Moscow.- Russia intensified its attack in the last hours of this Tuesday, the most recent is an announcement by the Russian army to the population near Kiev urging them to leave the place before an imminent bombardment.
On the sixth day of the invasion, attacks multiplied in Kharkov, the country’s second largest city.
A shelling of the central square of this city of 1.4 million people, not far from the Russian border, destroyed the headquarters of the regional administration, Governor Oleg Sinegoubov said, in a Telegram video showing the explosion.
At least 18 dead and 26 injured is the provisional balance of Tuesday’s attacks in the city, according to relief services.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has denounced the bombings as “absolutely sickening” and compared them to the deadly attacks on the Bosnian city of Sarajevo in the 1990s.
In the capital Kiev, an attack hit the television tower, leaving five dead and five injured. A photograph published by the Ministry of the Interior showed the tower in a thick gray cloud. The main structure was still standing.
Satellite images captured during the early hours of Tuesday a column of more than 60 kilometers of Russian armored vehicles and artillery advancing from the north in the direction of Kiev.
In line with this advance, the Ukrainian army moved its device to the west and north of the city, an AFP journalist confirmed.
Russian advance in the south
The Russians appeared to be making gains in the south of the country, in the Azov Sea region.
The Mariupol port was without electricity due to the bombing and the region’s governor said that the town of Volnovakha, with a population of 20,000, was almost “destroyed”.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that its troops were advancing along the coast from the Crimean peninsula (annexed in 2014) and joining pro-Russian separatist militias in Donetsk, providing strategic territorial continuity for the invading forces.
This information could not be immediately verified.
The Russian army also controls access to the coastal city of Kherson (290,000 inhabitants), further west, according to its mayor.
New sanctions
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky stressed in a telephone conversation with his American counterpart Joe Biden the need to “stop” the Russian invasion “as soon as possible.”
Zelenskiy also spoke by video conference before the European Parliament and reiterated his call for Kiev to join the EU immediately.
“Europe will be stronger with Ukraine in its midst. Without you, Ukraine will be alone. We have proven our strength (…). Therefore, prove that you are with us, prove that you will not abandon us,” he said in a dramatic speech. applauded by the plenary.
While Ukraine’s quick entry into the EU seems out of the question, European leaders expressed support for Kiev and German head of government Olaf Scholz said more sanctions against Russia would be forthcoming soon.
The United States, Europe and allied countries have already adopted a series of unprecedented measures to punish Moscow, including exclusion from the Swift international financial transfer system, currency blockade and individual sanctions against the Russian political, government and business elite.
“The restriction of the activities of the Russian central bank has already exceeded our expectations … the ruble is in free fall and Vladimir Putin’s war chest has been hit hard,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said. .
Convulsive markets
The general situation is very worrying to the world markets -especially European- that fell again this Tuesday.
Crude prices continued to rise, 10% a barrel of WTI and 9% of Brent, before a meeting on Wednesday of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, including Russia, under the OPEC + format.
At the UN headquarters in Geneva, numerous delegations, including Ukraine and Western countries, boycotted the online intervention of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a Disarmament conference and at the Human Rights Council session, leaving the room almost empty .
Despite this unprecedented pressure, Putin seems determined to continue the offensive and put an end to Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU and NATO.
The first negotiations between the two sides, held on Monday in Belarus, ended without any ceasefire and the delegations returned to their capitals for consultations, without setting a date for another meeting.
Faced with the catastrophe that is beginning to take shape, the UN launched a call to collect 1,700 million dollars in emergency aid for Kiev, since it estimates that 12 million people inside Ukraine will need help and projects that some four million displaced persons could require aid in neighboring countries in the coming months.