Russia/Ukraine War: Update

Ukraine Live Updates: As Russians Surround Key City, Mayor Is ‘Waiting for a Miracle’

By Dan Bilefsky

Russia claimed to have seized the city, the southern port of Kherson, but Ukrainian officials said the battle was ongoing. Explosions struck the capital, Kyiv, and Russian troops continued to lay siege to Kharkiv.

As the war in Ukraine pushed into its seventh day on Wednesday, fierce Ukrainian resistance continued to deny the Kremlin the easy victory it had anticipated, even as Russian forces advanced in the south while edging closer to a capital buffeted by fear. They were also intensifying the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets, potentially altering the war’s dynamics by increasing the human toll.

The Russian military was bearing down on several Ukrainian cities, including Kherson, a port near the Black Sea, whose capture would mark the first major city to come under full control of President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces since the invasion began last Thursday. Russia claims it is fully in control of the city, but Ukrainian officials said the municipal government was still in place. Neither claim could be independently verified. Kherson’s mayor said the city was “waiting for a miracle” to collect bodies and restore basic services.

Here are the latest developments:

• Attacks by Russian troops were reported on hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure in key cities in Ukraine’s south and east. The forces continued to lay siege to central Kharkiv, where a government building was hit by an apparent rocket strike on Wednesday, and where supplies of food and water were running low in the city of 1.5 million.

• The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with 141 countries voting in favor, five voting against and 34 abstaining. Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Syria voted against the measure. China, Iraq, India and Iran were among those that abstained.

• Overnight, Russian troops surrounded Mariupol, a port city in the southeast. More than 120 civilians were being treated for injuries in hospitals, the mayor said. Residents baked 26 tons of bread to help people survive the coming onslaught, according to the mayor.

• President Biden predicted that the invasion of Ukraine would “leave Russia weaker and the world stronger” during a fiery State of the Union address on Tuesday night. He said the United States planned to bar Russian planes from American airspace and that the Justice Department would try to seize the assets of oligarchs and government officials allied with Mr. Putin, part of a global push to isolate Russia.

• A second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine was scheduled to take place on Wednesday after a meeting on Monday failed to make progress in ending the fighting.

Source:The New York Times