Russian troops poised to storm Kyiv within the next TWO DAYS, as hand-to-hand fighting intensifies
US-based think tank The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said in its report that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are making all efforts to launch an attack on Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv in the next two days. The report stated that Russia is “concentrating in the eastern, northwestern, and western outskirts of Kyiv” to capture the most populous city within the next 24-96 hours.
“The Russians are bringing up supplies and reinforcements as well as conducting artillery, air, and missile attacks to weaken defenses and intimidate defenders in advance of such an assault,” Fredrick W Kagan, George Barros, and Kateryna Stepanenko noted in the report that also mentioned that if Putin’s soldiers “have been able to resupply, reorganize, and plan deliberate and coordinated simultaneous operations along the several axes of advance around and into the capital”, this operation will probably be more successful for them than their invasion in other regions.
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Along with planning to storm Kyiv, Putin’s men are also reportedly trying to take control of the town of Irpin, which is around 20 kilometers west-northwest of the center of Kyiv, and the town of Bucha, about 4 kilometers north of Irpin, in the last 24 hours. It has been said that like Syria, where Moscow used a siege-and-starve kind of approach, they are trying to take down Irpin as well to force it to capitulate. The ISW report quoted the Ukrainian General Staff, who claimed on March 7 that the enemy side has forced the people of Irpin to stay as well as they have not been given water, heating, and food supplies for three days.
The report indicated, citing the Ukrainian General Staff, “Russian elements under the command of Chechen leader Ramazan Kadyrov were shelling civilian targets on March 7 in the town of Myla, roughly 7.5 kilometers southwest of Irpin. These reports are all consistent with previously-observed Russian efforts to consolidate control of this critical area to facilitate further advances south and southeast to encircle Kyiv and/or to launch attacks directly against central Kyiv itself.”
In addition, it has been reported that troops of Putin are “establishing themselves in Kyiv’s eastern outskirts as of March 7. The Ukrainian General Staff reported a successful March 6 attack against a Russian weapons depot in Nova Basan, roughly 70 kilometers east-northeast of Kyiv’s center.”
The ISW report comes as a House Intelligence Committee hearing was held on Tuesday, March 8, where the heads of the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and National Security Agency took part and expressed their fears about Putin's use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The US intelligence chiefs said that the Eastern European nation’s refusal to surrender before Moscow could result in something more dreadful.
CIA Director William Burns said the former KGB officer has “been stewing in a combustible combination of grievance and ambition for many years.” He noted that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a matter of “deep personal conviction,” before adding, “I think Putin is angry and frustrated right now. He's likely to double down and try to grind down the Ukrainian military with no regard for civilian casualties.”
