HELL ON EARTH
Ukraine war has ‘killed 2,000 civilians’ in a week as horror pictures show Putin’s airstrike on Kyiv that left five dead
MORE than 2,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war with Russia so far, as fierce fighting in the country enters its seventh day.
Russian troops have completely surrounded the cities of Kherson and Mariupol in southern Ukraine, while the country's second city of Kharkiv has continued to come under intense shelling.
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The eastern city - which is just 25 miles from the Russian border - has already seen some of the bloodiest fighting of war as Moscow renewed its offensive last night with a barrage of strikes.
Meanwhile, Putin's troops continue to close in on the capital Kyiv, even as Vladimir Putin's hopes of a quick takeover of the country have been dashed.
Kyiv's mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, said Russia is gathering forces "closer and closer" to the city after a 40-mile-long convoy of military vehicles was held up some 20 miles northwest of the capital on Wednesday.
In a statement, Ukraine's emergency service said more than 2,000 Ukrainians have been killed during the Russian invasion which began last Wednesday, although independent confirmation of these figures is so far impossible.
"Children, women and defence forces are losing their lives every hour," it said.
The country's ombudswoman says 21 children have been killed and 55 injured since the start of the invasion, Reuters reports.
Horrifying pictures show the charred bodies of Ukrainian civilians killed in a Russian airstrike in Kyiv.
The strike hit Kyiv's main TV tower as well as a Holocaust memorial for Babyn Yar, where more than 30,000 Jews were killed in the space of two days in 1941.
Russia claims today it has seized the city of Kherson overnight, after taking the railway station and port.
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Fighting is also intensifying in Mariupol, where the city's mayor claims Russian forces are "actively preventing the evacuation of citizens".
It comes as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its seventh day - with the conflict being the biggest war in Europe since World War 2.
And the world's eyes remain on the massed 40-mile long Russian convoy outside Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
Ukraine can expect further bloodshed today after Putin warned residents of the capital to leave ahead of "high precision strikes".
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed his nation and said Putin wants to "erase us all".
Across the war-torn country, defenders continue to mount a staunch resistance to the invaders.
Some 5,840 Russian troops, more than 200 tanks, and at least 60 aircraft have been destroyed, claims Ukraine.
But it is feared Russia may soon begin to use even more brutal tactics - and it comes as Putin's top diplomat warned World War 3 would be "nuclear".
And some of these are already being felt in Kharkiv which has come under missile attack by Russian bombers.
Russia has yet to win a major victory - and are believed to be staking their efforts on Kharkiv.
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But 340 miles south, Putin's forces finally managed to capture a city - seizing the small port of Kherson.
Heavy fighting continues across the country, with major operations underway at the strategic ports of Odesa and Mariupol in the south.
Peace talks are also expected to continue today - but there are major doubts if they will make progress.
Putin's generals are understood to have been ordered to take Kharkiv at all costs.
Footage from this morning showed a massive explosion ripping through the city centre - and buildings including the city's police station and a university complex on fire.
Russian forces also managed to land paratroopers in the city which triggered running gun battles.
"Russian airborne troops landed in Kharkiv... and attacked a local hospital," the Ukrainian army said in a statement on messaging app Telegram.
"There is an ongoing fight between the invaders and the Ukrainians."
It comes as...
- Russia is preparing to unleash a new assault on Kyiv after residents were told to leave
- Joe Biden issued a speech blasting Putin - but also managed to call Ukrainians "Iranians" in yet another blunder
- The dictator of Belarus accidentally revealed that Moldova could be the next country to be invaded.
- Putin's nuclear forces held nuclear drills with subs and land-based missiles, the country's navy said.
- Russian children were arrested at an anti-war demo in as Putin cracks down on dissent
- Russian marines mutinied on a warship as they refused to fight against Ukraine
- A boy is fighting for his life, unaware that his sister and parents were shot dead by Russians.
Ukraine also accused Russia of firing sixteen missiles from bombers at the city, while amateur footage showed massed field guns outside of Kharkiv.
The city's mayor said the city is "partially surrounded" - but the soldiers are holding out "heroically".
At least 21 people were killed and 112 wounded in shelling over the last 24 hours, said regional governor Oleg Synegubov .
The siege of has drawn comparisons to the massacres of civilians in Sarajevo in the 1990s and condemnation for what President Volodymyr Zelensky called a "war crime".
Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister said: "Practically there are no areas left in Kharkiv where an artillery shell has not yet hit."
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In a video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "They know nothing about our capital. About our history.
"But they have an order to erase our history. Erase our country. Erase us all."
The hero leader said a missile strike on a target at the site of a Holocaust massacre shows that "for many people in Russia our Kyiv is completely foreign".
