Ukraine warfare: Russia’s Kharkiv attacks are warfare crimes, says Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of conflict crimes after it launched air strikes at the united states of america’s second town, Kharkiv.

At least 10 humans had been killed and 35 hurt while an opera house, a concert hall and government offices were struck in Kharkiv’s Freedom Square on Tuesday.

Later, Ukraine’s navy said Russian troops had parachuted into Kharkiv a good way to capture the besieged city.

The military said there were instant clashes after the paratroopers landed.

Earlier on Tuesday, the principle TV tower within the capital Kyiv turned into also hit, knocking media off air and killing five human beings.

Moscow warned citizens close to Kyiv’s navy areas to leave their houses.

The explosion sent smoke billowing from the steel structure, however the tower stays standing.

A close by memorial to victims of the Holocaust turned into broken within the identical strike. The Babyn Yar ravine is Europe’s largest mass grave of the Holocaust where extra than 70,000 human beings, mainly Jews, had been shot by means of the Nazis.

Mr Zelensky said on Twitter that the attack was “history repeating…”.

“What is the factor of saying ‘by no means again’ for 80 years, if the arena remains silent when a bomb drops on the equal site of Babyn Yar?”

Satellite photos display a huge Russian military convoy snaking closer to Kyiv, amid fears of an all-out attack at the capital.

But a senior US defence professional stated there have been “no considerable movement” by way of the 40-mile (64km) convoy on Tuesday.

There have been indications that morale become flagging among Russian troops in popular, and some devices were surrendering, every so often without a fight, the authentic introduced.

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‘Terror against Ukraine’
In a speech to the EU parliament via video hyperlink, Mr Zelensky called on Europe to “show you are with us, show that you may not let us go”.

Later the parliament said it would take a look at a request by Ukraine for candidate fame of the EU.

The Ukrainian president condemned the attacks on Kharkiv as “country terrorism on the part of Russia”.

Video pictures confirmed a missile hitting the local authorities constructing and exploding, causing a big fireball and blowing out windows of surrounding homes. Freedom Square is the second one largest town-centre square in Europe and a landmark of the metropolis.

Residents of Kharkiv informed the BBC they were dwelling in “hell” due to apparent attacks on civilians.

Yulia, a married mother of 3, said the Russians have been focused on regions and not using a military infrastructure.

“They’ve been bombing… A residential region where tens of hundreds of people live – moms, youngsters,” she said. “We have very many injured… This is hell.”

Another resident instructed the Newshour programme she and her husband and youngsters had been living in a bomb safe haven due to the fact they did no longer realize where the shelling could strike next.

‘They need to wipe my town off the face of the Earth’
Just 30 miles from the border and largely Russian speakme, Kharkiv has long been considered an obvious goal for this invasion. Russian troops have engaged in road fight there with Ukrainian soldiers defending the town, and the town has been heavily bombarded from the air, killing ratings of civilians as a minimum.

Residents who spoke to the BBC on Tuesday defined spending lengthy nights in cramped bomb shelters or, for those with no get right of entry to underground, inside the hallways of their flats, away from windows.

Iryna Ruzhynska, 40, was sheltering on Tuesday within the hallway of her second-floor condo in a sixteen-ground constructing, with her two sons, daughter-in-law and grandchild. Ruzhynska’s mother, who is 75, become trapped in her personal eleventh-ground rental because the constructing’s elevate became out of order.

“We have positioned scotch tape on the windows and pillows by means of the window stills,” Ruzhynska stated.

“We don’t activate the lighting fixtures, simplest the torches on our telephones. We managed to visit the store the day before today, but we queued for 4 hours and there was truely no food left.”

A avenue close by Ruzhynska’s rental was shelled on Monday, she said – a thumping blast that left body parts strewn around the street. When she opens her window she can pay attention gunfire and bombing.

“It is exhausting and terrifying dwelling below this pressure,” she said. “And I am irritated, because that is a massive, beautiful town, my town, and that they want to wipe it from the face of the Earth.”

Mr Zelensky’s government accuses Russia of trying to lay siege to Kharkiv, Kyiv and other cities.

Russia’s defence ministry said it turned into no longer focused on towns, best army infrastructure, and that there was no chance to the civilian population.

The 6th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine noticed continued assaults on numerous fronts, but the Russian enhance has reportedly been slowed by Ukrainian resistance.

There are reviews of shelling and avenue preventing inside the southern town of Kherson, and Mariupol, a port town additionally inside the south of Ukraine, is without electricity after an extreme bombardment.

Four human beings, consisting of a child, were killed while their homes were struck in Zhytomyr on Tuesday by a Russian air strike, seemingly aimed toward a close-by military base, a Ukrainian legit stated.

More than 600,000 human beings throughout Ukraine have fled their homes to escape the fighting, in line with the United Nations, and Kyiv says greater than 350 civilians, such as thirteen kids, had been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began.

Ukraine has also said that greater than 70 of its soldiers have been killed, while Russia has no longer launched figures for its own losses, amid Ukrainian claims of thousands of deaths.