The war between Russia and Ukraine continues as the invasion enters its 12th day.
The Russian military is trying to blockade the city from the north and the northwest.
The road that connects Kyiv to Lviv, the E40 highway, has been partially occupied by the Russians.
The Russian military has also entered Irpin, which lies 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) to the north of the capital city Kyiv. There are preparations being made on every corner of the city.
Ukrainian military and police thoroughly search every vehicle that passes through the checkpoints in the city. In addition to the concrete barriers, anti-tank obstacles made of iron have also been installed on the city’s roads.
Locals are getting on the streets to dig ditches and build trenches against the Russian invaders.
One Kyiv neighborhood with a concentration of Azerbaijani citizens is also where both Ukrainian and Azerbaijani flags fly alongside each other.
Amil Yusuflu, who has organized the resistance in the neighborhood, has been living in Ukraine for 25 years.
Saying that they will resist the Russian military together, he added that preparations are continuing.
“We don’t have weapons. We decided to dig ditches and build trenches like people in other parts of Kyiv are doing. We have built trenches in collaboration, we have prepared Molotov cocktails. None of us is thinking about leaving here. We will help the Ukrainian military as much as we can, until the end,” he said.
“We will support a free Ukraine,” Yusuflu concluded.
As the invasion continues, hundreds of journalists from all over the world are in Ukraine to cover the developments. Emine Kavasoğlu, a journalist from A Haber news channel, has been risking her life to be here during the war.
Kavasoğlu is striving to be the voice of Ukrainian women affected by war, as the March 8 International Women’s Day draws nearer.
Kavasoğlu, who rushed to the place people are trying to escape from, has made it to capital Kyiv after working in the Donbass region.
Sleepless nights, a heavy workload and shortage of food awaits Kavasoğlu, as it does every other journalist covering the invasion.
The journalist who worked in Syria and Azerbaijan and many other war-torn regions during conflict, said that she is “not a war correspondent despite all.”
The experienced reporter says that she is not in Ukraine for show but to truly reflect the realities on the ground.
“I have been working as a journalist for 22 years. I love my job. I worked in many areas in crisis. I am one of two female reporters that came to Kyiv from Turkey,” she said.
“I observe that the number of female reporters is also low among the foreign journalists,” Kavasoğlu added.
“There are no ‘men’ or ‘women’ in journalism; there are ‘good reporters’ and ‘bad reporters’ only,” she said.
“This year, International Women’s Day means more to me. I have seen the struggle here. Women that fight to keep their children away from war, to save their country,” Kavasoğlu added.
“I am fighting to make this fact more visible and to show how terrifying war really is.”
