probably not quite what he’d like it to be. The place is symbolic - it’s only meters aways from where Lenin used to stand in Kyiv. You know, the one who “created Ukraine” acc to Putin. Lenin is no longer there - his statue was demolished in 2013.
This is Dmytro and his beautiful three-year-old twins. They are from Severodonetsk. Their wife and mum died in Russia’s shelling while cooking over an open fire. With no gas or electricity in town, she couldn’t think of other means to feed her family. Pic via Save Ukraine fund
To say Ukraine is only winning thanks to Western weaponry is to underestimate Ukrainians’ will to fight. Russia too has lots of deadly weapons. Yet Battle for Kyiv was won without HIMARS etc.
UA will put RU in its place because for Ukrainians there was never a plan B or land B.
Russia have been using the genocide narrative as a pretext for its war on Ukraine.
Pictures of dead men with hands behind back, raped and killed women, coming from Kyiv suburbs show what a modern-era genocide looks like.
And we haven't even counted the dead of Mariupol.
After almost losing one’s homeland, being stripped off a blue check mark feels like… well.. yawn.
Here’s me today. Having not seen my husband for almost 14 months, caring for our kids alone, working hardest.
Twitter still feels like a community.
It’s something money can’t buy.
Every time Kremlin announced a safe ‘green corridor’ for Ukrainians, it targeted them deliberately instead. This had happened in Ilovaysk and Debaltseve. This is happening in Mariupol, Volnovakha and Irpin now.
It’s suddenly hit me: my kids will be telling their kids and grandkids stories about Russia’s war against Ukraine, just like my grandparents told me their memories of WWII horrors.
Victoria and her seven-year-old son Maksym had an appointment at medical centre in Vinnytsya when Russian missile hit it, destroying the building and killing Maksym and his mother. This is what Russia does when it says it hits military targets only. It targets everyone/everything
Kherson is back home 🇺🇦. Russia leaves the city empty-handed. It was never a good idea to invade Ukraine. This war will transform Russia, but not in the way Kremlin intended. The Russian Empire stops here, in Ukraine. Video by Kostiantyn Ryzhenko
There’s a reason why no-one in Ukraine got impressed by Lavrov’s *changed geography* remarks. Because Donbas has never been Russia’s real aim in Ukraine. Putin’s always wanted to swallow all of Ukraine, no less. Ukrainians are well aware of it. 1/2
In Mariupol, Russia’s troops tell locals they’ll close the town completely, ban movement within it to filtrate 100% of male residents. Some men will be forced to join RU troops, others to clear the rubble, the rest will be detained - aide to Mariupol mayor Petro Andryishchenko
After Russia’s strikes on Kyiv on the day of Guterres’ visit, Andriy Yermak, chief of staff in the Zelensky administration, calls for Russia to be stripped of veto power in the UN Security Council
As of Feb 26 morning, Russia’s suffered 3500+ fatalities, ≈200 POWs. They planned a blitzkrieg, but failed. This past night paves a way for talks and it’s Ukraine who’s going to set conditions here - Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to president Zelensky
“Don’t humiliate” Putin over Bucha and Irpin. “Don’t humiliate” him over wiped down Mariupol, mobile crematoriums and filtration camps. “Don’t humiliate” Putin over mass graves, raped women and kids and extrajudicial killings. Is ICC considered a humiliation exactly?
President Macron urged Europe to spare his Russian counterpart from “humiliation” and told Ukraine it must wait decades to join the EU as criticism mounted over his failure to follow other leaders and visit Kyiv
Pope has been praising Russians’ ‘humanity’ despite the cruel war Russia’s been waging on Ukraine for months. So the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Sviatslav Shevchuk decided to present the Pontiff with a mine fragment that destroyed a church in Irpin.
It’s been a few weeks since my kids and I left Kyiv. I’d never leave if not for them. Now that they are in safety, the only thing they want is to come back home. A wish shared by millions of kids in Ukraine. Some were robbed of their home by Putin.They have nowhere to go back to.
