“We should be aware that this week Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in a weekend video address. The Defense Ministry also urged Ukrainians to be “especially careful on Aug. 24 due to the threat of missile strikes and provocations from Russia.”
As a precaution, independence day celebrations have been canceled across the country, including in the capital, Kyiv, with Ukrainians told to avoid large gatherings. Local authorities — from Kharkiv in the east to Lviv in the west — have warned people to pay more attention to air raid sirens, respect curfews and work from home, if possible.
Iryna Komar said she is worried about new strikes on major cities, including her native city, Chernivtsi, in western Ukraine.
“It will be tense,” Komar, 26, said in Ukrainian on the phone from Chernivtsi.
“Personally, I don’t plan to go anywhere to celebrate,” said Komar, who works as a gymnastics coach. “I will only go to work as usual, but I will avoid going outside again.”
The U.S. warned Tuesday that it had information that “Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days.” Authorities in Kyiv had already banned mass public gatherings from Monday to Thursday, warning of the Russian threat.
Heeding the warning, Olena Rozvadovska, a former journalist who runs a charity helping children in Kyiv affected by war, has canceled all events until Thursday.
“We don’t want to succumb to panic, but we also want to pay attention,” said Rozvadovska, 38, speaking in Russian by phone from the capital.
The sense of dread has hung over Ukraine since before Russia’s invasion changed the lives of people like Rozvadovska. But it has been especially acute of late.
“There is always a threat hanging over us,” she said. “But I realize that these days can be especially unsafe.”
Moscow’s forces retreated from Kyiv after they failed to take it in the early weeks of the war, but the city has been hit by occasional rocket strikes, some of them deadly.
In a symbolic display of the defiance that helped its military hold out, Ukraine paraded destroyed Russian military equipment through the heart of Kyiv over the weekend.
It allowed children to climb atop damaged tanks and armored vehicles taken from the front lines, six months after the Russians sent them across the border hoping they would swiftly be parading through the streets in victory.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
