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Mar 3 9 tweets 3 min read
Loud booms ring out every few minutes from the Ukrainian air defence trying to protect Kyiv. Underneath them, Dr Igor Nesteruk, considers his ill-fitting sheepskin coat

thetimes.co.uk/article/kyivs-…
“What do you think?” says Nesteruk, pivoting for a view. “Too unisex?”

The professor of applied mathematics at Ukraine’s premier research science institute was donated the coat by neighbours when he joined the Territorial Defence Forces last week
The coat is as new to Nesteruk, 67, as the Kalashnikov slung awkwardly across his body. He has admitted he “doesn’t really know” how to shoot a gun
🗣 “I lined up early and got it on the first day of the invasion. I was lucky to get it. They are in short supply now. They don’t give them any more to old men like me”
Nesteruk may be the oldest volunteer defending the streets of his Kyiv neighbourhood, Tatarka – but far from the most elderly Ukrainian civilian taking up arms in defence of the city
The Russian invasion saw Ukraine’s armouries opened up to the civilian population, men, women and teenagers, as the Territorial Defence Force, the country’s armed civilian defence against enemy penetration into its cities
The last few days have brought the full implications of the looming battle to Kyiv’s defence forces as they watch in horror the bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine’s eastern and southern cities
Having braced themselves for a Russian bid to seize the city in the first two days of the invasion, they are now preparing for drawn out bombardment and street-to-street fighting after Moscow regroups and tries to stack up victories elsewhere before going for the capital
🗣 Mikhail, 46, originally from Kharkiv and now one of Nesteruk’s co-defenders, declares: "Kyiv is our heart, it will never fall"

👇 Read the full dispatch | ✍️ @scribblercat | 📍 Kyiv

thetimes.co.uk/article/kyivs-…

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More from @thetimes

Mar 4
Ukraine’s foreign minister warned of an explosion “ten times larger than Chernobyl” after Russian troops shelled a reactor at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant thetimes.co.uk/article/fire-a…
🔺 Update: Russian forces have seized the largest nuclear plant in Europe after a building at the complex was set on fire during heavy fighting with the Ukrainians thetimes.co.uk/article/fire-a…
A fire had earlier broken out in a building at the Zaporizhzhya plant after shelling by Vladimir Putin’s forces, triggering widespread condemnation of a “horrific” and “reckless” act
Read 4 tweets
Mar 4
President Zelensky has survived at least three assassination attempts in the past week, The Times has learnt thetimes.co.uk/article/zelens…
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: Two different outfits have been sent to kill the Ukrainian president — mercenaries of the Kremlin-backed Wagner group and Chechen special forces. Both have been thwarted by anti-war elements within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB)
Wagner mercenaries in Kyiv have sustained losses during their attempts and are said to have been alarmed by how accurately the Ukrainians had anticipated their moves. A source close to the group said it was “eerie” how well briefed Zelensky’s security team appeared to be Image
Read 9 tweets
Mar 3
Britain will not be able to sanction Roman Abramovich and other oligarchs for “weeks and months” because the government has been unable to build a case against them

thetimes.co.uk/article/buildi…
The Foreign Office and National Crime Agency have been unable to prove that there are “reasonable grounds” for designating the UK’s most prominent oligarchs for sanctions because they have struggled to link their finances to the Putin regime
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, wants to sanction Abramovich but has been left frustrated after being told that the government has been unable to build up a case against him and others
Read 14 tweets
Mar 3
🔺 JUST IN: Russia is determined to control the whole of Ukraine and “the worst is yet to come” in the war with Ukraine, President Macron believes after a 90-minute call to President Putin thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…
🔺 Update: Ukraine operation is going to plan, Putin tells Russians thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…
Vladimir Putin said on Russian television: “I want to say that the special military operation is proceeding strictly in line with the timetable. According to plan. All the tasks that have been set are being successfully resolved”
Read 4 tweets
Mar 2
Ukraine has invited Russian women to come to Kyiv and collect their sons, many of whom appear to be inexperienced and frightened teenage conscripts thetimes.co.uk/article/russia…
In a field surrounded by the people he had been sent to fight, a young Russian prisoner of war hungrily gulped down the tea and bread they offered him.

A Ukrainian woman calmed him, telling the soldier not to worry. Using her phone, she made a video call to his mother
As soon as his mother appeared on the screen, he burst into tears.

“Everything is OK,” his female captor said, while others stroked his back. “Natasha, God be with you. We will call you later. He is alive and healthy”
Read 8 tweets
Mar 2
Dnipro will be a Stalingrad for the Russian attackers, vows regional chief Mykola Lukashuk
thetimes.co.uk/article/dnipro…
The province chief once presided over vast infrastructure projects, oversaw plans for new highways, checked industrial blueprints and regional budgets and ran one of the largest civil administrations in Ukraine... 🇺🇦
Now Lukashuk has a Makarov pistol strapped to his belt and a Kalashnikov on the table, and is organising Dnipro to become a Stalingrad for invading Russian troops 🇷🇺
Read 13 tweets

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