Fierce street battles as Russian troops enter Ukraine’s 2nd-largest city Kharkiv
Kyiv remains under Ukrainian control; Zelensky rejects Russia’s ally Belarus as location for negotiations, suggests other European cities
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Machine-gun fire and explosions rocked Ukraine’s Kharkiv Sunday as street fighting raged as Russia’s invading forces broke into the country’s second-largest city.
The armed clashes in the eastern city erupted Sunday morning and fighting was taking place in several locations.
Regional administration chief Oleg Sinegubov wrote on Facebook that “the Russian enemy’s light vehicles broke into the city” and urged residents not to leave shelters.
“The Ukrainian armed forces are eliminating the enemy,” he wrote.
Russian troops approached Kharkiv, about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south of the border with Russia, shortly after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.
But until Sunday, they remained on the outskirts of the city of 1.4 million without trying to enter while other forces rolled past, pressing their offensive deeper into Ukraine.
Videos posted on Ukrainian media and social networks showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv and a light vehicle burning on the street.
One RU vehicle out! Good job, Kharkiv! pic.twitter.com/crivP0pmEh
— olexander scherba???????? (@olex_scherba) February 27, 2022
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office also said Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline in Kharkiv, prompting the government to warn people to protect themselves from the smoke by covering their windows with damp cloth or gauze amid concerns of an environmental disaster.
While fighting raged in Kharkiv, the city administration in Kyiv, 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the west, said the capital remained under the control of Ukrainian forces despite clashes with “sabotage groups.”
Meanwhile, footage emerged of Ukrainian citizens in the town of Bakhmach, some 175 kilometers (109 miles) northeast of Kyiv, attempting to block Russian tanks advancing forward.
A man is seen stepping in front of a tank and jumping on top, as it continues to roll forward. CNN said it had confirmed the authenticity and location of the video.
Local resistance in northeastern Ukraine, where residents were filmed trying to block and push back a Russian tank column trying to advance through their town. pic.twitter.com/q1VwvwFOBA
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) February 26, 2022
Other videos shared claimed to show a destroyed Russian convoy that had been heading to Kharkiv, and a Russian multiple rocket launcher near the city of Belgorod in the south.
Large Russian support column destroyed. According to the report, …was heading to Kharkiv. By underestimating, UAF and moving fast, the Russian armed forces have left there support vulnerable to devastating attacks. pic.twitter.com/p36Y5Lz9NW
— Alexander S. Vindman ???????? (@AVindman) February 26, 2022
Peace talks, but not in Belarus
Ukraine’s president said Sunday his country was ready for peace talks with Russia but not in Belarus, which had served as a staging ground for Moscow’s 3-day-old invasion.
The Kremlin said earlier in the day that a Russian delegation had arrived in the Belarusian city of Homel for potential talks with Ukrainian officials.
Speaking in a video message, Zelensky named Warsaw, Bratislava, Istanbul, Budapest or Baku as alternative venues. He said other locations were also possible but made clear that Ukraine wouldn’t accept Russia’s selection of Belarus.
Zelensky also said that Moscow was bombarding residential areas in Ukraine as its invading forces sought to push deeper into the country.
“The past night in Ukraine was brutal, again shooting, again bombardments of residential areas, civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky said in an address posted online.
“Today, there is not a single thing in the country that the occupiers do not consider an acceptable target. They fight against everyone. They fight against all living things — against kindergartens, against residential buildings and even against ambulances.”
He said Russian forces were “firing rockets and missiles at entire city districts in which there isn’t and never has been any military infrastructure.”
“Vasylkiv, Kyiv, Chernigiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and many other towns in Ukraine are living in conditions that were last experienced on our lands during World War II,” he said.
Zelensky also hailed the assistance Ukraine was receiving from its international allies as Russia’s invading forces pressed on with an assault.
“This is already real. We are receiving weapons, medicine, food, diesel, and money,” Zelensky said. “A powerful coalition in support of Ukraine has been formed — an anti-war coalition.
Capital Kyiv under assault
Huge explosions lit up the sky early Sunday near the capital, Kyiv, where people hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale assault by Russian forces.
Flames billowed into the sky before dawn from an oil depot near an air base in Vasylkiv, where there has been intense fighting, according to the town’s mayor. Zelensky’s office said another explosion was at the civilian Zhuliany airport.
Russia’s military also put increasing pressure on strategic ports in the south of Ukraine, blocking the strategic cities of Kherson on the Black Sea and the port of Berdyansk on the Azov Sea, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said.
“Over the past 24 hours, the cities of Kherson and Berdyansk have been completely blocked by the Russian armed forces,” Konashenkov said in a statement.
He said the Russian forces also have taken control of an air base near Kherson and the city of Henichesk on the Azov Sea. Ukrainian authorities previously have reported fighting in various areas along the coast.
As Russia has closed in on the Ukrainian capital, it has also focused on pressing its offensive in the country’s south in an apparent bid to take control of its coast stretching from the border with Romania in the west to the border with Russia in the east.
The Ukrainian authorities have reported fighting going on near Odessa, Mykolaiv and other areas.
As of Sunday, the Russian army said it had destroyed 975 military facilities in Ukraine and shot down eight fighter jets, seven helicopters and 11 drones.
Konashenkov claimed that Ukrainian servicemen were laying down arms “en masse.”
He claimed that on Saturday forces of an air defense missile regiment near Kharkiv “voluntarily” put down their arms, adding that more than 470 Ukrainian servicemen had been detained.
There was no independent verification of any of these claims and Ukraine insists it has inflicted heavy casualties on the Kremlin’s forces.
Russia’s advances along Ukraine’s coast mark an attempt to cut the country’s access to its sea ports that would deal a major blow to its economy. The offensive in the south also could allow Moscow to build a land corridor to Crimea, which until now was connected to Russia by a 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge, the longest bridge in Europe, which opened in 2018.
As Russia pushes ahead with its offensive, the West is working to equip the outnumbered Ukrainian forces with weapons and ammunition while punishing Russia with far-reaching sanctions intended to further isolate Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered the invasion of Ukraine with troops moving from Moscow’s ally Belarus in the north, and also from the east and south. Russian ground forces have pressed into Ukraine from the north, east and south but have encountered fierce resistance from Ukrainian troops, the intensity of which has likely surprised Moscow, according to Western sources.
Putin hasn’t disclosed his ultimate plans, but Western officials believe he is determined to overthrow Ukraine’s government and replace it with a regime of his own, redrawing the map of Europe and reviving Moscow’s Cold War-era influence.
US officials speaking on condition of anonymity have said the Russian advance is moving more slowly than Moscow hoped as it meets with fierce resistance from Ukrainians.
The Times of Israel Community.