Ukraine's defense of Kyiv

 Reuters:

The burnt wreckage of two Russian tanks with blown off turrets and several armoured personnel carriers attest the ferocity of last week's clashes in Lukyanivka village just outside Kyiv. The charred corpse of a Russian soldier lies in a field nearby.

"There were mortars so strong that it was scary even in the cellar," local resident Valeriy Hudym told Reuters on Sunday, two days after Ukrainian soldiers seized back control of Lukyanivka in a five-hour battle with the Russians.

"Tanks were firing, artillery, and machine guns. Everything possible was there," Hudym said. Two Ukrainian soldiers, involved in the battle to retake the village, said the fighting was intense.

More than a month since Russia's invasion, the defence of Ukraine's capital Kyiv has played out in heavy clashes in places like Lukyanivka and the nearby town of Brovary to the east, Irpin and Bucha to the northwest and Makariv to the west.

When the histories are written such towns and villages may be minor details, but they are where the Russian advance has been halted, sometimes by small, mobile Ukrainian units wielding anti-tank weapons shipped in from abroad.

Moscow promised at peace talks in Istanbul on Tuesday that it would drastically scale back operations around Kyiv to help the dialogue.

In Lukyanivka, two hours' drive from the centre of Kyiv, residents recall warning Russian troops who had occupied their settlement to leave while they could.

"I have a neighbour called Svitlana. She told them openly to their face: 'Guys, go home. You will be killed here'," Hudym said. Reuters was unable to independently confirm this.

The reversal in Lukyanivka has been repeated in areas around the northern half of the capital, as Ukrainian troops claw back territory lost in the first month of fighting in small battles, without scoring a decisive victory.
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There is much more.

This gives an on-the-ground look at the Russian operation with eyewitness accounts of Ukrainians in the area.  It gives a feel of why the Russian operation did not meet its objectives and how Ukraine forces reacted to the Russian presence.

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