Street fighting yesterday raged in Ukraine’s second-biggest city after Russian forces pierced through Ukrainian lines, as both sides said they were ready for talks to halt a conflict that has forced an estimated 260,000 people to flee their homes.
Machine gun fire and explosions could be heard in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, and an Agence France-Presse journalist saw the wreckage of a Russian armored vehicle smoldering and several others abandoned.
On the fourth day of an invasion by Russia that has sent shockwaves around the world, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy turned down Moscow’s offer of a meeting in Belarus, which has allowed Russian troops passage to attack Ukraine.
Photo: AFP
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had proposed Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul and Baku as possible alternative locations for any talks.
“Any other city in a country from whose territory missiles do not fly would suit us,” Zelenskiy said.
“The past night in Ukraine was brutal,” he said. “They fight against everyone. They fight against all living things — against kindergartens, against residential buildings and even against ambulances.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Ukraine has reported 198 civilian deaths, including three children, since the invasion began.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has defied crippling Western sanctions on Russia’s economy and international pariah status for his country to press ahead with the air, ground and sea assault.
Apart from the attack on Kharkiv near the Russian border, Moscow also claimed it was “entirely” besieging the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and the city of Berdyansk in the southeast.
Photo: AP
Ukrainian officials also said that a gas pipeline in eastern Kharkiv and an oil depot near the capital, Kyiv, were targeted overnight.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Many Kyiv residents spent another night in shelters, but the morning was relatively calm and a strict blanket curfew was in place until today.
Russia on Saturday ordered its forces to advance further into Ukraine “from all directions,” but soldiers have encountered fierce resistance from Ukrainian troops, the intensity of which has likely surprised Moscow, Western sources said.
Ukraine’s army said it held the line against an assault on Kyiv, but was fighting Russian “sabotage groups” that had infiltrated the city.
“We will fight until we have liberated our country,” a defiant Zelenskiy said in a video message on Saturday.
He also said Ukraine had “derailed” Moscow’s plan to overthrow him and urged Russians to pressure Putin into stopping the conflict.
Yesterday, Ukraine’s general staff said the 44-year-old leader was urging any foreigners to come to Ukraine “and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against Russian war criminals.”
“There is no greater contribution which you can make for the sake of peace,” the general staff said in a Facebook post, adding that the foreign fighters would form part of an “International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine.”
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said more than 100,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, while more than 160,000 are estimated to be displaced within Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said he asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to strip Russia of its vote at the UN Security Council as punishment for the invasion.
The Ukrainian president has also thanked NATO members for sending weapons and equipment, while Washington announced US$350 million of new military assistance.
Berlin said it would send Kyiv 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles, in a major U-turn from its long-standing policy of not exporting weapons to war zones.
Paris said it would deliver more arms to Ukraine.
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