Turning now to the front lines in eastern Ukraine where the bloody Russian advance is forcing so many civilians to evacuate. CNN’s senior international correspondent Sam Kiley has our report. From a town many fear could be Vladimir Putin’s next target A year into Russia’s invasion, this monochrome misery is all too familiar. This is what happened just three days ago. Here in Geneva, an S-300 missile strike. Now, that’s a missile used by the Russians for ground attack was actually designed for bringing down airplanes, but it carries a massive warhead. It’s pretty inaccurate. And that doesn’t matter to the Russians because this is all about smashing up the villages and towns ahead of what the Ukrainians fear is going to be a major Russian push in this part of the country. Captured on the second day of Vladimir Putin’s invasion last February. This is no longer a town that scares easily. It was liberated by Ukraine in the fall and is within mortar range of Russian troops today. Yet these teenagers are taking a walk through what remains of their village. Why do your parents not insist that you all leave as a family? My dad has a farm here. He’s got land and we can’t just leave it all behind, she says. Across the So we just don’t want to go yet. Well, if it gets serious, then we’ll leave it at the Jeep attacking you. And how would you define really serious? In most countries? Having a missile that big land in the middle of town is already really serious. No water serious. And it’s actually very serious is probably when a lot of houses are destroyed and civilians suffer, she explains. That is that you? It’s the defiance of Ukrainian civilians that Russia is trying to crush. Putin’s rockets and artillery have rained down on towns from Kherson to Kramatorsk to Cookie, UNSC and the northern border with Russia along a front line of 1300 kilometers. That’s 800 miles this latest assault on her son, another example of the indiscriminate shelling of civilians. This isn’t accidental. It’s deliberate. The areas liberated by Ukraine bear the brunt of an ever increasing level of attacks by Russia. Here in co-pilot’s province, as in her son. Civilians survive on aid rations. The mother who said we don’t know what to do, she says houses are shaking. Missiles are flying. We just don’t know what to wait for was shaking like chickens. We don’t know what to expect. Gruesome stuff So far, the fighting has been most intense in and around parliament with a surge in attacks by Russia on nearby villages. In a foretaste of the anticipated offensive Veterans like Alex, who captured this tank called Bunny from Russia last March, are running low on ammunition. He says that he sometimes is in combat with only ten shells a day. It’s really hard. We have a lot of casualties every day. And the problem is that the fighting moved inside the city because like we are fighting like building to building and the distance is like 25 to 60 meters. So we cannot use artillery. Well here. Civilians place their faith in Ukraine’s forces to hold off the Russians and play their part by staying on and staying alive. Now, Wolf, according to the local authorities in Kazan, at least six people were killed, more than a dozen injured in the use of multiple rocket launching systems and indiscriminate weapon. Clearly intending to try to terrify the civilian population, as we say in that report, the civilian population by and large in this country is remaining incredibly resolute after 12 months of agony, of war, of murder, of shortages, of mass movements, of refugees, and in many cities, particularly places in the east, like Kharkiv, where I am now, or Kramatorsk The population is actually beginning to return to something approaching normal, particularly because the Russians were pushed back from those gains they made in the early stages of the war Wolf. Sam Kiley reporting for us. Stay safe over there. Thank you very, very much.
