The Russian military continues to advance. The center of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city not far from the Russian border, is bombarded by Moscow on the sixth day of the Russian invasion, regional governor Oleg Sinegoubov announced on Telegram on Tuesday. An attack described as a “war crime” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while Josep Borrell, the head of EU diplomacy, evokes acts which “violate the laws of war”.
“The Russian occupier continues to use heavy weapons against the civilian population,” he wrote, posting images of a huge explosion in the city’s central square, where the headquarters of the local administration. “Today, our enemy sneakily started shelling downtown Kharkiv and residential areas,” he said in a video, where he wears a helmet and bulletproof vest.
Kharkiv, a largely Russian-speaking city on the border with Russia, has a population of around 1.4 million. It has been targeted by Russian forces since the start of the assault launched Thursday on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We continue to find bodies under the rubble”
At least 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in shelling on Monday in another northeastern town, Okhtyrka, in the Sumy region, according to the regional governor, a report that the army, contacted by AFP, was not unable to confirm. “Yesterday, enemy artillery hit the military unit. We continue to find bodies under the rubble,” regional administration head Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said on Telegram. There are also “a lot of Russian bodies in the city,” he wrote. He posted images of charred buildings and rescue workers turning over the rubble.
For its part, Moscow claims not to target civilian areas, while residential areas are bombed. But Ukraine has announced that 350 civilians have died since the start of the war on Thursday. Russia admitted that Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine, without specifying the number.
Mariupol without electricity
On the Sea of Azov, still in the east of the country, the city of Mariupol was without electricity on Tuesday morning, after a Russian offensive, said on Facebook Pavlo Kirilenko, governor of the Donetsk region. “Mariupol and Volnovakha are ours!” The two cities are under enemy pressure but they hold. In Mariupol, the power line has been cut, the city is without electricity,” he said on his Facebook page. According to him, Volnovakha, which has around 20,000 inhabitants, is largely “destroyed”.
VIDEO. The Antonov An-225 “Mriya”, the largest plane in the world, destroyed by a Russian bombardment
The capture of these two Ukrainian cities by the Russian army would facilitate the connection of Russian forces advancing along the coast of the Sea of Azov from Crimea annexed by Moscow, and troops in the pro-Russian separatist territory of Donetsk and the border with Russia.