Pushing towards Kyiv, Russia plans to remove Ukraine leadership

February 25, 2022

PBC News: The Russian military has gained complete air superiority in Ukraine and is closing in on the capital Kyiv, intending to remove the country’s leadership, Western officials said Thursday.

After opening its invasion with more than 160 missile strikes and sorties by dozens of attack aircraft, Russian troops were moving southward from Belarus seeking to capture an airfield just north of the capital.

They have virtually eliminated the Ukraine air force’s ability to fight back, leaving Kyiv increasingly vulnerable, the officials said, reports AFP.

“A lot will depend on the resistance that the Ukrainians can put up, but I’m confident that the Russians will in the coming hours seek to apply an overwhelming force on the capital,” a Western intelligence official in Europe said.

“In just the intervening hours (since Thursday morning) they have gotten closer to Kyiv,” a US defense official in Washington concurred.

“They have every intention of basically decapitating the government and installing their own means of governance,” the US official said, insisting on anonymity.

– Three fronts –

The push from Belarus towards Kyiv was one of three fronts that Russia forces opened since launching the invasion early Thursday, the US official said.

An invasion force had also moved up from Crimea in the south towards the city of Kherson.

And a third axis of attack was in the northeast, marked by a push from Russia near Belgorod and aimed at capturing the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

“We haven’t seen a conventional move like this, nation state to nation state, since World War II, certainly nothing on this size and scope and scale,” the US official said.

“The heaviest fighting we’ve seen so far is in Kharkiv,” the US official said.

The attack opened just before dawn early Thursday with a raft of missile launches, including short and medium-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, according to the US official.

Those were launched from both land and ships on the Black Sea, and targeted military infrastructure, including airports, barracks and munitions depots.

The Western intelligence official said Russian air power, with dozens of advanced fight-bombers and scores of attack helicopters, had overwhelmed Ukraine’s defenses.