Ukraine: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second week on Thursday with its main assault convoy approaching the centre of the capital. More than one million people have fled the country towards Europe due to the raging war. The first round of the talks had failed. However, reports say the two sides will meet again today.
While commenting on the advancements made by the Russian troops, Britain’s defence ministry said, “the main body of the large Russian column advancing on Kyiv remains over 30 km (19 miles) from the centre of the city having been delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion.”
“The column has made little discernible progress in over three days.”
“Despite heavy Russian shelling, the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol remain in Ukrainian hands,” Britain’s ministry said.
However, reports have started emerging from the Mariupol City Council saying Russian forces were constantly and deliberately shelling vital civilian infrastructure in the southeastern Ukrainian port, leaving it without water, heating or power and preventing bringing supplies or evacuating people.
“Deliberately, for seven days, they have been destroying (Mariupol’s) critical life-support infrastructure. We have no light, water or heat again,” the council said.
“They are breaking food supplies, setting us up in a blockade, as in the old Leningrad,” it said in a statement, referring to Nazi Germany’s protracted siege of the then-Soviet city now known as St. Petersburg during World War Two. Around 1.5 million people died in the more than two-year-long siege.