Belarus renounces its non-nuclear status in a referendum. Lukashenko may now ask Putin to station nukes in Belarus. Ironically, before/during the ongoing invasion vs Ukraine, Putin had been accusing Kyiv, not Minsk, of seeking to ditch its nuclear neutral status.
Russia'ss placed explosives on the dam of Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, kicked out its staff, Zelensky tells European Council. If blown up, 18 mln m3 of water would be released, 80 settlements flooded, incl Kherson. Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant would have no water for cooling
Russia hits president Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih with seven X-22 cruise missiles, deliberately targeting critical hydraulic infrastructure, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without water supply.
Zelensky: I want every mother of a Russian soldier to see bodies of those killed in Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel. What have they done? Why were they killed? Why were ordinary civilians of a peaceful town tortured to death? What did the Ukrainian town of Bucha do [wrong] to your Russia?
It’s a sleepless night in Ukraine as
@zn_ua
reports suggest that the airports in Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhya that are closed until morning have their runways blocked by tractors in order to prevent Russia’s paratroopers from landing there. Unthinkable becomes reality
This is Elya, a six-year-old girl from Avdiivka, Donetsk oblast. She died yesterday of what appears to be a heart attack. Volunteer Vlad Makhovsky who took these pics said she'd told him she was scared. If not for Russia's war she'd have been alive and not hidden in cold basement
Izyum, Bucha, Borodyanka, Mariupol embody just what could have happened to all of Ukraine if Ukrainian troops hadn't stopped the Russian invasion. The now impossible ‘peace’ deal granting Russia a chunk of Ukraine would mean sacrificing people who inhabit those territories.
⚡️Russia’s cruise missile hits Kharkiv city council - Roman Semenukha, deputy head of Kharkiv Regional State Administration. This is Mr Semenukha’s photo
As part of prisoner exchange, Viktor Medvedchuk, Putin's right-hand man in Ukraine was swapped for Azovstal defenders, including commanders Dmytro "Volyna" Volontyrets and Svyatoslav "Kalyna" Palamar.
So this is gonna be our family bed tonight and who knows for how many nights more. Me and my husband plus our two little kids and a cat have no choice but to enjoy it putin style.
“If you don’t close the sky over Ukraine and don’t give us the planes, then there’s one conclusion: you too want the Ukrainians to be slowly killed” - Zelensky’s desperate plea to the West for help amid Vinnytsya attacks. Its airport is 240 km to southwest from Kyiv
Putin joked today Russia invaded Ukraine. But he’s unhappy the West keeps on slapping sanctions on Russia for doing so. In his ideal world, the West should’ve abandoned Ukraine for Russia to swallow it. He’s angry & surprised there are consequences. Never happened to him before.
In case a nuclear disaster at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occurred on Aug 15-18, this is how the released airborne radioactive contaminants would probably get dispersed - Ukrainian hydrometeorological institute
My mother-in-law woke us up with a call because she heard the bangs in her Kyiv neighborhood. So this is it. Russia is attacking us because Putin won’t tolerate the thought that Ukrainians and Ukraine exist. I can’t help crying.
Depending on polls, 50-71% of Russians support Russia’s war on Ukraine. That’s why many Ukrainians aren’t ok with notion it’s only Putin’s war. They feel Russians didn’t do much to prevent war and have no moral right to call themselves victims now that RU economy is in free fall
I don't people outside of Ukraine realize how much distain most Ukrainians have towards the "average Russian" and that their anger isn't just towards Putin. Whether on the streets of Ukraine or just with all of my close friends, their outrage won't end when Putin falls.
This is the price of Russia's captivity. Released Mariupol defender Mykhailo "the Pianist" Dianov's arm needs urgent surgeries after Russia gave him zero to no medical care he so badly needed.
