Russian missiles struck central Kharkiv, damaging the Kharkiv city council building, the Palace of Labor and high rise buildings on Wednesday as the Russian operations in Ukraine entered the seventh day, even as Ukraine claimed that Russian military action had resulted in over 2000 civilian deaths.
The Kyiv independent, a Ukraine media outlet, in a tweet said “Russian missiles hit central Kharkiv again.” It added that “according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, the attack damaged the Kharkiv City Council building, the Palace of Labor, and high-rise buildings.” Russia on Tuesday intensified the shelling on the sixth day of its military operations in Ukraine by targeting the capital city Kyiv as well as the second-largest city Kharkiv.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier in the day denied the reports of attacking infrastructure or residential areas in Ukraine. “During the course of the special operation, Russian troops do not carry out any strikes on civilian infrastructure facilities and on a residential complex. This is out of the question. We are talking only about the demilitarization of Ukraine and military facilities. We must not forget that in a large number of cases, we are talking about the fire of nationalist groups that use living objects as a shield,” Peskov said. Russian Defence Ministry said that it was planning to launch a strike in Kyiv and asked its residents to leave. “We call on…Kyiv residents living near relay nodes to leave their homes,” Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko on Wednesday said that heavy shelling in the southern part of the city has left dozens injured. Residents reported heavy shelling overnight, but Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said Ukrainian authorities were able to restore some mobile communications despite working as the city was being shelled and shot at, reported CNN. “Today there are 128 people in our hospitals. Our doctors don’t even go home anymore. They are fighting for the lives of Mariupol residents,” he said. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said early Wednesday that the number of wounded civilians “is growing every day.”
Fierce fighting is continuing around Mariupol, as Russian and Russian-backed separatist forces have surrounded the southern Ukrainian city of about 400,000 people on three sides. Russian forces are hoping to take Mariupol to complete a land corridor that would link Crimea with southern Russia, reported CNN.
Meanwhile, there has been no communication with the Ukrainian delegation to the talks with Russia since March 1, Belarusian political expert Yury Voskresensky, who is close to the talks’ co-organizers, said on Wednesday. “With almost the entire composition of the Ukrainian delegation, there is no connection … The phones are turned off, either they are in the bunker, or their phone is dead. either the mobile connection went down, or they deliberately turned off,” Voskresensky told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster. The organizers of the negotiations between Moscow and Kiev in Belarus cannot predict when the meeting will begin, he added. Commenting on the first round held on Monday, the expert noted that the Ukrainian side did not voice any of its conditions at the talks.