Ukraine and beyond are documenting military activity during Russia’s invasion. With disinformation rife and social media amplifying military claims and counterclaims, determining exactly what is happening can be difficult. Here’s a look at what could be confirmed Thursday as Russia’s war on Ukraine was in its eighth day.
DIRECTLY WITNESSED
— Associated Press reporters witnessed destruction in the village of Gorenka, which lies on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and has found itself in the crossfire. Residents said a Russian plane bombed the village early Wednesday, destroying several homes.
— AP reporters in Kyiv heard at least one overnight explosion before videos started circulating online of apparent strikes on the city, though targets were not immediately clear. Kyiv’s mayor said the explosions were missiles being shot down by Ukraine’s air defense systems.
— People, mostly women, children and the elderly, were seen fleeing Ukraine for neighboring European nations by foot and packed into trains. Some of those leaving amid the cold gripping Eastern Europe also have serious mental and physical disabilities.
ANNOUNCED BY UKRAINIAN AUTHORITIES
— Russian troops entered the southern city of Enerhodar, a major energy hub on the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine that is the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and that accounts for about one-quarter of the country’s power generation. The mayor said Thursday that Ukrainian and Russian forces were battling for control of the city.
— New shelling was reported in the northern city of Chernihiv, where emergency officials said at least 22 civilians were killed in a Russian bombardment of a residential area. They warned that the number of casualties could grow as rescuers search the debris.
— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video statement early Thursday calling on Ukrainians to keep up their resistance. He also urged Russian soldiers to “go home.”
— Zelenskyy claimed in his address that 9,000 Russians have been killed since the invasion. It was impossible to verify the claim. Russia said Wednesday that nearly 500 of its troops had been killed since the Feb. 24 start of the invasion.
— The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russian forces “did not achieve the main goal of capturing Mariupol,” a crucial city on the Azov Sea. Britain’s Defense Ministry said earlier this week that Mariupol was encircled. The city’s mayor said the attacks there have been relentless.
ANNOUNCED BY RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES
— A second round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations began Thursday in neighboring Belarus, but the two sides appeared to have little common ground. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine that it must quickly accept the Kremlin’s demand for its “demilitarization” and declare itself neutral, formally renouncing its bid to join NATO.
— The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said Russia claims that its military has taken control of the area around Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant. Russia had already seized control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
— The Russian military said it has taken control of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, and local Ukrainian officials confirmed that forces had taken over the local government’s headquarters. That made the city of 280,000 the first major city to fall since the invasion began.
ANNOUNCED BY OFFICIALS ELSEWHERE
— The U.N. human rights office said at least 227 civilians have been killed and 525 wounded in Ukraine since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24, though it acknowledged that is a vast undercount. The U.N. refugee agency reported that 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict.
— A senior U.S. defense official said an immense column of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles appeared to be stalled 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Kyiv and had made no real progress in the last few days. The convoy, which earlier in the week had seemed poised to launch an assault on the capital, has been plagued with fuel and food shortages, the official said.
— German news agency dpa reported that the country’s economy ministry approved sending 2,700 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. The weapons are Soviet-made, shoulder-fired Strela surface-to-air missiles left over from East German army supplies. Berlin had already authorized sending 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine.
— U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit six European countries. The first was Belgium on Thursday for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. After that he’ll head to the Polish border with Ukraine to meet refugees, and then on to Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.