Pic via Violetta Kirtoka
Oleksiy Arestovych, aide to Zelensky administration chief of staff Yermak, likens fire at Russia’s flagship cruiser Moskva to blast at Belgorod fuel depot, says both happen to appear as some bad luck. Ukraine neither confirmed nor denied it carried out the Belgorod attack.
In Kyiv subway, two old men, didusi, as they are called in Ukraine, are discussing benefits of Javelin and NLAW anti-tank missiles vs Russian tanks. One of them speaks Russian. Both agree weaponry Ukraine’s been given by Western allies is a game-changer. Welcome to a new reality.
Viktoria Obidina, a Ukrainian medic from Azovstal, is freed from Russia’s captivity in a 108-110 Ukraine-Russia prisoner swap. Viktoria wil soon reunite with her 4-year-old daughter Alisa whom she haven’t seen since May.
107 more freed UA women will meet their families soon too.
Azov troops, freed from Russia’s captivity, hold a presser. Answering a Q on Dugin’s daughter, a soldier who goes under the name of ‘Wikipedia’ tells Natalia Vovk who Russia’s been quick to accuse of the killing, wasn’t a member of Azov, brands whole investigation an FSB fake 1/
Since the beginning of full-scale war, Russia has forcefully taken 180K+ of Ukraine's children, including 2K orphans, into Russia and Russia-controlled Donbas territories - Daria Herasymchuk, Commissioner of UA president for children's rights.
“Kharkiv is Ukraine,” says this poster at today’s Unity March in Kharkiv. Just have a look at this crowd celebrating Ukraine. Kharkiv has no intention whatsoever to become part of Russia. To think otherwise is delusional. Pic by Dmytro Bulakh
Longin, Ukrainian orthodox priest and metropolitan of pro-Russian Moscow patriarchy, destroys Kirill for blessing Russia's war:
"It's godlessness. Those who blessed bloodshed will answer for every tear, for every grave. It's unforgivable. You've hurt entire Ukr Orthodox world"
In every, literally every single little corner of liberated territory Ukraine finds mass graves left by the Russian troops who had killed UA civilians, committed atrocities. How on earth could it be OK for Kyiv to leave the Ukrainians trapped in the occupied territories? It's not
@MarioNawfal
Both sides should agree to a truce.
Every day that passes, more Ukrainian and Russian youth die to gain and lose small pieces of land, with borders barely changing. This is not worth their lives.
Kudos to ex-Ukraine ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk. He's been fighting tooth and nail for Berlin to recognise Holodomor as genocide against Ukrainian nation.
His ways were sometimes rather unorthodox, but for the first time since the end of WWII he made Germany hear Ukraine.
“Mariupol is the heart of this war today. It’s beating, we are fighting, we are strong. If it stops beating, our position [at the negotiation table with Russia] will get weaker. People [in Mariupol] have distracted a big chunk of the enemy forces”, Zelensky tells AP
“Kyiv, the heart of Ukraine, will defend itself. We won’t surrender. We won’t be brought to our knees!” says Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko. He pleads with male Kyivites to stop feeling sorry, come back home and help protect the city
UA govt, military see it this way. Russia’s offensive & impulse have stalled. As HIMARS re-write scenario of the war, Russia needs to gear up for inevitable peace talks. It’s the reason behind Lavrov’s scaremongering. Russia has no power (nukes excluded) to back up his claims 2/2
In the morning Putin lays flowers at monuments to Odesa & Kyiv on Red Square in Moscow. In the evening Russia hits Odesa with cruise missiles yet again leaving residents injured and infrastructure ruined. There’s a Russian proverb: Judge a man not by his words, but by his deeds.
Mariupol mayor Vadym Boichenko: Russian army came not to liberate Mariupol, but to wipe out the city along with its residents. ‘Fascist’ troops that attacked our country and laid siege to our beautiful Mariupol didn’t think it would stand. But it stands despite their efforts.
