RUSSIAN ONSLAUGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 91, 14 October 1943, Page 5

RUSSIAN ONSLAUGHT

Eight Bases In Danger

(By Telegraph—PreSs Association—Copyright.) Eec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, October 13. Eight great German bases along- a front of nearly 1000 miles are immediately threatened by the Red Army. . These towns—Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, Gomel, Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhe, and Melitopol—are the only big bases standing between the Red Army and the borders of Latvia, Poland, and Rumania. At the southern end of the front the Russians are 200 miles east of the Rumanian border. At Kiev they are 150 miles east of Poland and north of Vitebsk they are within about 45 miles of Latvia. Observers believe it is well within the capacity of the Russians to smash through these distances within a few weeks. Meanwhile the Germans are systematically mutilating Kiev, employing the scorched earth method which they always adopt when they are to give up any strong-point, and the evacuation of the city appears to be imminent.

The British United Press correspondent in Moscow, cabling tonight, says that the capital of the Ukraine is already a dead city. Despite the absence of a definite announcement from Russian or German sources, the British United Press goes so far as to say: "The Germans have driven thousands of citizens from KieV and apparently sacked the city and left it practically deserted, with probably only a covering screen of troops to try to hold back the Russians." The correspondent adds that the Russian frontal assault against the burning city has begun. The assault is being made from Rukhanov ■ Island, in the Dnieper, 300 yards from the outskirts of Kiev. The Germans have blown up the .two bridges connecting the j island with Kiev. The Russians on the west bank of the Dnieper are also tightening their grip on the approaches to the city.