Total war is engulfing Ukraine in a whirlwind of brutality. The fighting has entered a phase in which it is difficult to hypothesize a military solution and it is difficult to understand whether the high commands really have control of the troops on the ground. Ukrainians are now convinced that they can stop the invasion and are resisting with growing determination. The Russians respond by increasing the strength of the attack. In short, it is a spiral where there is only one certainty: the victims are many, especially civilians.
The failure of the humanitarian corridors announced in Mariupol and Volnovakha testifies to the confusion on the ground. These escape routes could have saved thousands and thousands of inhabitants, but they would have paved the way for Putin’s first real victory. After the evacuation of the civilians, his army would launch the final assault on the neighborhoods, razing any Ukrainian position with cannon fire: the same script tested in Syria to take Aleppo and the suburbs of Damascus. In the same way, conquering Mariupol and Volnovakha would have allowed to plant the flag of Moscow throughout the territory between the Donbass and the Crimea: a strategic success, which would transform the Sea of Azov into an entirely Russian lake, and perhaps even a political achievement capable of to appease the new Tsar. But the weapons have not been silent and Mariupol is back under the bombs.
The Moscow Air Force is now dropping a lot of them on cities that don’t give up: bombs that are not “surgical” at all and often so old that they don’t explode. Those that explode, however, have devastating effects on the buildings of Kharkiv and Sumy, the two centers tormented since the invasion began. The intervention of the flocks is opposed by the anti-aircraft, with extensive use of Stinger missiles: yesterday at least two helicopters and three fighters were shot down, including a very modern Sukhoi 34. Many of the raids raged against Chernihiv, a small town on the artery from the border Belarusian leads to the capital: it is another front of the assault on Kiev.
The decisive battle has begun, fighting house by house: clashes like in Stalingrad, where factories become fortresses and lone snipers hunt for officers. The avant-gardes are in Irpin, the last suburb before the metropolis. The defenders flooded the countryside and blew up the bridges to hinder the advance of the tanks. So, however, even the escape of the inhabitants from the front line is hell: the photo of civilians refugees inside the broken viaduct – taken by Emilio Morenatti – shows how dramatic the situation is. Cannon shots often arrive on that bridge: to the north and west of the capital there is an indistinct front where rival artillery competes with howitzers and rockets.
The Ukrainians send special forces behind the besiegers and counterattack to maintain an opening: they need it to receive the new weapons donated by the West. Missiles and ammunition are carried by European or American military flights to the Polish airport of Rzeszow Jasionka, protected by the US parà: three deliveries from Italy so far. Then those destined for the capital reach the city of Zhytomyr with anonymous vans: beyond there is a great “no man’s land” disputed by the two armies, which extends as far as Kiev. The Kremlin has ordered the GRU, military intelligence, to block the war supplies: the 007s try to locate the sorting points and have them bombed. Yesterday before dawn a warehouse would have been destroyed in Zhytomyr: the beginning of a challenge in the shadows, fundamental for the future of the campaign. If the weapons reach the resistance, it will be impossible for the Russians to win.