This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a military convoy near Invankiv, Ukraine Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.
People sleep in the improvised bomb shelter in a sports center, which can accommodate up to 2000 people, in Mariupol, Ukraine, late Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022.
T. S. Tirumurti, permanent representative of India to the United Nations, speaks during a meeting of the security council, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, at United Nations Headquarters. The U.N.’s two major bodies, the 193-nation General Assembly and the more powerful 15-member Security Council, are holding separate meetings Monday on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
People struggle on stairways after a last minute change of the departure platform for a Lviv bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. Explosions and gunfire that have disrupted life since the invasion began last week appeared to subside around Kyiv overnight, as Ukrainian and Russian delegations met Monday on Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
FILE – In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressees the nation in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 24, 2022. Putin is raising fears that he has become more reckless, more committed to restoring the USSR, perhaps more likely to set off a world-altering war. There’s no way to determine from a distance whether the Russian president is becoming unstable or if he is simply preying on the West’s fears.
Kateryna Suharokova holds her newborn son Makar in the basement of a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward and used as a bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. In makeshift shelters and underground railway platforms across Ukraine, families trying to protect the young and old and make conditions bearable amid the bullets, missiles and shells outside.
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows closer view of ground attack helicopters on V.D. Bokov airfield near Mazyr, Belarus Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.
Serafim, 3, looks at the body of Ukrainian Army captain Anton Sydorov, 35, killed in eastern Ukraine, during his funeral, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022.
A medical worker attends to wounded man at a hospital in Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city again Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows part of military convoy and burning homes northwest of Invankiv, Ukraine Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.
In this Feb. 24, 2022, photo, a woman leaves an exchange office with screen showing the currency exchange rates of U.S. Dollar and Euro to Russian Rubles in Moscow, Russia. The harsh sanctions imposed on Russia and the resulting crash of the ruble have the Kremlin scrambling to keep the country’s economy running. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, that means finding workarounds to the economic blockade even as his forces continue to invade Ukraine.
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows ground forces equipment and convoy in Khilchikha, Belarus Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.
In this image provided by the U.S. Air Force, airmen from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron position K-loaders to transfer pallets of ammunition, weapons and other equipment bound for Ukraine during a foreign military sales mission at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. Since 2014, the United States has committed more than $5.4 billion in total assistance to Ukraine, including security and non-security assistance.
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows military convoy northwest of Invankiv, Ukraine Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.
Anastasia Manha, 23, lulls her 2-month-old son Mykyta, where she lives with her family members, after shelling by separatists forces in Novognativka, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022.
Medical workers gesture as they attend to a man injured after shelling, at a hospital in Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. A 40-mile convoy of Russian tanks and other vehicles is threatening Ukraine’s capital as an intense shelling attack targeted the country’s second-largest city. Meanwhile, both sides look to resume talks in the coming days aimed at stopping the fighting.
This handout photo released by Ukrainian Emergency Service shows emergency service personnel inspecting the damage inside the City Hall building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
Armed men smoke by a damaged vehicle at a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
In this handout photo released by Ukrainian Emergency Service, a burnt car is seen in front of a damaged City Hall building, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital – tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
Ukrainian servicemen sit in front of a damaged house near a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
Ukrainian prepare to board a bus to Poland at Lviv bus main station, western Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
A man takes a Ukrainian national flag swinging from a tree as he walks near a destroyed accommodation building by a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
ADDS THAT THE PERSONNEL CARRIER IS RUSSIAN – A Russian armored personnel carrier burns amid damaged and abandoned light utility vehicles after fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The city authorities said that Ukrainian forces engaged in fighting with Russian troops that entered the country’s second-largest city on Sunday.
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Lifeless bodies lie in the central square following shelling of the City Hall building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russia on Tuesday stepped up shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, pounding civilian targets there. Casualties mounted and reports emerged that more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery recently hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the capital.
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Morgue workers look at the body of killed volunteer of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces at a hospital in Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city again Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
A man reacts inside a vehicle damaged by shelling, in Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city again Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital — tactics Ukraine’s embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
Sick children and women with their newborn babies stand at a basement used as a bomb shelter at the Okhmadet children’s hospital in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1. 2022. Russian strikes pounded the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city and other civilian targets, and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital.
People crowd on a platform as they wait to board a Lviv-bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
Animal keeper Kirilo Trantin comforts an elephant at the Kiev Zoo in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1. 2022. Russian strikes pounded the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city and other civilian targets, and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital.
