Russia-Ukraine second round talks scheduled today
Russia warned Kyiv residents to flee their homes on Tuesday and rained rockets down on Kharkiv, as Russian commanders who have failed to achieve a quick victory shifted their tactics to intensify the bombardment of Ukrainian cities.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces were planning “high-precision strikes” against Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the 72nd Center for Information and Psychological Operations (PSO).
“We urge Ukrainian citizens involved by Ukrainian nationalists in provocations against Russia, as well as Kiev residents living near relay stations, to leave their homes,” The Guardian quoted Russian news agency Tass as saying, while giving no information about where in the city of 3 million people those targets were located.
The warning comes even as both sides are scheduled to meet for the second round of talks on Wednesday (March 2). The first round of talks, on Monday, had failed to produce any tangible results. Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv was ready to talk but would not just follow Russian ultimatums.
On Tuesday, Russian strikes pounded the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and other civilian targets and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital.
With the Kremlin increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have tanked the ruble currency, Russian troops advanced on Ukraine’s two biggest cities on Day 6 of an invasion that has shaken the 21st century world order.
In Kharkiv, a strategic eastern city with a population of about 1.5 million, explosions tore through the region’s Soviet-era administrative building and residential areas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the targeted attack on Kharkiv’s main square “frank, undisguised terror”, blaming a Russian missile and calling it a war crime. “Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget…This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation.”
Rocket strikes on Kharkiv killed at least 11 people and wounded 35, Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said. Similar strikes had killed and wounded dozens in the city the previous day.
In addition to the strikes on cities, reports have emerged that Moscow has used cluster bombs on three populated areas. If confirmed, that would represent a worrying new level of brutality in the war — and could lead to even further isolation in Russia.
The Kremlin denied Tuesday that it has used such munitions and insisted again that its forces only have struck military targets — despite evidence documented by AP reporters of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals.
Unbowed by Western condemnation, Russian upped their threats of escalation– days after raising the specter of a nuclear attack. The Russian defence minister vowed Tuesday to press the offensive until it achieves its goals, while a top Kremlin official warned that the West’s “economic war” against Russia could turn into a “real one”.
5,000 Russian soldiers dead or captured: A senior Western intelligence official briefed by multiple intelligence agencies estimated that more than 5,000 Russian soldiers have been captured or killed so far, and that Ukrainian forces have eliminated significant numbers of Russian aircraft and tanks and air defense systems.
Indian student killed in Ukraine
PTI: In the first Indian casualty in the war in Ukraine, a medical student from Karnataka’s Haveri district was killed in intense shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday.
The victim was identified as Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagoudar, a native of Chalageri in the Haveri district of Karnataka who was studying at a medical college in Ukraine, according to Karnataka SDMA commissioner Manoj Rajan.
India asked the envoys of both Russia and Ukraine to ensure “urgent safe passage” to Indian nationals who are still in Kharkiv and in other cities in the conflict zones.
Naveen’s uncle Ujjanagouda said he was killed when he stepped out of his bunker to exchange currency and fetch some food.
In the first Indian casualty in the war in Ukraine, a medical student from Karnataka’s Haveri district was killed in intense shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday.
The victim was identified as Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagoudar, a native of Chalageri in the Haveri district of Karnataka who was studying at a medical college in Ukraine, according to Karnataka SDMA commissioner Manoj Rajan.
India asked the envoys of both Russia and Ukraine to ensure “urgent safe passage” to Indian nationals who are still in Kharkiv and in other cities in the conflict zones.
Naveen’s uncle Ujjanagouda said he was killed when he stepped out of his bunker to exchange currency and fetch some food.