Russia-Ukraine war: Air alert declared in Kyiv

Kyiv: An air alert has been declared in and around Kyiv with an imminent threat of a missile attack and residents have been urged to get to bomb shelters as quickly as possible. 

Ukraine regional leader Oleksiy Kuleba said, “Kyiv region – air alert. Threat of a missile attack. Everyone immediately to shelters.”

⚡️Air raid sirens in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and in Vasylkiv.

Residents are asked to go to the nearest shelter.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 9, 2022

In the meantime, the city of Mariupol, remains surrounded by soldiers for days, as the Russian invasion completes almost 14 days.

Across the country, thousands of people are thought to have been killed—both civilians and soldiers—in nearly two weeks of fighting.  

Russian forces have seen their advances stopped in certain areas — including around Kyiv, the capital, — by fiercer resistance than expected from the Ukrainians.

A day earlier, Russia promised to allow five humanitarian corridors to be formed to let people flee major cities under attack by Putin’s forces. 

Head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre said these humanitarian corridors will lead out of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Mariupol.

Moreover, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to impose a no-fly zone over war-hit country and said that additional war planes are needed to protect its air space.