Russia-Ukraine war: Belarusian President Lukashenko claims air defence facilities on alert

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called a meeting of his extended Security Council and declared that the country's air defence systems had been placed on alert. According to the media reports, the Belarusian president's announcement aims to "prevent back-stabbing of Russian troops." Media agency Nexta shared the information on Twitter, saying, "Dictator #Lukashenko convened his expanded Security Council and said that air defence facilities in #Belarus had been put on alert to "prevent back-stabbing of #Russian troops".

More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed when Russian troops shelled Okhtyrka in the Sumy region with Grad multi-launch missile systems. Dmytro Zhyvytskyy, the head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, shared the information on Facebook. According to him, the situation in the region's north is more or less steady as of March 1 night, although Konotop is still under siege.

"A military union in Okhtyrka sustained a heavy enemy shelling from Grad MLRS and, unfortunately, was completely destroyed. More than 70 servicepersons  have been killed. There are civilian casualties. The blockages are being dismantled now and more dead servicemen may be found under them," according to the Sumy RMA's director.

Some media reports claim that shelling or missiles hit a facility used by Ukraine's military as a base, as well as fuel tanks, with one local official claiming that a fuel-air explosive was used. The news came as the Russian military was reported to have reached the southern city of Kherson on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, satellite photographs showed a Russian convoy of armoured vehicles, tanks, and other military equipment approaching Kyiv on Tuesday, as senators in Washington expressed fears of a "long and deadly" fight ahead.

Russia-Ukraine war

According to the US satellite company Maxar, the Russian armoured convoy was 17 miles (25 kilometres) from the centre of Kyiv, a city with a population of three million people. Its photographs also showed ground forces and ground attack helicopter units deployed in southern Belarus, amid fears that Belarus' president, Alexander Lukashenko, may dispatch soldiers to assist Vladimir Putin's Russian forces within the next 24 hours.

Further, Russian soldiers launched rocket attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, killing dozens of civilians, and re-entered Kyiv, despite unprecedented western sanctions and isolation. According to The Guardian, the widespread use of indiscriminate weaponry against civilian neighbourhoods, including as multiple rocket launchers, signalled that the Kremlin was willing to use more desperate means after failing to achieve a knockout blow in the early days of the war.

In what looked to be a move toward hitting civilian areas, rocket strikes on the eastern city killed at least nine individuals and injured 37 others. Ihor Terekhov, the mayor, said three children were among the dead. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, responded by accusing Russia of war crimes by striking a "peaceful city" with no military installations.

(With inputs from agencies)

Image: AP