In Ukraine's South, evidence mounts that Russian troops have been robbing farmers and agriculture companies of their equipment and crops, targeting storage facilities, essentially trying to starve Ukrainians and halt crop exports from Ukraine to places that depend on UA produce
Russia can announce it will formally annex the Moon at a ceremony with Putin wearing a spacesuit. That won't change a thing.
Same thing with Ukraine. It's that delusional.
The one and only reason Russia has been moving forward with "referendums" is because it's losing the war.
Trying to come to terms over the fact that Russia shelled my Chernihiv neighbourhood, a place where I was born and raised, with grad rockets. They targeted a residential building near my school. I was able to relocate my loved ones from the town 2 weeks ago. They are with us now.
Ukraine has woken up to a series of massive drone and rocket attacks across the country. Air defence systems are intercepting many of them, but not all. Russia continues to terrorize and punish Ukrainian civilians for not wanting to be Russia. Putin considers it disobedience.
In Mariupol, Russian troops have completely destroyed over a thousand of high-rises, says city mayor Vadym Boychenko.
Almost every destroyed house that was turned into rubble has 50-100 bodies of people buried under it, adds Boychenko.
This is Vova, he has the same name as Putin. Vova is 13 years old. Both his dad and 6-year-old brother were killed when Russians opened fire at their family car in Kyiv suburb. Vova survived. He’s getting a haircut in the Ohmatdyt hospital. Picture by Anton Ptushkin
@ptuxerman
A seven-month-old baby among seven killed in Russia's latest attack on Kharkiv. 34 city residents, including three kids are injured - Kharkiv region governor Oleh Synyehubov.
"The 2nd strongest army in the world as it turns out is only capable of fighting the civilians", he says
1045 bodies of civilians collected in Kyiv region - Andriy Nebytov, chief of Kyiv regional police, tells Ukraine24 TV station.
He says 80% of victims were shot dead, all of them were defenceless and posed no threat whatsoever to Russian troops.
Excavation of bodies is ongoing.
It took me days to be able to bid farewell to Pierre Zakrzewski. I only met him once, we were sitting together on a bus and spoke for hours. He knew so much about Ukraine. He cared. He was infinitely intelligent, kind & compassionate. He shouldn’t have died in this ugly war. RIP
Kira Obedynska, a 12-year-old girl from Mariupol who was injured & forcefully taken to Donetsk by Russian soldiers, has reunited with her grandfather Oleksandr - Mariupol city council citing her grandma. Kira’s father Yevhen was killed in the city, she lost her mother as a baby.
Russian troops and separatist militants engaged in a shootout, says Mykolaiv regional governor Vitaly Kims adding he doesn’t know who to root for in that fight.
My grandad Dmytro fought Nazis in WWII. He was a sapper. His biggest wish was an independent Ukraine. He was lucky to witness USSR collapse and Ukraine gain freedom. Victory Day to him was about win of virtues over cruelty. If he were alive, he’d do anything for Ukraine’s victory
Zelensky in US Congress: If your Patriots [air defense systems] stop the Russian terror against our cities, it will let the Ukrainian patriots work to the full to defend our freedom.
Russia hits a hospital in Beryslav, Kherson oblast. A medic and an ambulance driver got injured.
Looks surreal, yet this is the horrid reality of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“It’s just Putin’s war”. Well, sociology is science. And it has been telling us that the overwhelming majority of Russia’s population, up to 4/5, approve of the Russian bloody war against Ukraine. If that’s not a big enough reason for collective responsibility, then what is?
Hundreds of Mariupol residents thought they'd be safe in theatre basement, but were deliberately bombed by Russia instead. There was no miracle and no escape for them from Putin.
Mariupol siege will go down in history as one of the worst atrocities of our time.
BREAKING: confirmation from a Mariupol official of what would be the single worst loss of life in the Ukraine war so far -- about 300 dead in the Russian missile strike on the theatre in Mariupol.
1/3