Kyiv faces ‘threat of missile attack’, issues air alert: Report

Ukrainian authorities declared an air alert in Kyiv and surrounding areas on Wednesday morning, urging residents to get to bomb shelters as quickly as possible. The alert was issued by Oleksiy Kuleba, the head of Kyiv’s regional administration.

“Kyiv region – air alert. Threat of a missile attack. Everyone immediately to shelters”, Oleksiy Kuleba’s social media post read.

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The news comes nearly a day after Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, publicly announced his address in a social media post. He disclosed that he was currently residing in Kyiv on Bankova Street. “I stay in Kyiv. On Bankova Street. I’m not hiding. And I’m not afraid of anyone”, Zelensky wrote.

Nearly two weeks into the invasion, Russian troops have advanced deep along Ukraine’s coastline. The city of Mariupol, which sits on the Azov Sea, has been surrounded by Russian soldiers for days and a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the encircled city of 430,000

For days, as Moscow’s forces have laid siege to Ukrainian cities, attempts to create corridors to safely evacuate civilians have stumbled amid continuing fighting.

Across the country, thousands of people are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, in nearly two weeks of fighting. Russian forces have seen their advances stopped in certain areas — including around Kyiv, the capital, — by fiercer resistance than expected from the Ukrainians.

The Pentagon on Tuesday estimated that Russia retains about 95% of the combat power it has deployed in Ukraine, accounting for weapons and vehicles destroyed or made inoperable as well as troops killed and wounded. Those losses, while modest at first glance, are significant for two weeks of fighting.

Two weeks of war have created a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine that has accelerated in recent days. The United Nations estimates that 2 million Ukrainians have fled their country, and the number is expected to grow.