Ukrainians were seen urinating against a Russian military vehicle in a sign of defiance against Vladimir Putin’s invading troops.
Video footage, shared on social media, appeared to show two Ukrainian men urinating on what is believed to be a Russian MT-LBu tank in Chaplynka, Kakhovka Raion.
A Ukrainian flag flew above the abandoned armoured carrier while chanting was heard in the distance in a further sign of resistance against the Russian invasion.
The vehicle was marked with the letter ‘Z’, which has become a Russian symbol of the invasion after being seen on Russian tanks and military vehicles.
Video footage, shared on social media, appeared to show two Ukrainian men urinating on what is believed to be a Russian MT-LBu vehicle in Chaplynka, Kakhovka Raion
The insignia, which is Latin script, has rose to prominence across the past month as a pro-war and pro-Putin symbol, and ‘Z’ merchandise has even been sold by Russia Today, the Kremlin-funded TV channel.
The defiant move is the latest in a string of protests made by brave Ukrainian citizens as Russian troops continue to advance and shell cities.
On Saturday, thousands of residents poured into to the streets of Kherson, the only major city to have fallen to Russian forces so far, and protested against Russian troops and demonstrated incredible bravery in the face of an invading army.
Residents who had filled the main square of the Black Sea port to wave blue and yellow flags and chant at Putin’s forces, cheered as a brave man was seen clamoring up a moving Russian armored vehicle.
The man, who has not been identified, stood proudly on the vehicle as it moved down the street, waving a giant blue and yellow Ukrainian flag, drawing cheers from the crowd below.
The crowd stayed until Russian combatants reportedly responded by firing automatic weapons into the air to disperse the crowd, before leaving the city centre themselves.
There had earlier been signs of defiance from the population of Melitopol, which was taken over by the Russians this week.
Locals shouted ‘Go home!’ and ‘Melitopol us Ukraine’, and demonstrators have been saying ‘out with the orcs’ at Russians – comparing them to the malevolent invaders of JRR Tolein’s The Lord of the Rings.
Kherson was the first major city to fall to Russian forces, with the mayor estimating as many as 300 people killed, with many of the bodies rendered unrecognizable because of the power of the invaders’ weapons.
Russian forces are widely seen as having struggled in the face of Ukrainian military resistance and civil disobedience since entering the country 11 days ago.
Putin’s men renewed their bombardments on Mariupol, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv this morning as hundreds of civilians tried to evacuate Irpin – on the outskirts of Kyiv – across a destroyed bridge after days of heavy attacks in an attempt to encircle the capital. But Russian commanders have not significantly advanced their frontline since the city of Kherson and nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia were captured last week.
The Ukrainian armed forces claimed to have destroyed up to 30 Russian helicopters that had been moved to Chornobaivka airport, near Kherson, overnight and to have retaken the city of Chuhuiv, near Kharkiv, killing two Russian commanders – Lt. Col. Dmitry Safronov, and Lt Col. Denis Glebov – in the process.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence claims to have taken out more than 11,000 troops, some 290 tanks, 1,000 armoured personnel carriers, 46 planes, 68 helicopters and 117 artillery pieces as-of Monday morning.
None of those figures has been independently verified. Russia has acknowledged taking losses, but gave a figure of 500 deaths last week and has not updated it since.
Ukraine’s military estimates that 11,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in fighting along with the loss of 1,000 armoured vehicles, 290 tanks, 68 helicopters, 46 planes and dozens of other piece of hardware.
Independent observers give lower totals, but Franz-Stefan Gady – of the International Institute for Strategic Studies – said the situation is never-the-less ‘slowly becoming unsustainable for Russia’.
US intelligence believes Russia has committed 95 per cent of the invasion force it had assembled on Ukraine’s border to the fight, meaning significant reinforcements to push its attacks forward are unlikely to come soon – and could simply run into many of the same logistical problems that plagued the early assault.
The defiant move is the latest in a string of protests, including from a brave man who was seen clamoring up a moving Russian armored vehicle and waving a Ukrainian flag at the weekend
That has prompted some – including UK general Admiral Sir Tony Radakin – to predict that Russia could actually lose the war. Asked by the BBC on Sunday whether victory for Putin’s men was ‘inevitable’, as many had predicted before the fighting started, he responded: ‘No.’
Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that ‘God will not forgive’ and Ukraine ‘will not forget’ the slaughter of civilians by Russian forces, saying a ‘day of judgement’ is coming for them.
Zelensky, in a late-night address to his countrymen on the Orthodox Christian holiday of ‘Forgiveness Sunday’, recalled how a family of four were among eight civilians killed by Russian mortars while trying to flee the city of Irpin – near Kyiv – earlier in the day. ‘We will not forgive. We will not forget,’ he told listeners.
‘We cannot forgive the hundreds upon hundreds of victims. Nor the thousands upon thousands who have suffered,’ he added. ‘God will not forgive. Not today. Not tomorrow. Never.’
‘Instead of humanitarian corridors, they can only make bloody ones,’ Zelensky said, as Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko added: ‘There can be no ‘green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom.’
Shortly after they spoke, columns of smoke were seen rising over the city of Mykolaiv, on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, as Russian forces resumed shelling.
The exact number of civilian casualties is unclear, though is estimated by Ukraine to be in the thousands as residential areas of major cities are indiscriminately bombed using thermobaric and cluster munitions amid evidence of ‘hit squads’ targeting civilian vehicles.
Forces continue to work to surround the capital Kyiv, though progress has been slow. Attacks on civilian areas on the outskirts have increased
After more than a week in stalled positions, Russian forces have made small gains in their attempt to surround and assault Kyiv – with Ukraine saying enough firepower has now been amassed for the mission
Russian forces are widely seen as having struggled in the face of Ukrainian military resistance and civil disobedience since entering the country 11 days ago. Pictured: Smoke rises from a Russian tank in Lugansk region on February 26
The UN has confirmed 406 civilian deaths, though admits the true toll will be higher, and says that that 1.5million people have fled the fighting.
A military expert has warned that Putin could be finished by the invasion after under-estimating military, social and economic resistance at home and abroad.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour, Prof Clarke said ‘every day the Ukrainian government is still up and running and standing is a political victory for them and a political defeat for Russia’.
‘The Russians can occupy the country at a superficial level. But given that the Ukrainians now hate them – and you are talking about a big country, a physically big country of 45 million people – it is a sheer impossibility that the Russians can control Ukraine in the way that they thought likely or the way Putin thought likely,’ he said.
‘It’s a completely impossible scenario Putin has set his military forces, it’s a huge strategic blunder, which incidentally has now become a political crisis in Russia … this is peak Putin. After this Putin is finished.
‘We don’t know how long it will take, it may be some years or it might actually be quite quick. But there is no way out for this, it is a massive massive mistake on his part.’
‘We don’t know how long it will take, it may be some years or it might actually be quite quick. But there is no way out for this, it is a massive massive mistake on his part.’
A Russian T-72 tank is seen destroyed somewhere near the city of Mariupol in an image posted by the ‘Azov Brigade’, a unit of the Ukrainian National Guard that operates in and around the city
The tail-end of a destroyed Russian Su-34 fighter is seen crashed through the roof of a warehouse near Kharkiv having been shot down by Ukrainian forces
A destroyed Russian infantry fighting vehicle is seen near the city of Mariupol, in images captured by Ukraine’s ‘Azov Brigade’
And the UK’s top military commander suggested Vladimir Putin’s ‘decimated’ forces could lose the war in Ukraine.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said Russia’s troops were ‘in a mess’ and the invasion was ‘not going well’.
His comments represent the most optimistic assessment yet of how the conflict may end – but came on another bleak day, with Russian forces firing on families as they fled the fighting.
When the invasion began less than a fortnight ago it was assumed to be inevitable that Russian tanks would roll into Kyiv within hours. But after a series of strategic blunders and the remarkable resistance of Ukrainian troops on the battlefield, the outcome of the campaign could now be in doubt.
Sir Tony, the former head of the Royal Navy, who was appointed Chief of the Defence Staff late last year, was speaking after eight Russian aircraft were shot down in 24 hours.
The Russians, contrary to their military doctrine, have also been forced to admit that almost 500 of their soldiers have been killed.
