Berliner Boersenzeitung - On edge of war: Russian missiles chink away at Kyiv's southern flank

EUR -
AED 4.252355
AFN 80.463477
ALL 97.718503
AMD 444.607824
ANG 2.072011
AOA 1061.649658
ARS 1550.520093
AUD 1.788558
AWG 2.086831
AZN 1.962744
BAM 1.962066
BBD 2.338368
BDT 141.180892
BGN 1.955711
BHD 0.436484
BIF 3413.603762
BMD 1.157743
BND 1.492454
BOB 8.002627
BRL 6.376381
BSD 1.158099
BTN 101.593584
BWP 15.728095
BYN 3.805722
BYR 22691.753006
BZD 2.32636
CAD 1.595537
CDF 3345.876042
CHF 0.934763
CLF 0.028535
CLP 1119.419162
CNY 8.317336
CNH 8.322924
COP 4735.803585
CRC 585.163792
CUC 1.157743
CUP 30.680176
CVE 110.709101
CZK 24.590322
DJF 205.754276
DKK 7.46356
DOP 70.419741
DZD 150.91046
EGP 56.078735
ERN 17.366138
ETB 159.942361
FJD 2.619949
FKP 0.871184
GBP 0.870408
GEL 3.105147
GGP 0.871184
GHS 12.214062
GIP 0.871184
GMD 83.927519
GNF 10043.416429
GTQ 8.885377
GYD 242.306999
HKD 9.088139
HNL 30.506346
HRK 7.534013
HTG 151.975366
HUF 398.254126
IDR 18957.338797
ILS 3.99354
IMP 0.871184
INR 101.653842
IQD 1516.642675
IRR 48769.902471
ISK 142.81854
JEP 0.871184
JMD 185.311833
JOD 0.820841
JPY 170.941261
KES 149.926714
KGS 101.244813
KHR 4642.547299
KMF 492.623298
KPW 1041.995254
KRW 1604.926339
KWD 0.353899
KYD 0.965095
KZT 622.763551
LAK 25007.23765
LBP 103675.841334
LKR 348.282315
LRD 232.706463
LSL 20.758657
LTL 3.418513
LVL 0.700307
LYD 6.292289
MAD 10.507961
MDL 19.717227
MGA 5134.58782
MKD 61.727139
MMK 2430.070801
MNT 4159.312212
MOP 9.364429
MRU 46.193534
MUR 53.221303
MVR 17.835786
MWK 2010.41767
MXN 21.683637
MYR 4.894357
MZN 74.049469
NAD 20.758078
NGN 1763.912875
NIO 42.546557
NOK 11.8739
NPR 162.551142
NZD 1.96329
OMR 0.445164
PAB 1.158114
PEN 4.134882
PGK 4.783212
PHP 66.544141
PKR 327.291781
PLN 4.2833
PYG 8674.704539
QAR 4.214762
RON 5.075192
RSD 117.183254
RUB 92.6236
RWF 1668.306943
SAR 4.344115
SBD 9.536756
SCR 17.099305
SDG 695.229071
SEK 11.190994
SGD 1.490595
SHP 0.909804
SLE 26.570648
SLL 24277.28593
SOS 661.652659
SRD 42.801165
STD 23962.932284
STN 24.972506
SVC 10.133363
SYP 15053.225523
SZL 20.758006
THB 37.430235
TJS 10.898247
TMT 4.063676
TND 3.333723
TOP 2.711551
TRY 47.087813
TTD 7.858028
TWD 34.598563
TZS 2842.257663
UAH 48.283704
UGX 4145.238714
USD 1.157743
UYU 46.488471
UZS 14674.386145
VES 146.017205
VND 30390.740633
VUV 138.242042
WST 3.209803
XAF 658.067206
XAG 0.030576
XAU 0.000343
XCD 3.128856
XCG 2.087248
XDR 0.816108
XOF 655.858436
XPF 119.331742
YER 278.26312
ZAR 20.716772
ZMK 10421.056911
ZMW 26.666395
ZWL 372.792613
  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • CMSD

