Kyiv: Top Russian General Sergei Rusdkoy, First Deputy Chief of Russia’s Gen Staff on Friday in a press briefing claimed to have completed the first stage of military ops in Ukraine. He asserted that the Ukraine forces had significantly reduced, accepting defeat. Soon after the announcement, Intelligence reports said the Russian forces appear to have halted the attacks on Kyiv ‘for now’ and are concentrating more on fighting for control on the Donbas region in the southeast.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s military has delivered “powerful blows” against Russian forces leading to “significant losses”.
Speaking in his nightly video address, he said about 16,000 Russian soldiers had been killed. “The armed forces continue to repel enemy attacks in the south of the country, in Donbas, in the Kharkiv direction and in the Kyiv region,” he told Ukrainians late on Friday. “By restraining Russia’s actions, our defenders are leading the Russian leadership to a simple and logical idea: Talk is necessary. Meaningful. Urgent. Fair.”
According to a local media house, 34 medical facilities had been attacked. The agency quoted that Ukraine for the first time had witnessed such assaults where children’s bodies were shredded by shrapnel and dozens of corpses heaped into mass graves. The Russian Army said on Friday, 25 March, that 1,351 soldiers have been killed in Ukraine. On Friday around 7,331 people were evacuated taking total evacuations to 419,736 civilians since the war. Almost 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began, according to the UN’s refugee agency.
Meanwhile, France has announced an evacuation mission in Mariupol with Turkey and Greece. The operation was confirmed by President Emmanuel Macron in a press briefing after the EU summit in Brussels.
The artillery of Ukraine was amplified after 1500 missiles and 100 MG3 machine guns arrived from Germany as promised. Along with 350,000 food packets and 50 medical transport vehicles and medical aid were also received.