Russia strikes Kharkiv, convoy nears Kyiv

YURAS KARMANAU, JIM HEINTZ, VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and DASHA LITVINOVA (Associated Press) | February 28, 2022

Russian shelling has again pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city as a huge convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital, in what the Ukrainian president called state terrorism.

With the Kremlin increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have tanked the rouble currency, Russian troops attempted to advance on Ukraine’s two biggest cities. In strategic Kharkiv, a city with a population of about 1.5 million, videos posted online showed explosions hitting the region’s Soviet-era administrative building and residential areas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack on Kharkiv’s main square “frank, undisguised terror,” blaming a Russian missile and calling it a war crime. “Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget. … This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation.”

Throughout Ukraine, many civilians spent another night huddled in shelters, basements or corridors.

The casualty toll mounted as Ukraine faced Day 6 of a Russian invasion that has shaken the 21st century world order. Hopes for a negotiated solution to the war dimmed after a first, five-hour session of talks between Ukraine and Russia yielded no stop in the fighting, though both sides agreed to another meeting in coming days.

With Western powers sending weapons to Ukraine and driving a global squeeze of Russia’s economy, President Vladimir Putin’s options diminished as he seeks to redraw the global map — and pull Ukraine’s western-leaning democracy back into Moscow’s orbit.

As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in the capital, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The convoy of armoured vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 25 kilometres from the centre of the city and stretched about 65 kilometres, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.

Kharkiv, near the Russian border, is another key target. One after the other, explosions burst through a residential area of the city in one video verified by AP. 

Determined for life to go on despite the shelling, hospital workers transferred a Kharkiv maternity ward to a bomb shelter. Amid makeshift electrical sockets and mattresses piled up against the walls, pregnant women paced the crowded space, accompanied by the cries of dozens of newborns.

The Russian military has denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals.

The International Criminal Court chief prosecutor has said he plans to open a Ukraine investigation and is monitoring the conflict.

The Russian military’s movements have been stalled by fierce resistance on the ground and a surprising inability to dominate Ukraine’s airspace.

In the face of that resistance, the Kremlin has twice in as many days raised the spectre of nuclear war and put on high alert an arsenal that includes intercontinental ballistic missiles and long-range bombers. Stepping up his rhetoric, President Vladimir Putin denounced the United States and its allies as an “empire of lies.”

Western nations have increased weapons shipments to Ukraine to help its forces defend themselves — but have so far ruled out sending in troops. Still, the embattled country moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union — a largely symbolic move for now, but one that won’t sit well with Putin, who was already infuriated by Ukraine’s desire to join the NATO alliance.

The economic sanctions, ordered by the US and other allies, were just one contributor to Russia’s growing status as a pariah country.

Russian airliners are banned from European airspace, Russian media is restricted in some countries, and some high-tech products can no longer be exported to the country. On Monday, international sports bodies moved to exclude Russian athletes and officials from international events, including soccer’s World Cup.

More than a half-million people have fled the country since the invasion, another UN official said, many of them going to Poland, Romania and Hungary.