The European Union is seeing signs on social media that Russia could introduce martial law in the country after its invasion of Ukraine, an EU official said on Thursday.
The official said the bloc was picking up speculation on social media about potential Russian plans, which it said would be “completely home-produced”. “As is the tragic loss of young lives killed in the military conflict, with Russian mothers having to learn about the loss of their sons.
So it is something we’re conscious of. And it’s something we’re worried about,” the official said. Russia’s war on Ukraine is now on its eighth day, with a huge convoy of Russian tanks and armored vehicles inching closer to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and fighting to intensify on the ground.
Russia on Tuesday stepped up shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, pounding civilian targets there. Casualties mounted and reports emerged that more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery recently hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the capital. But Ukrainian fighters are putting up a fierce resistance and Russia has not been able to dominate the skies.
