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Reports of 27km Russian convoy heading towards Kyiv

Updated / Tuesday, 1 Mar 2022 13:54

The latest from Tony Connelly in Ukraine (9pm Irish time Monday)

Day five of the invasion and it was another day of fast moving developments on the military front.

Russian troops are said to be pressing ahead towards the capital Kyiv.

In fact, commercial satellite imagery today showed a convoy of Russian vehicles stretching 27km as they head towards the capital.

A large deployment of Russian ground forces, containing hundreds of military vehicles, are seen in convoy northeast of Ivankiv, Ukraine moving towards Kyiv. Pic: Maxar Technologies

This morning, there was horrendous shelling of the second city of Ukraine, the city of Kharkiv, in the northeast where dozens of civilians were killed.

While that was going on, Russian and Ukrainian delegations were meeting on the border with Belarus.

There was no real indication of any movement or breakthrough in those negotiations. So, we are still in something of a stalemate with Russia intensifying its military action and the world continuing to isolate Russia on all fronts. Economic, financial, banking and sporting as well.

And of course there was that extraordinary development of Ukraine formally requesting accession talks to join the European Union and the EU in turn saying that it would examine that application as speedily as possible.

All the while, tens of thousands of refugees still continue to press towards the Polish border.

Limited exit points for Ukrainians trying to flee (6pm update)

International relief agencies have been warning about the scale of the humanitarian crisis caused by this invasion.

Ukraine is a huge country geographically. It has a population of 44 million people. And because militarily Russia surrounds the country from the north, the east and the south, there are limited exit points for the population.

It's mainly Poland, Slovakia, Hungary to the west of Ukraine and across into Moldova in the southwest.

So that means there are choke points, especially at the Polish border. Huge numbers of people are gathering there and people are coming all the time.

This afternoon Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that he would no longer hit civilian targets in Ukraine and would no longer hit civilian architecture. And that he would ensure that roads to the south of Kyiv were left open.

But none of his assurances are going to be taken with any comfort by the Ukrainian population, given what he said before the invasion and given what has happened since.

The European Union is expecting millions of refugees to come into Europe. It has granted those civilians special protected status so they can enter the EU without necessarily having visas.

The last time that was done was during the Yugoslav war in the 1990s.

So this is going to be a major problem and a major issue for days and weeks to come.

The view from the ground in Lviv (8.30am update)

It is still very tense. It has got notably colder in the past 24 hours.

It snowed last night, so people are trying to come to terms with what has been happening in the country. There is a tremendous amount of volunteer work - people shoring up defences at entrances to the city - and a lot of people are involved in makeshift Molotov cocktail factories, even within their homes and in various discreet warehouses across the city.

People are trying to help refugees who have come across from other parts of Ukraine. There are centres being set up in various locations to provide people with food and shelter and even somewhere to rest.

Locals have been pouring a lot of energy into providing clothing and other essentials for the people who have been fleeing the conflict and who are trying to go onto Poland or Slovakia.

There is also a more sinister atmosphere in terms of real fear about Russian saboteurs or pro-Russian saboteurs allegedly operating in Lviv. There are reports here that some people have been paid by Russia to mark certain buildings with illuminous paint, so that they would then be targeted by the Russian air force.

People here have been on the look-out for people engaged in that sort of activity. It may seem paranoid, but that's exactly what people are talking about here. So it’s a tense mood, people are still trying to go about their business, but the threat of a Russian attack here in this city - even though its far in the west - is ever present.

The fact that more military material and weapons will come in from Poland and other locations by road increases the risk of Russia attacking supply lines in and around Lviv.

There have been a number of air strikes on the city, and air raid sirens have been going off periodically. There are some 30 air raid shelters in the city but people have concerns they’re not entirely fit for purpose, just given the fact that a lot of this is improvising for people.

This is well to the west and it is not within the range of Russian forces who are mostly coming in from the east and the south, and down from the north from Belarus. However, people are worried that it could be attacked, and of course, it is the cradle of Ukrainian nationalism and culture.

Shops are mostly closed, essential shops are open, some cafés and restaurants are open, there is a curfew between 10pm and 7am. A lot of people have moved out of the city.

There are a lot of IT workers in the city – it has a reputation for the IT sector – but a lot of those companies have simply closed down due to the situation. It is mostly essential services that are open at the moment, but a lot of volunteer activity.

The Territorial Reserve Forces are ever present. They actually helped transport us yesterday to a location where they were making Molotov cocktails.

There is a sense of everyone contributing to the overall communal effort, but a lot of the normal commerce and daily life has ceased.

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