WAR IN UKRAINE: March 1 2022 — Michael Bociurkiw

MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS:

Russia has moved from having just 40% of its forces inside Ukraine to around 75%, a military academic snd senior US defence official say. A large body of Russian troops is advancing south from Belarus and starting to set the conditions to be able to conduct an assault into Kyiv. Meanwhile the southern city of Kherson, hone to about a quarter-of-a-million people, is reported to have fallen into Russian hands. Media reports of an airborne assault on Kharkiv - on Tuesday a missile struck the local government headquarters .

The government quarter in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was struck by missile fire and sustained major damage.
Five people have died after Russia attacked a TV tower in Kyiv, hitting nearby broadcast facilities, Ukrainian officials say. The strike also slammed into the adjacent Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial to tens of thousands of Jews murdered by the Nazis in World War Two.
A missile hit a private maternity clinic near Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, according to the Adonis maternity clinic chief Vitaliy Gyrin's Facebook post.
Russian losses include more than 5,700 personnel, more than 800 combat vehicles and almost 200 tanks - Ukraine Ministry of Defense
A huge convoy of Russian armoured vehicles, about 40 miles long, is advancing on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, satellite images show
The announcement dropped that Russia would strike two key security installations with “high-precision weapons”, including the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the 72nd Main Centre for Information and Psychological Operations. It called on residents who live near “relay nodes” to leave their homes in an apparent reference to communication towers - BBC.
For the first time, the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, relatively calm until now, is becoming quickly overwhelmed by vehicle and people fleeing the unrest elsewhere in the country. (Separately the Lviv city administration banned the sale of all alcohol in restaurants, bars and shops).
A bank run accelerates in Moscow after Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed crippling capital controls last night to protect a collapsing economy.
The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, says there are 128 people in local hospitals and that the number of incoming civilians growing every day.