![]() The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimated that 59,600 Ukrainians would be eligible for the program, which provides relief from deportation and work authorization. The Biden administration’s actions to welcome some Ukrainians began on March 3, when Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months for certain Ukrainians already present in the United States. In what has become Europe’s largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, nearly 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and more than 6 million civilians (predominantly women and children) have fled the country-the vast majority seeking refuge in neighboring Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. It has a regular army that numbers 125,600, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, but has mobilised reserves of at least 36,000.Amid the huge internal and international displacement of millions of Ukrainians after their country was invaded by Russia in February 2022, the United States is extending protection to as many as 180,000. Ukraine’s forces are considerably smaller. Half of Moscow’s air force is also deployed in the region. That amounts to an estimated two-thirds of Russia’s total ground forces. Russia has amassed more than 150,000 combat troops on the borders of Ukraine, with a further 34,000 lightly armed separatist forces in the pro-Russian self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk. The local administration in Odesa said 22 people had died in a strike on a military base. The mayor of Mariupol said three civilians had been killed there and emergency services in Kharkiv said a boy had been killed after shelling struck an apartment building. The Ukrainian presidential adviser said up to 10 civilians had been killed. Ukraine’s armed forces earlier reported that at least 40 soldiers had died. Information on casualties has been hard to verify, though on Thursday evening Ukraine’s health minister said 57 people had been killed and 169 injured. The US said it believed Russia launched 100 missiles and used 75 aircraft in the first wave of bombing. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had destroyed 74 “objects of above-ground military infrastructure”, though this could not be confirmed. Smoke rises from an air defence base in the aftermath of a strike in Mariupol. Crucial, perhaps, in this calculation is the fact that south of Chernihiv – which lies to the east of the Dnieper river – lies the E95 highway to Kyiv. One axis of advance appears to have centred around the Senkivka border crossing to the north-east of Chernihiv. Russian troops also advanced from the north on the city of Chernihiv. The Chernobyl exclusion zone lies directly in the path of what western experts believe is the principal invasion route from Belarus to the west of Kyiv, where Ukraine’s presidential palace and key buildings are located. Ukraine’s interior ministry warned that if artillery fire was to hit waste stored after the 1986 disaster, it could lead to “radioactive nuclear dust” being spread “over the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the countries of the EU”. The adviser said authorities did not know the current condition of the facilities at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Chernobyl and the northĪ Ukrainian presidential adviser said Ukraine had lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site in the north, where fighting raged after Russian troops crossed the border from Belarus. “However, it’s high risk because until ground forces link up, the airborne assault forces are deep in Ukrainian territory and dependent on aerial resupply, casualty evacuation and fire support,” he said. Justin Bronk, of the Rusi thinktank, said if airborne assault troops could take and hold the airbase, the Russians could use it to rapidly build up forces ahead of heavy ground troops to put pressure on the capital. Shortly after, however, Ukraine’s armed forces chief said Kyiv’s forces were fighting back in a critical early battle. Ukraine said it had downed three helicopters in the initial assault, but a lunchtime report from CNN showed Russian forces in control of at least some of the base.
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