Sorting facts from fiction in Russian invasion of Ukraine

With disinformation rife and social media amplifying military claims and counterclaims, what is really happening in former Soviet republic can be difficult to determine

Associated Press journalists in Ukraine and beyond are documenting military activity during Russia’s invasion. With disinformation rife and social media amplifying military claims and counterclaims, determining exactly what is happening can be difficult. Here’s a look at what could be confirmed Wednesday as Russia’s military assault on Ukraine was in its seventh day.

Announced by Russian authorities

• A Kremlin spokesman says a Russian delegation will be ready on Wednesday evening to resume talks with Ukrainian officials about the war. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “in the second half of the day, closer to evening, our delegation will be in place to await Ukrainian negotiators.”

• Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed Wednesday that the airstrike on a TV tower in the capital of Kyiv did not hit any residential buildings.

• Moscow made new threats of escalation, days after raising the specter of nuclear war. A top Kremlin official warned that the West’s “economic war” against Russia could turn into a “real one.”

Announced by Ukrainian authorities

• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky described Russia’s escalation of attacks on crowded cities as a blatant terror campaign.

A Ukrainian national flag swings on a tree by a destroyed accommodation building near a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, March 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

• Zelensky expressed outrage Wednesday at the attack on the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial, and concern that other historically significant and religious sites, such as St. Sophia’s Cathedral, could be targeted.

• The Ukrainian state emergency service said there was a Russian strike on the regional police and intelligence headquarters. It said three people were wounded.

• In Zhytomyr, a city about 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of Kyiv, a Russian airstrike hit a residential area near a hospital late Tuesday, Mayor Serih Sukhomlin said in a Facebook video. Ukraine’s emergency services said the strike killed at least two people, set three homes on fire and broke the windows in the hospital.

• Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that Belarussian troops are concentrated close to the countries’ border. The ministry said at the end of the day Tuesday there had been significant aircraft activity and “a column of vehicles with food and ammunition” approaching.

Announced by officials elsewhere

• US President Joe Biden warned that if the Russian leader didn’t “pay a price” for the invasion, the aggression wouldn’t stop with one country.

• China won’t join the United States and European governments in imposing financial sanctions on Russia, the country’s bank regulator said.

• The UN refugee agency says more than 874,000 people have fled Ukraine and the figure is “rising exponentially” — putting it on track to cross the 1 million mark within hours or possibly within a day.

Women and children refugees fleeing the Russian invasion from Ukraine board a bus to Warsaw in Przemysl, Poland, March 1, 2022 (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

• Human Rights Watch said it documented a cluster bomb attack outside a hospital in Ukraine’s east in recent days. Residents also reported the use of such weapons in Kharkiv and Kiyanka village. The Kremlin denied using cluster bombs.

• China says one of its citizens was shot and injured while evacuating from Ukraine. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the incident occurred on Tuesday while the person was leaving on their own.

• Britain’s Defense Ministry said it had seen an increase in Russian air and artillery strikes on populated urban areas over the past two days.

• Russia claimed its military has taken control of the area around Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant. That’s according to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.

• The UN human rights office says it has recorded the deaths of 136 civilians, including 13 children, in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24. The toll may be far higher.

• A senior Western intelligence official estimated more than 5,000 Russian soldiers have been captured or killed, although overall soldier death tolls remained unclear.

Directly witnessed

• Russian shelling hit civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. In video verified by the AP, explosions burst through a residential area of the city.

• The administration headquarters in Kharkiv’s city center also was targeted. Images showed the building badly damaged by a powerful explosion that blew up part of its roof. Closed-circuit television footage showed a fireball engulfing the street in front of the building, with a few cars rolling out of the billowing smoke. An emergency official said the bodies of at least six people had been pulled from the ruins and at least 20 other people were wounded.

Firefighters work to contain a fire at the Economy Department building of Karazin Kharkiv National University, allegedly hit during recent shelling by Russia, on March 2, 2022. (Sergey BOBOK / AFP)

• Images showed a TV tower in Kyiv on fire. Ukraine officials said a Russian strike on the tower killed five people and left five more wounded. Local media had reported Ukrainian TV channels stopped broadcasting shortly after the strike. An official with Zelensky’s office said some channels had resumed broadcasting.

• Powerful blasts could be heard Tuesday night in central Kyiv. People on the ground reported car alarms were set off by the blasts, a first in the central part of the capital city where Russian forces are encroaching.