Russian artillery bombarded residential districts of Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv on Monday, killing possibly dozens of people, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow’s invading forces met stiff resistance from Ukrainians on a fifth day of conflict.
The attacks took place while Russian and Ukrainian officials met on the Belarusian border, but their talks made no breakthrough.
Russia also faced deepening isolation and economic turmoil as Western nations, united in condemnation of its assault, hit it with an array of sanctions that rippled around the world. Global shares slid and oil prices jumped.
The United States imposed new sanctions – on Russia’s central bank and other sources of wealth.
And President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a letter formally requesting immediate membership of the European Union for Ukraine – a request unlikely to shorten the admission process, but an emphatic statement of commitment to Western values. read more
But Russian President Vladimir Putin showed no sign of reconsidering the invasion he unleashed on Russia’s neighbour last Thursday in an attempt to pull it firmly back under Moscow’s influence and redraw Europe’s security map.
He dismissed the West as an “empire of lies” and replied to the new sanctions with moves to shore up Russia’s crumbling rouble currency.
The Russian invasion – the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two – has failed to make the decisive early gains that Putin would have hoped for. But Kharkiv in Ukraine’s northeast has become a major battleground.
Regional administration chief Oleg Synegubov said Russian artillery had pounded residential districts even though no Ukrainian army positions or strategic infrastructure were there. At least 11 people were killed, he said.
“This is happening in the daytime, when people have gone out to the pharmacy, for groceries, or for drinking water. It’s a crime,” he said.
Earlier Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said Russian rocket strikes on Kharkiv had killed dozens. It was not possible to verify the casualty figures independently.
Video posted by the military showed thick columns of smoke rising from apartment blocks and flashes of flames.
Moscow’s United Nations ambassador, speaking in New York, said the Russian army did not pose a threat to civilians.
Images from the U.S. satellite company Maxar showed a Russian military convoy stretching over 17 miles on the way to Kyiv.
Fighting also occurred throughout Sunday night around the port city of Mariupol, the head of the Donetsk regional administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said. He did not say whether Russian forces had gained or lost ground.
Russian forces seized two small cities in southeastern Ukraine and the area around a nuclear power plant, according to the Interfax news agency, but the capital Kyiv remained under government control.
Explosions were heard in the city before dawn and soldiers set up checkpoints and blocked streets with piles of sandbags and tyres as they waited to take on Russian soldiers.
On Kyiv’s streets, signboards normally used for traffic alerts showed the message: “Putin lost the war. The whole world is with Ukraine.”
