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| Destroyed Russian infantry vehicles in Kharkiv, Ukraine, February 28, 2022. (Sergey Bobok/AFP) |
KYIV, Ukraine - Russian colors continued shelling Ukraine's alternate-largest megacity on Monday, rattling domestic neighborhoods, and approaching the capital, Kyiv, in a 17- afar convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, in addresses aimed at stopping fighting. only redounded in an agreement to continue talking.
Amid growing transnational commination, Russia plant itself decreasingly isolated five days into its irruption, while also facing suddenly fierce resistance in Ukraine and profitable fermentation at home.
For the alternate day in a row, the Kremlin raised the specter of nuclear war, publicizing that nuclear-able multinational ballistic dumdums, submarines and long- range bombers had all been put on alert, following President Vladimir Putin's orders over the weekend. Stepping up his rhetoric, Putin denounced theU.S. and its abettors as an" conglomerate of falsehoods."
Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union — a largely emblematic move for now, but one that's doubtful to sit well with Putin, who has long indicted theU.S. of trying to pull Ukraine out of Moscow's route.
A top Putin assistant and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the first addresses held between the two sides since the irruption lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys" plant certain points on which common positions could be previsioned."He said they agreed to continue the conversations in the coming days.
As the addresses along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, and Russian colors advanced on the megacity of nearly 3 million. The vast convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, ordnance and support vehicles was 17 country miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the megacity, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.
People in Kyiv lined up for groceries after the end of a weekend curfew, standing beneath a structure with a peering hole blown in its side.
Dispatches aimed at the advancing Russian dogfaces popped up on billboards, machine stops and electronic business signs across the capital. Some used obscenity to encourage Russians to leave. Others appealed to their humanity.
"Russian dogface — Stop! Remember your family. Go home with a clean heart,"one read.
Videotape from Kharkiv, Ukraine's alternate-biggest megacity, with a population of about1.5 million, showed domestic areas being shelled, with apartment structures shaken by repeated, important blasts. Flashes of fire and argentine awards of bank could be seen.
Footage released by the government from Kharkiv depicted what appeared to be a home with water gushing from a pierced ceiling. What looked like an undetonated gunshot was on the bottom.
Authorities in Kharkiv said at least seven people had been killed and dozens injured. They advised that casualties could be far advanced.
"They wanted to have a blitzkrieg, but it failed, so they act this way," said 83- time-old Valentin Petrovich, who watched the shelling from his town apartment and gave just his first name and his Russian- style middle name out of fear for his safety.
The Russian service has denied targeting domestic areas despite abundant substantiation of shelling of homes, seminaries and hospitals.
Fighting raged in other municipalities and metropolises across the country. The strategic harborage megacity of Mariupol, on the Ocean of Azov, is" hanging on," said Zelenskyy counsel Oleksiy Arestovich. An canvas depot was reported bombed in the eastern megacity of Sumy.
In the deepwater resort city of Berdyansk, dozens of protesters chanted angrily in the main forecourt against Russian occupiers, yelling at them to go home and singing the Ukrainian public hymn. They described the dogfaces as exhausted youthful selectees.
" Alarmed kiddies, frighted aesthetics. They want to eat,"Konstantin Maloletka, who runs a small shop, said by telephone. He said the dogfaces went into a supermarket and seized canned meat, vodka and cigarettes. "They ate right in the store,"he said."It looked like they have not been fed in recent days."
Across Ukraine, alarmed families huddled overnight in harbors, basements or corridors.
"I sit and supplicate for these accommodations to end successfully, so that they reach an agreement to end the bloodbath," said Alexandra Mikhailova, weeping as she gripped her cat in a sanctum in Mariupol. Around her, parents tried to comfort children and keep them warm.
For numerous, Russia's advertisement of a nuclear high alert stirred fears that the West could be drawn into direct conflict with Russia. But a elderlyU.S. defense functionary, speaking on condition of obscurity, said the United States had yet to see any perceptible change in Russia's nuclear posture.
As far- reaching Western warrants on Russian banks and other institutions took hold, the ruble declined, and Russia's Central Bank climbed to shore it up, as did Putin, subscribing a decree confining foreign currency.
But that did little to calm Russian fears. In Moscow, people lined up to withdraw cash as the warrants hovered to drive up prices and reduce the standard of living for millions of ordinary Russians.
In yet another blow to Russia's frugality, canvas mammoth Shell said it's pulling out of the country because of the irruption. It blazoned it'll withdraw from its common gambles with state- possessed gas company Gazprom and other realities and end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 channel design between Russia and Europe.
The profitable warrants, ordered by theU.S. and other abettors, were just one contributor to Russia's growing status as a leper country.
Russian airliners are banned from European airspace, Russian media is confined in some countries, and some high-tech products can no longer be exported to the country. On Monday, in a major blow to a soccer-frenetic nation, Russian brigades were suspended from all transnational soccer.
In other developments :
- The principal prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he'll open an disquisition soon into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
- Cyberattacks hit Ukrainian delegacies around the world, and Russian media outlets.
- The United States blazoned it's expelling 12 members of Russia'sU.N. charge, criminating them of espionage.
- The 193- nationU.N. General Assembly opened its first exigency session in decades, with Assembly President Abdulla Shahid calling for an immediate check- fire and"a full return to tactfulness and dialogue."
TheU.N. mortal rights chief said at least 102 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded — advising that figure is presumably a vast undercount — and Ukraine's chairman said at least 16 children were among the dead.
Further than a half-million people have fled the country since the irruption, anotherU.N. functionary said, numerous of them going to Poland, Romania and Hungary.
Among the deportees in Hungary was Maria Pavlushko, 24, an information technology design director from a megacity west of Kyiv. She said her father stayed behind to fight the Russians. "I'm proud about him,"she said, adding that numerous of her musketeers were planning to fight too.
The mediators at Monday's addresses met at a long table with the blue-and-unheroic Ukrainian flag on one side and the Russian tricolor on the other.
But while Ukraine transferred its defense minister and other top officers, the Russian delegation was led by Putin's counsel on culture — an doubtful envoy for ending a war and maybe a sign of how seriously Moscow took the addresses.
It was not incontinently clear what Putin is seeking in the addresses, or from the war itself, though Western officers believe he wants to erect Ukraine's government and replace it with a governance of his own, reviving Moscow's Cold War- period influence.
At this stage, Ukraine is numerous times down from reaching the norms for achieving EU class. Any addition to the 27- nation bloc must be approved unanimously by its members, and Ukraine's deep- seated corruption could make it hard for the country to win acceptance.
Still, in an interview with Euronews on Sunday, EU Commission principal Ursula von der Leyen said"We want them in the European Union."