Glib Mazepas, who lives downtown in Kharkiv, told the BBC said he fears the Russians will bomb the "whole city to ashes".
He said: "Yesterday my wife was heating something up with the microwave.
"And I freaked out because I thought it was some kind of attack.
"You get used to the war very quickly, believe me. It's a matter of a day or two. I never thought it would be like this."
Russia once again raised the spectre of nuclear war as tensions grow between Moscow and the West.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that if World War 3 were to take place, it would involve nuclear weapons and be destructive.
He said Russia would face "real danger" if Kyiv acquired nukes.
Children, women and defence forces are losing their lives every hour
Ukrainian emergency service
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden branded Vladimir Putin a "dictator".
In his first State of the Union address, he warned the West's sanction campaign to cripple Russia's economy would escalate and its oligarchs were being targeted.
Biden hailed the resolve of the Western alliance and voiced solidarity with Ukraine as lawmakers gave a standing ovation to the Ukrainian people.
"A Russian dictator, invading a foreign country, has costs around the world," he said.
The president, who had earlier spoken with Zelenskyy on the phone, announced new measures against Russia and its wealthy elite with a new task force to go after the "crimes" of Russian oligarchs.
Biden said Putin's aggression was "premeditated and totally unprovoked" - but hailed the resolve of the Western alliance in responding with brutal sanctions.
He repeated his commitment that no American troops would be sent to Ukraine to confront the invading forces.
However, a lack of will to send foreign troops into battle has given Russia space to press on with its assault on Ukrainian cities.
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Elsewhere, four people including a child were killed when homes were hit by a Russian missile in Zhytomyr, which is around 90 miles west of Kyiv.
Anton Gerashchenko said residential buildings were hit near the base of the 95th Airborne Brigade in Zhytomyr.
"So far, four people have died. Including a child," said Gerashchenko, who is an adviser to the interior minister of Ukraine.
Video from the scene showed firefighters picking through the smouldering wreckage of what remained of the homes.
Flames continued to pour from buildings in the aftermath of the missile strike on the city 75 miles west of the capital Kyiv.
Images shared on social media also claim to show damage to a nearby maternity hospital.
Later, the Interior Ministry said the missiles fired at the base were launched from Belarus.
It comes as other harrowing images show the aftermath of a Russian attack on the town of Borodyanka, about 35 miles northwest of Kyiv.
Video shows major damage to two large apartment blocks, which surround a courtyard where the Pinocchio Kindergarten is located.
Buildings are on fire or smouldering after the attack but it's unknown if anyone was killed.
At least 136 people, including 13 children, now have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24, the UN has said.
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Decrying Russia's apparent indiscriminate targeting of a non-military site in Kyiv, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted: "To the world: what is the point of saying 'never again' for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar?
"At least 5 killed. History repeating..."
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described the strike as "evil and barbaric".
Britain's ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, tweeted: "In case anyone bought Putin's 'denazification' objective, here's the stark staring proof of its sickening hollowness."
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Tuesday said it was were racing to provide billions of dollars of additional funding to Ukraine.
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Footage showed a fireball erupting next to the TV transmitter tower where the Holocaust memorial is located - temporarily knocking out all broadcasts.
The interior ministry said equipment had been damaged and "channels won't work for a while", but services resumed soon after.
It comes after Vladimir Putin's defence ministry warned targets in the centre of Ukraine's capital will be hit with "high precision weapons".
Still lurking outside the city is a 40-mile column of Russian armour and artillery with fears looming of a new onslaught.
Russian forces are believed to be aiming to seize the capital and topple the government led by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
US defence officials have said morale is flagging in some Russian units, and that some of Putin's forces have surrendered in Ukraine without a fight.
The same official is quoted as saying Russia's onslaught on Kyiv has stalled.
Fears are spreading that Russia will turn to more indiscriminate bombing in a bid to weaken the Ukrainian resolve.
Meanwhile, residents armed themselves with guns and Molotov cocktails as they prepared for what could be a prolonged siege.
Makeshift barricades of tyres, trucks and wheelie bins have been erected ahead of the defence of Kyiv.
Signs also appeared in the capital which read: "Russian soldier, go to f***."
Others read "Putin is lost" and "The entire world is with Ukraine".
Western officials fear Putin could unleash barbaric new attacks as the invasion is not seen as going to plan.
Russian commanders are believed to have thought they could seize Ukraine within 48 hours.
But now the invasion has lasted almost a week and they have so far failed to capture a major city.
Putin's growing frustration could lead to an even more vicious and indiscriminate campaign to break their resistance, analysts fear.
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Ukrainian authorities have accused the Russian army of carrying out strikes on residential areas in several cities, including the eastern city of Kharkiv, where fierce fighting is taking place.
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