Fighting erupted in Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, after Russian airborne troops jumped with parachutes to attack military targets.
At least 21 people have been killed and 112 injured in shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city over the past 24 hours, regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said this morning.
Authorities say Russian rocket attacks have hit the center of Kharkiv, including residential areas and the regional administration building.
The leader of Ukraine, President Greencried RussiaThe escalation of attacks on crowded urban areas as a screaming campaign of terror.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed since Russian troops entered Ukraine last week to carry out Vladimir Putin’s mission to overthrow Zelensky’s pro-Western government.
Russian forces have carried out massive bombardment and surrounded city centers, but Ukraine insists no major city has yet been captured.
“Russian airborne troops landed in Kharkov … and attacked a local hospital,” the Ukrainian army said in a statement to the Telegram news app. “The battle between the invaders and the Ukrainians continues.”
Russia struck a residential building in the city on Tuesday, killing eight people, comparing it to the massacres of civilians in Sarajevo in the 1990s and the condemnation of what Zelenski called a “war crime”.
A fire broke out in the barracks of the Kharkov Flight School on Wednesday after an air strike, according to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister.
“There are virtually no areas left in Kharkov where an artillery shell has not yet struck,” he was quoted as saying in a statement to the Telegram.
Kharkiv, a predominantly Russian-speaking city near the Russian border, has a population of about 1.4 million.
A monitor showing a projectile hitting the district state administration building on Tuesday
The ensuing explosion when Kharkiv, the former capital of Ukraine, faced the sixth day of Russian bombing
View of the square in front of the damaged local town hall of Kharkiv after the central square of the second city in Ukraine was shelled by the advancing Russian forces
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a “dictator”, warning that the campaign for sanctions to cripple Russia’s economy would escalate and its oligarchs would be targeted.
In Biden’s first address on the state of the Union, he welcomed the determination of the Western alliance and expressed solidarity with Ukraine, while members of the US Congress applauded the Ukrainian people.
“A Russian dictator invading a foreign country has costs all over the world,” Biden told lawmakers in his annual address to the state of the Union, pledging decisive action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is aimed at the Russian economy. “.
Biden, who previously spoke with Zelensky on the phone, announced new measures against Russia and its wealthy elite with a new task force to pursue the “crimes” of Russian oligarchs.
“We are coming for your malicious profits,” he said, provoking the rare sight of members of both parties standing to applaud.
“And tonight I announce that we will join our allies in closing US airspace to all Russian flights – further isolating Russia and adding extra strain to their economy.”
The US leader said Putin’s aggression was “deliberate and completely unprovoked” – but welcomed the Western alliance’s determination to respond with brutal sanctions.
“(Putin) thought he could separate us here at home,” Biden said. “But Putin was wrong. We are ready.’
He reiterated his commitment that no US troops would be sent to Ukraine to oppose the invading forces.
The lack of will to send foreign troops into battle gave Russia room to continue its attack on Ukrainian cities.
A strike on Kyiv’s main TV tower killed five people on Tuesday and disrupted some state broadcasts, Ukrainian authorities said, but left the structure intact.
New explosions were heard late Tuesday in Kyiv and the White Church, 80km south, according to local media.
Newspapers also reported that Russian missiles damaged residential buildings and a hospital in Zhytomyr, citing the mayor of the main transport center, Sergei Sukhomlin.
The International Criminal Court has launched an investigation into war crimes against Russia. Ukraine says more than 350 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed in the conflict.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also said at night that it feared an attack by Belarus over its northern border.
“Belarusian troops have been put on high alert and are concentrated in areas closest to the border with Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement on Facebook on Tuesday.
Ukrainian intelligence noted “significant activity” of aircraft in the border area, the statement said.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that he had ordered more troops in the south of the country, Belta news agency reported.
But Belarusian forces, a close ally of Russia, will not take part in the attack on Ukraine, he added.
In southern Ukraine, the city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov was left without electricity after the Russian bombing, while Kherson on the Black Sea reported Russian checkpoints surrounding the city.
In a key victory for Moscow, Russia’s defense ministry said its troops had linked up with pro-Moscow rebel forces from eastern Ukraine off the Sea of Azov.
Russia has opposed international bans, boycotts and sanctions to continue its offensive, which it says aims to protect Russian-speakers in Ukraine and bring down leadership.
In response, more Western companies have withdrawn from projects in Russia, deepening the economic consequences for Moscow, which saw the ruble collapse this week.
Apple, ExxonMobil and Boeing announced on Tuesday quick successive steps to withdraw or freeze business in Russia.
The moves followed earlier announcements from Disney, Ford and Mastercard, among others.
The invasion spun global markets as crude rose more than $ 110 a barrel on Wednesday as shares sank.
In addition to sanctions, Germany has promised weapons to Ukraine, while the EU first said it would buy and supply weapons to the country.
Zelensky reiterated an urgent call for Ukraine to join the European Union.
More than 660,000 people have fled abroad, the UN refugee agency said, and as battles for control of major cities rage, many more are expected to follow.
Residents of the capital Kyiv are crammed into makeshift bomb shelters in anticipation of their own battle, with a massive Russian military convoy located just north of the city.
Teacher Irina Butyak, 38, spent two days in the basement of her apartment building, sheltering about 20 people.
“We have train tickets to western Ukraine for tomorrow,” she told AFP as air raid sirens sounded directly above.
“I don’t think we’ll get to the train.”