    -0.1200

    23.51

    -0.51%

  • SCS

    -0.6200

    15.96

    -3.88%

  • RIO

    -0.3000

    59.7

    -0.5%

  • GSK

    -0.3600

    37.32

    -0.96%

  • RYCEF

    -0.1500

    14.35

    -1.05%

  • RBGPF

    -0.0800

    74.92

    -0.11%

  • CMSC

    0.0000

    23.07

    0%

  • BCC

    4.0600

    86.77

    +4.68%

  • NGG

    -0.3700

    72.28

    -0.51%

  • RELX

    -1.3800

    50.59

    -2.73%

  • BCE

    0.2500

    23.56

    +1.06%

  • JRI

    0.0600

    13.26

    +0.45%

  • BTI

    0.2900

    55.84

    +0.52%

  • AZN

    -0.1100

    74.48

    -0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0600

    11.1

    +0.54%

  • BP

    1.1100

    33.6

    +3.3%

Advertisement Image
On edge of war: Russian missiles chink away at Kyiv's southern flank
On edge of war: Russian missiles chink away at Kyiv's southern flank

On edge of war: Russian missiles chink away at Kyiv's southern flank

The tinny Ukrainian voice in the supermarket's loudspeaker urged exiting shoppers to rush home and switch off the gas.

Advertisement Image

Text size:

"This is a warning: turn off your electricity and gas, get your first aid kit, documents, supply of food and water, and go to your nearest bomb shelter," the voice intoned over the wail of air raid sirens.

It was the second alarm to sound in under an hour over the snow-covered central Ukrainian city of Bila Tserkva.

And it only added to the dour mood of mother-of-two Yulia Ivashchyuk as she walked empty-handed out of the city's main shopping centre.

"The shelves are empty, they are bombing, rockets are falling from the sky," the 45-year-old complained.

"There is no lactose-free milk that my little one needs. What else can go wrong? I am not sure I want to know."

Bila Tserkva's location 75 kilometres (45 miles) southwest of Kyiv once made it a perfect commuter spot for people working in the Ukrainian capital.

But the city of 200,000 now has the unfortunate distinction of being on the direct path of cruise missiles that Russia is launching at Kyiv from the Black Sea.

A few of them smashed into Bila Tserkva's strategic airfield and some factories when Russia launched its assault on Ukraine on February 24.

A cluster of fancy new homes being built near the city's Ros River were torn apart over the weekend by either a stray missile or Russian bombs.

No one here understands why it happened -- or why Russia is invading Ukraine.

"Putin has gone crazy and is doing mad things," said fellow shopper Serghiy Zabozhniy.

"His behaviour is unbalanced and people are afraid that he might press the nuclear button," the 63-year-old entrepreneur said.

- Escape route -

Russia's attempts to besiege Kyiv have seen the city of three million cut off from the rest of the country on three sides.

Battles are raging on Kyiv's northern and western outskirts.

The roads running east are cut off by Russian tanks and minefields after an hour's drive.

The south represents Kyiv's main escape route as well as the only way it can be supplied with food and fuel.

The worry in Bila Tserkva is that Russian tanks now on the western edge of Kyiv may soon swoop down and head their way.

"Everyone is worried. They hear the air raid sirens several times a day," said carpenter Andriy Zaleznyak.

"They've already hit us nearly a dozen times. It's hard to count all the explosions. All the days are blurring into one."

The 39-year-old was helping clear the rubble from one of the three houses destroyed by the mysterious weekend attack.

Officials are still not clear what levelled the buildings.

Russian warplanes routinely buzz overhead.

People on the streets share images on their phones of cruise missiles they have filmed flying toward Kyiv a few hundred metres above ground.

Zaleznyak said a family of six that lived in one of the destroyed houses was fortunate to be out of town on the night of the air strike.

"They could have all been killed," fellow handyman Bogdan Remmenniy said next to the charred remains of the family's garden shed.

- Edge of war -

Bila Tserkva has the air of a city finely balanced on the edge of war.

Its relatively well-stocked main supermarket has an empty dairy section and shuttered alcohol isles.

Alcohol sales were banned across Ukraine when the government decided to give everyone access to firearms in order to build a new volunteer army in the first days of war.

Queues snake down the street outside drug stores and bank outlets.

Bila Tserkva still lacks Kyiv's myriad of sandbagged checkpoints or men with assault rifles policing traffic at intersections.

But a contingent of tanks rolled down the highway leading from the city toward the capital.

This slightly surreal state of neither peace nor all-out war lends the city some of the optimism and bravado Kyiv enjoyed before the Russians seized its western outskirts.

"If the Russians ever come here, they will never get past us," college student Bogdan Martynenko said while smoking in a parking lot with his friends.

"We have territorial defence units, our police, our guys. We all know each other -- they wouldn't dare," he said with a grin.

(U.Gruber--BBZ)

Advertisement Image