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Russian forces stepped up their offensive early Tuesday with bombs raining down on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, as a 40-mile-long convoy of tanks and other military equipment forges forward towards Kyiv.
“Daylight rises again over Ukraine. Kyiv still stands,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said around 6:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, after another night of heavy bombings.
“The Warriors continue to stand for their country and freedom. Glory to Ukraine.”
By 7 a.m., air sirens sounded again.
Zelensky said he believes Russia is trying to force his country to surrender by ramping up the shelling across Ukraine after a peace summit between the two nations in Belarus on Monday did not lead to an immediate cease-fire.
Without disclosing details of the discussions, Zelensky said Ukraine would not make concessions “when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery.”
A top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said the two warring nations spoke for five hours Monday. Medinsky claimed the countries “found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen,” and said discussions would continue in the coming days.
As discussions closed Monday evening, explosions rang out in Kyiv as Russian forces fought to encircle the capital city of about 3 million people. The enormous Russian convoy was located just 17 miles outside the center of Kyiv, and stretched for over 40 miles, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.
Zelinsky said Kyiv was hit by three missile strikes Monday and said hundreds of saboteurs were roaming the city streets.
“They want to break our nationhood, that’s why the capital is constantly under threat,” Zelensky said.
In Kharkiv, a city in the country’s northeast of about 1.5 million, Russian missiles struck residential areas, video shows. Eleven people were killed in the attacks, Oleh Synehubov, the head of the regional government, said in a statement on Telegram, and dozens more were injured.
Russia has denied targeting residential areas despite hitting homes, schools and hospitals — including a college dormitory and apartment building in Kyiv on Monday.
On Monday, a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in The Hague said he is opening an investigation into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid claims of war crimes.
Get the latest updates in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with The Post’s live coverage.
Chief prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan said he has a “reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine” in a letter announcing the case, following multiple calls from Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, to investigate Russia’s invasion and alleged war crimes.
For the second day in a row, the Kremlin announced that its nuclear arsenal has been placed on high alert, following orders from Putin over the weekend. Putin on Monday referred to the US and its allies as an “empire of lies.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Putin’s weekend order putting Moscow’s nuclear forces on a “special regime of combat duty.” President Biden said Americans should not worry about the prospect of nuclear war.
“We think provocative rhetoric like this regarding nuclear weapons is dangerous, adds to the risk of miscalculation, should be avoided and we will not indulge in it,” Psaki told reporters.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States on Monday accused Russia of using a thermobaric vacuum bomb — an immensely powerful and devastating weapon — in a plea to the US Congress for more help in defending against the Russian invasion.
“They used the vacuum bomb today, which is actually prohibited by the Geneva convention,” Ambassador Oksana Markarova said after a meeting with legislators. “The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large.”
A vacuum bomb is a deadly explosive fueled by oxygen from the surrounding air, generating a high-temperature blast that typically produces a blast wave of a significantly longer duration than that of a conventional explosive. It’s not clear where the bomb was detonated.
Ukraine, in a largely symbolic move, submitted its application to join the European Union, tying the country closer to its allies in Western Europe and further from Moscow’s sphere of influence.
The Russian ruble crumbled Monday after the US and its allies’ economic sanctions took effect. Select Russian banks have been removed from SWIFT, an international financial network of over 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries. In Moscow, people lined up to withdraw cash as prices are expected to increase.
Major Hollywood film studios announced they are halting the releases of their upcoming movies in Russia, including Disney’s latest Pixar film and Warner Brothers’ “The Batman,” in protest of its invasion of Ukraine.
In another blow to Russia’s economy, oil giant Shell said it is pulling out of the country because of the invasion. Oil prices topped $100 on Monday amid the uncertainty of the conflict.
The European Union banned Russian airliners from its airspace. Russian media is restricted in some countries and some high-tech products can no longer be exported to the country.
The US Mission to the United States confirmed the expulsion of 12 Russian intelligence operatives on Monday, saying they “abused their privileges of residency in the US,” spokesperson Olivia Dalton said in a tweet.
The United Nations held its first emergency meeting in decades on Monday, with Assembly President Abdulla Shahid calling for an immediate cease-fire and “a full return to diplomacy and dialogue.”
Hundreds of civilians have been reported killed, including at least 16 children, according to Zelensky. Over 500,000 people have fled the violence since the invasion, with most crossing the border into Poland, Romania and Moldova.
More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery struck a military base in Okhtyrka, a city of about 50,000 between Kharkiv and Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials. Russian soldiers and civilians were also killed during Sunday’s fighting.
Intense fighting raged in other towns and cities across the country. The strategic port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is “hanging on,” according to Zelensky adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. An oil depot was also reported bombed in the eastern city of Sumy.
Despite Zelensky’s pleas, the US and its allies have ruled out the possibility of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, citing the increased risk of direct combat with Russia.
With Post wires
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