Kyiv: Air sirens were heard in Ukraine’s capital early morning on Saturday after the Russian forces inched closer and pounded civilian areas in other cities. Kyiv, the western city of Lviv in Odesa and Kharkiv, Cherkasy as well in the Sumy region sounded horns local media reported. Eight explosions were heard in Vasylkiv, while a cancer hospital and several civilian apartments are reported to have been sabotaged in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
According to Ukraine’s parliament, the Mayor of Melitopol has been abducted by the Russian army as he refused to co-operate. The southern port city of Mariupol which has been extensively under attack is out of water and power for the 11th day. According to ground reports, the city is being shelled every 30 minutes. Roughly 1200 civilians have died so far. According to the UN, more than two and a half million people have fled the war-hit nation.
Beefing up its sanctions against Russia, YouTube on Friday broadened its blocking of Russian state-linked media channels to apply internationally after initially barring them only in Europe following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
With the assault entering its third week, Ukrainian President Zelensky on Friday said Ukraine had “already reached a strategic turning point”. “It is impossible to say how many days we still have (ahead of us) to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it,” he said. “We are already moving towards our goal, our victory.”