Moscow hints it may have given up on full takeover; Russian commander ‘killed or injured by own troops’ | Ukraine latest

By Alex Crawford, special correspondent in Kyiv

Those who’ve made it out alive from the city of Chernihiv in north Ukraine call it “hell” – and fear it’s fast turning into another Mariupol by the advancing Russian troops.

We witnessed Chernihiv being brutally cut off – from all humanitarian aid and from the outside world.

The city has been bombarded for weeks now with Russian troops closing in and circling it.

There have been so many airstrikes and so much artillery shelling that many who’ve escaped say they couldn’t come out of their underground shelters at all – day or night – for the past fortnight.

The city’s electricity has been cut. There’s little water, no heating and food is fast running out.

We saw the indiscriminate and terrifying Russian shelling of civilians, medics and rescue workers at the final crossing point over the River Desna where they’d gathered to flee to safety.

Volunteer soldiers and rescue workers were frantically trying to guide people over the last pedestrian bridge connecting Chernihiv to the main route leading to the capital Kyiv. 

By this stage, the Russian troops had closed in on three sides of the city and overnight had bombed the main transport bridge out.

A stream of vehicles, ambulances and emergency teams were racing over a dusty and boggy farmers’ field to get to the crossing.

The humanitarian convoy taking aid in and hoping to bring civilians out was forced to drive across a huge open space where any vehicle movement was subject to attack.

The window on this narrow escape corridor to the southeast of the city was fast closing as we arrived with the convoy just before dusk.

We saw groups of civilians with their bags patiently waiting for the vehicles which could transport them out of this small, forested riverbank. There were lines of others, rucksacks on their backs being guided along the field and away from the river and the city.

Suddenly, a salvo of rockets came raining down on the area sending everyone crashing to the ground.