Kyiv / KHARKIV, Ukraine, March 3 – Russian troops were in the center of the Ukrainian port of Kherson on Thursday after a day of controversial claims that Moscow had taken over a major city center for the first time in its eight-day invasion.
Russia’s defense ministry said it had taken Kherson on Wednesday, but an adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said Ukrainian forces continued to defend the Black Sea port with about 250,000 people.
“We are a nation that thwarted the enemy’s plans in a week,” Zelenski said in a video address. “It took years to write these plans – they are vile, with hatred for our country, for our people.”
The capture of the strategic capital of the southern province, where the Dnieper flows into the Black Sea, will be the first significant urban center to fall since Moscow launched its invasion on February 24th.
Russian forces have not yet overthrown the government in Kyiv, but thousands have reportedly been killed or injured, and more than a million have fled Ukraine amid the biggest attack on a European country since 1945.
“For many millions more in Ukraine, it is time for weapons to be silenced so that life-saving humanitarian aid can be provided,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi tweeted.
Russia’s attack has led to a series of international sanctions that threaten the recovery of the global economy from the COVID pandemic, and fuels fears of wider conflict as Western countries send weapons to help the Ukrainian military.
Kherson Mayor Igor Kolikhaev said late Wednesday that Russian troops were on the streets and entered the council building. He urged civilians to walk the streets in daylight only, one at a time.
“There were armed visitors to the city’s executive committee today,” he said in a statement. “I didn’t give them any promises … I just asked them not to shoot at people.”
The US State Department has called on Putin and the Russian government to “immediately stop this bloodshed” and withdraw their forces from Ukraine. He also accused Moscow of launching a “complete war against media freedom and truth” by blocking independent news outlets and social media to prevent Russians from hearing news of the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that is not intended to occupy territory, but to destroy its neighbor’s military capabilities and capture dangerous nationalists.
He denies targeting civilians, although there are widespread reports of civilian casualties and shelling of residential areas.
The bombings in Kharkov, a city of 1.5 million people, turned its center into a wasteland of destroyed buildings and debris.
Russians shelled the town of Izyum, about 120km (75 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, killing six adults and two children, Ukraine’s parliament said. Reuters was unable to confirm the casualties.
The UN Office of Human Rights confirmed the deaths of 227 civilians and 525 wounded during the conflict at midnight on March 1st, warning that the real ones would be much higher due to delayed reporting.
The blast also shook the railway station in Kyiv, where thousands of women and children were evacuated. The blast was caused by debris from a downed Russian cruise missile, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry said, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The International Criminal Court will immediately launch an investigation into possible war crimes following requests from 39 of the tribunal’s member states, an unprecedented number. Read more
INTERNATIONAL ANSWER
A UN resolution condemning Moscow was backed by 141 of the 193 members of the assembly, a symbolic victory for Ukraine that increases Moscow’s international isolation. Read more
“More is at stake than the conflict in Ukraine itself. This is a threat to Europe’s security and the whole rule-based order,” said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was still seeking “demilitarization” of Ukraine and that there should be a list of specific weapons that could never be stationed on Ukrainian territory. Moscow opposes Kyiv’s bid to join NATO.
Oil and commodity prices rose higher on Thursday in a grim omen of global inflation. Read more
For Russians, the consequences include queues in front of banks, a collapse in the value of the ruble, threatening their standard of living, and the eviction of Western companies that refuse to do business in the country.
Japanese carmakers, including Toyota, have been forced to suspend production in Russia as sanctions have hampered logistics and disrupted supply chains. Read more
Russia’s self-sanctioned central bank has doubled interest rates to 20 percent and Fitch downgraded Russia’s sovereign credit rating to rubbish. Read more
A Ukrainian delegation has left for a second round of talks with Russian officials on a ceasefire after the first round made little progress on Monday, adviser to Ukrainian President Mykhailo Podoliak told Reuters.
Forbes reports that Germany has captured the mega yacht of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov at a shipyard in Hamburg, while at least five superyachts owned by billionaires are anchored or sailing in the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean that has no extradition treaty with the United States. states, the data show. Read more
Russian businessman Roman Abramovich has said he will sell London-based Chelsea football club and donate money to help victims of the war in Ukraine. Read more
Reports by Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets and Alexander Vasovich in Ukraine, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and other Reuters offices; writing by Costas Pitas, Stephen Coates and Simon Cameron-Moore; Edited by Lincoln Feast
Our standards: ‘ principles of trust.