Russia’s attack on its neighbor stretched into its sixth day Tuesday, with a deadly rocket strike in Kharkiv killing seven civilians, including three children, and raising fears that Vladimir Putin’s forces were targeting heavily populated and residential areas.
There have also been reports that the key southern port city of Mariupol is poised to fall, while in the north, a 40-mile-long convoy of Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers was bearing down on the capital city of Kyiv.
The military advances came after talks near the Belarus border between Russian and Ukrainian delegations failed to make any progress and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for an international tribunal to investigate Moscow for war crimes.
As Russia continues its all-out assault on Ukraine, several more countries and businesses announced they would be cutting ties with Russia and its sympathizers.
VACUUM BOMBS, THERMOBARIC ROCKETS, AND NUKES: PUTIN’S DEVASTATING ARSENAL
Belarus, however, reportedly joined the Russian invasion on Tuesday, with the country’s troops said to be entering the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine, according to a tweet posted Tuesday morning. The reports contradicted denials from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“Belarusian troops have entered Chernihiv region. The information was confirmed to the public by Vitaliy Kyrylov, spokesman for the North Territorial Defense Forces. More details later,” the tweet read.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, a rocket strike caused a large explosion in front of the city’s administrative building, creating a massive fireball that engulfed several cars driving through Freedom Square, an architectural landmark. Local emergency officials posted on Facebook that seven civilians were injured, including three children. Video of the aftermath showed a large crater in the middle of the cobblestone square.
Tuesday’s missile struck the spot where Ukrainian volunteers in 2014 displayed the remains of a Russian rocket that hit the city of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donbas region, where Ukrainian troops have been at war with Russian-backed forces for the past eight years, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Is Kharkiv Next?” read a banner that used to stand on the spot before the Russian invasion began.
Kharkiv, a border city whose population is mostly Russian-speaking, has put up stiff resistance to Russian advances, with reports surfacing that Ukrainian forces destroyed or captured a unit of Russian troops that entered the city over the weekend.
On Monday, Moscow unleashed multiple-launch rocket fire against residential neighborhoods in the city, killing at least 10 civilians, including three children and their parents who were burned in a car struck by a Russian projectile, according to Ukrainian officials.
SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW 40-MILE RUSSIAN MILITARY CONVOY NEAR KYIV
Nearly 90 apartment buildings in Kharkiv have been damaged. Several parts of the city are without electricity, heating, or water.
“This is not a random mistaken salvo, but a conscious extermination of people,” Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on national television. “The Russians knew what they were firing at.”
Among those killed in Kharkiv was an Indian student, Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry confirmed.
Thousands of students from across the world were studying in Ukraine before the invasion began Thursday and have been unable to get out.
Bagchi demanded that Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors ensure “urgent safe passage for Indian nationals who are still in Kharkiv and cities in other conflict zones.” On Monday, India launched a special operation to evacuate its citizens out of Ukraine, setting up hotlines and trying to transport those in conflict zones to neighboring countries.
Taiwan’s interior minister said Tuesday that the government would allow Ukrainians to extend their visas and stay on the island. There will not be a limit placed on the number of extensions granted, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported. Buildings in Taiwan have been lit with the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag in solidarity since the weekend.
French oil company TotalEnergies announced it would no longer provide capital for new projects in Russia.
“TotalEnergies condemns Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, which has tragic consequences for the population and threatens Europe,” the company said in the statement.
TotalEnergies, which has a large natural gas investment in Russia, stopped short of following competitors BP, Shell, and Equinor, which said they would fully cut off investments with Russia.
South Korea said it would be banning financial transactions with Sberbank, VEB, and other major Russian banks and their affiliates. South Korea’s finance ministry also urged the country’s public and financial institutions to suspend any trading of Russia treasury bonds starting Wednesday.
Germany, which has led in sanctions against Russia, reversed its ban on supplying weapons to conflict zones and suspended Nord Stream 2, the controversial Russian-owned gas project. Russian maestro and Putin supporter Valery Gergiev was also booted from his job as the chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic after he refused to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, said the ousting was the only option available.
Meanwhile, YouTube announced it would block channels connected to Russian state-backed media outlets RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the close to take swift action.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, made a similar move Monday.
