Civilians and servicemen attend funerals of Oleh Yashchyshyn, Serhiy Melnyk and Rostyslav Romanchuk, Ukrainian servicemen killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at Lychakiv cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 15, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)
One month ago, just after 4:45 a.m. Kyiv time on Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin went on television to announce what he called a “special operation” to “disarm and de-Nazify” Ukraine. His address was immediately followed by missile strikes on major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, and multi-directional assaults towards Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson, and Mariupol.
Since then, Russian forces have launched more than 1,100 missilies onto the Ukrainian territory, according to Pentagon.
Russia has been shelling Ukrainian cities, large and small, forcing over 10 million Ukrainians to flee their homes, with 6.5 million being displaced inside the country and 3.6 million going abroad, according to the United Nations.
Russian forces have besieged several Ukrainian cities, attacked agreed-upon humanitarian corridors for evacuation and have committed multiple atrocities towards civilians, which have shocked the Ukrainian nation.
At least 977 civilians were killed and 1,594 injured, according to the UN, but the actual figures are belived to be significantly higher. According to the local authorities in Mariupol, a besieged seaport city in south-eastern Ukraine, over 2,000 residents were killed in the city alone. Russia's war took the lives of at least 128 children and injured at least 172 other children, according to Prosecutor General's Office.
Civilian infrastructure has been damaged across the country. Some 4,431 residential buildings, 548 schools, and 135 health care institutions were partially or completely destroyed, according to the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group.
The body of a rocket stuck in a flat after recent shelling on the northern outskirts of Kharkiv on Feb. 24, 2022. (AFP/ Getty Images)Residents of Severodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, hide in a basement during the heavy shelling by Russian forces on Feb. 28, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (2L) and Chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov in Moscow on Feb. 27, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)People remove personal belongings from a burning house after being shelled in the city of Irpin, outside Kyiv, on March 4, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Ukrainians fleeing the war to Poland get for the train at Lviv train station on Feb. 28, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Around 100,000 protesters crowd around the victory column and close to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to demonstrate against Russia's war in Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022.(AFP/Getty Images)People cross a destroyed bridge as they evacuate from the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, during heavy shelling and bombing on March 5, 2022. (AFP/ Getty Images)U.S. President Joe Biden takes questions as he addresses the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the White House on Feb. 24, 2022, in Washington, DC. (AFP/Getty Images)A Ukrainian soldier holds a Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW) that was used to destroy a Russian armored personal carrier (APC) in Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on March 12, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A staff member and the parents of a newborn baby hide in the bomb shelter of a maternity hospital on March 2, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Getty Images)Ukrainian servicemen patrol in the streets as security measures tightened due to the ongoing Russian attacks in the Black Sea port city of Odesa on March 14, 2022. Volunteers have placed sandbags around one of Odesa’s landmarks, the monument to Duke of Richelieu, to protect it from potential Russian bombardment. (Getty Images)Service members of Ukrainian Territorial Defense, Valery (3rdL) and Lesya (2ndL), get married not far from a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kyiv on March 6, 2022. (AFP/ Getty Images)President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Kyiv on March 3, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)Ukrainian emergency workers carry an injured pregnant woman from a maternity hospital that was damaged by Russian shelling in Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast on March 9, 2022. The mother and her unborn baby died. (Evgeniy Maloletka)Residents of Kherson block Russian military vehicles as Russian troops attempt to occupy the city. Kherson has been under the Russian control since March 5, 2022.A woman learns how to use an AK-47 assault rifle during a civilian self-defense course in the outskirts of Lviv on March 4, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A mass grave in Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast, on March 9, 2022. According to local authorities, over 2,000 residents have been killed in the city since Feb. 24, 2022. (Mstyslav Chernov)A wounded woman is seen following an airstrike that damaged a residential building outside of Kharkiv on Feb. 24, 2022. (Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)Ukrainian soldiers search for bodies in the debris at the military school hit by Russian rockets the day before, in Mykolaiv on March 19, 2022. Ukrainian media reported that the attack had killed at least 40 Ukrainian soldiers at their brigade headquarters. (AFP/Getty Images)An evacuated resident is comforted by Svitlana Vodolaga, spokeswoman for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (R) outside a burning apartment building in Kyiv on March 15, 2022, following attacks on residential areas that had killed at least two people. (AFP/Getty Images)
The Russian special services are targeting military facilities, critical infrastructure, and communication systems, Ukraine's military intelligence service (HUR) warned.
Among those returned were people held under forced medical treatment and at risk of mobilization by Russia, according to Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
In this report, the Kyiv Independent travels to Odesa and the surrounding region to document how intensified Russian attacks are threatening the city, its ports, and Ukraine’s vital Black Sea trade route.
The sanctions target Artur Orlov, head of Russia's Movement of the First, a state-backed organization for children and young people, as well as five heads of its regional branches in occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and Crimea.
"This is very timely support, which will help ensure Ukraine’s macro-financial stability and strengthen our defense capabilities," said President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukrainian drones previously struck the Samara station in April, causing a large fire and damaging five crude oil tanks, each with a capacity of 20,000 cubic meters, a source in the Security Service of Ukraine told the Kyiv Independent at the time.
By denying a confidentiality agreement on the transfer of North Korean POWs, Kyiv is "making the head of state of another country out to be a liar," South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said.
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