Kyiv: Russia’s war in Ukraine entered its third week on Thursday with none of its key objectives reached despite thousands of people killed, more than two million made refugees, and thousands forced to cower in besieged cities under relentless bombardment.

17 causalities were reported from the besieged city of Mariupol after the Russian forces devastated a maternity hospital on Wednesday. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing Russia of carrying out genocide wrote on Twitter, “people, children under the wreckage” of the hospital and called the strike an “atrocity.”

Meanwhile, Russian aircraft reportedly bombed Okhtyrka and the village of Bytytsya in Sumy Oblast, destroying residential neighbourhoods and infrastructure. On the contrary, the Ukrainian military declared to have regained control of the Derhachi and Kharkiv areas.

According to sources, the US House of Representatives has approved a spending bill that would rush $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine and its European allies.

The war has swiftly cast Russia into economic isolation never before visited on such a large economy. Western companies, like McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and others have swiftly withdrawn from the Russian market. The United States on Tuesday declared a ban on imports of Russian oil.