Russia steps up bombardment of Ukraine’s greatest cities

Russia has stepped up its bombardment of Ukraine’s greatest cities, firing missiles on targets in populated areas and killing at the least 5 folks close to the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial, in keeping with the nation’s president.

The assaults, together with unguided rocket barrages on city areas, got here as Vladimir Putin’s forces turned to extra brutal navy techniques in a bid to regain momentum on the sixth day of the invasion.

One Russian missile hit Kyiv’s tv tower, knocking out transmission for a brief interval. A video posted by Ukrainian officers confirmed secondary explosions close to the Babyn Yar memorial with plumes of smoke rising from the world.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian president, wrote on Twitter: “What’s the level of claiming ‘by no means once more’ for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the identical web site of Babyn Yar? No less than 5 killed. Historical past repeating . . . ”

The Holocaust memorial is adjoining to a wooded space the place troops from Nazi Germany executed tens of 1000’s of Jews in September 1941 earlier than later killing Ukrainians and ethnic minorities, with estimates of the loss of life toll between 100,000 and 150,000.

Yakov Bleich, chief Rabbi of Kyiv, stated the bomb “fell on the precise location of the Jewish cemetery of Babyn Yar”, including: “I noticed it. It’s 100 per cent true.”

Russia’s offensive in Ukraine has created diplomatic, financial and humanitarian shockwaves which have upended Europe’s postwar order and triggered essentially the most far-reaching sanctions regime imposed on a significant world economic system.

The Kyiv assault capped one other combined day for Russian forces that simply outgun and outnumber the Ukrainian military however have struggled to make the quick progress anticipated, significantly within the north of the nation.

The Pentagon stated 80 per cent of the Russian forces that had amassed on the border earlier than the invasion had entered Ukraine. However a senior defence official stated Ukrainian resistance and logistical issues together with inadequate gasoline provides appeared to be slowing the advance on Kyiv.

“We’re additionally choosing up indicators that they’re having issues feeding their troops,” the senior defence official added.

British navy officers stated a column of heavy armour had moved to inside about 30km of the capital metropolis, placing city areas in vary of the BM-21 Grad rockets that Russian forces used this week with devastating impact on the north-eastern metropolis of Kharkiv.

An estimated 660,000 civilians have already fled Ukraine to neighbouring international locations because the begin of the battle, a motion of individuals the UN warned may turn out to be “Europe’s largest refugee disaster this century”.

EU member states on Tuesday mentioned slicing off seven Russian banks, together with its second-largest lender, VTB, from the Swift messaging community that underpins trillions of {dollars} of transactions a 12 months.

It marks the newest in a sequence of rolling measures which have in impact shut Moscow off from essential elements of the world’s monetary system in addition to worldwide sport competitions and cultural occasions.

Stung by its unexpectedly sluggish progress, Russia has shifted its method on the battlefield, with its overstretched forces stepping up the usage of artillery and different unguided weapons on cities together with Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Kherson.

A rocket assault on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis, on Tuesday focused a neighborhood authorities constructing that was engulfed by a ball of fireplace. Movies of the aftermath confirmed your entire Independence Sq. coated in rubble and the home windows blown out of a number of adjoining buildings.

In a video assertion, Zelensky described the assault as “outright, undisguised terror”.

“After this, Russia is a terrorist state,” he added. “Nobody will forgive. Nobody will overlook.”

The deteriorating state of affairs in lots of Ukraine’s greatest cities may speed up an exodus from the nation of civilians fleeing the battle. Reviews from the Polish border recommend some refugees are already ready for as much as 60 hours to cross it, the UN stated on Tuesday.

Filippo Grandi, the UN Excessive Commissioner for Refugees, stated: “I’ve not often seen such an extremely fast-rising exodus of individuals — the biggest, certainly, inside Europe, because the Balkan wars.”

Because the impact of hefty western sanctions on Russia grew, Bruno Le Maire, French finance minister, promised to wage a “complete financial and monetary conflict” in opposition to the nation, saying: “We are going to provoke the collapse of the Russian economic system.”

His feedback had been met with scorn by Moscow. “Watch your tongue, gents!” Dmitry Medvedev, a prime safety official and former Russian president, wrote on Twitter. “Don’t overlook that in human historical past, financial wars very often changed into actual ones.”

Zelensky used a sequence of statements to accuse Russia of breaking the legal guidelines of conflict with indiscriminate assaults, including that Ukraine had suffered 56 missile strikes because the invasion started and that Russia had fired an additional 113 cruise missiles.

“A peaceable metropolis. Peaceable residential areas. No navy object,” Zelensky stated of the assault on Kharkiv. “The Russians knew the place they had been taking pictures.”