A customer walks past plastic-wrapped shelves with alcoholic beverages banned for sale in a supermarket in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
Ukrainian servicemen ride on top of an armored personnel carrier speeding down a deserted boulevard during an air raid alarm, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. The U.N.’s refugees chief is warning that many more vulnerable people will begin fleeing their homes in Ukraine if Russia’s military offensive continues and further urban areas are hit.
A man crosses a deserted boulevard during an air raid alarm, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian strikes pounded the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city and other civilian targets, and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital.
An armed man stands near a barricade during an air raid alarm in Maidan Square, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. The U.N.’s refugees chief is warning that many more vulnerable people will begin fleeing their homes in Ukraine if Russia’s military offensive continues and further urban areas are hit.
Refugees who fled from war in Ukraine arrive at the railway station in Prezemysl, Poland, Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, appears on a screen as he delivers a remote speech, during the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
Hundreds of beds are placed inside a sports hall to accommodate Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russian invasion at the border crossing town of Medyka, Poland, on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. All day long, as trains and buses bring people fleeing Ukraine to the safety of Polish border towns, they carry not just Ukrainian fleeing a homeland under attack but large numbers of other citizens who had made Ukraine their home and whose fates too are now uncertain.
People walk past a queue of cars heading to the Poland border near Shehyni, western Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city again, and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital. Ukraine’s embattled president said the tactics were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russia on Tuesday stepped up shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, pounding civilian targets there. Casualties mounted and reports emerged that more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery recently hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the capital.
Women look at a screen displaying exchange rate at a currency exchange office in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. The Russian currency plunged about 30% against the U.S. dollar Monday after Western nations announced moves to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system and to restrict Russia’s use of its massive foreign currency reserves.
A man looks at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russia on Tuesday stepped up shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, pounding civilian targets there. Casualties mounted and reports emerged that more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery recently hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the capital.
A man looks at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russia on Tuesday stepped up shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, pounding civilian targets there. Casualties mounted and reports emerged that more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery recently hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the capital.
Ambulance paramedics move a stretcher with a man injured by the shelling in a residential area at the maternity hospital converted into a medical ward and used as a bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian strikes on the key southern port city of Mariupol seriously wounded several people.
Two women walk their dogs past a queue of cars heading to the Poland border near Shehyni, western Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine’s second-largest city again, and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital. Ukraine’s embattled president said the tactics were designed to force him into concessions in Europe’s largest ground war in generations.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its sixth day on Tuesday, with a huge convoy of Russian tanks and armored vehicles on a road to the capital, Kyiv, and fighting intensifying there and in other big cities.
Russia shelled several key sites in Kyiv and in the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said. Among the sites hit were Kyiv’s main TV tower and holocaust memorial.
Although Ukrainian forces still control Kharkiv and the coastal cities of Kherson and Mariupol, all three are encircled, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defense.
Here are key things to know about the conflict.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN UKRAINE’S MAJOR CITIES?
Russian shelling struck central Kharkiv’s Freedom Square just after sunrise Tuesday, badly damaging a regional administration building and other structures, and killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said.
It was the first time the Russian military hit the center of the city of 1.5 million people, though shells have been hitting residential neighborhoods for days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed a Russian missile and called the attack a war crime: “It’s frank, undisguised terror. … Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget.”
Hours later, Russian shelling struck Kyiv’s main TV tower and holocaust memorial, killing five people and injuring five others, according to Ukrainian officials. The blast knocked TV broadcasts off the air for a short time.
WHERE IS THAT MASSIVE RUSSIAN CONVOY?
The Russian military convoy threatening Kyiv and its nearly 3 million residents is far bigger than initially thought, with satellite images showing it occupying much of a 40-mile (64-kilometer) stretch of road north of the capital.
The convoy was no more than 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the city center on Monday, according to satellite imagery from the Maxar company.
WHAT’S THE BATTLE LIKE IN UKRAINE’S SOUTHERN FRONT?
Kyiv’s outgunned but determined troops have slowed Russia’s advance and held onto the capital and other key cities. The overall death toll from the fighting remains unclear, but the attacks have taken a toll.
Russian strikes on Mariupol, a key southern port on the Azov Sea, seriously wounded several people. Separatist forces in Donetsk said they have established two corridors for the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, which suggests that a large attack on the city could be imminent.
Russian forces have blocked the port city of Kherson, according to Ukrainian officials. And Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka over the weekend, killing more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers, the head of the region wrote on Telegram.
U.N. humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths said Tuesday that shelling and bombing have damaged pipes, electricity lines and basic services in Ukraine, and that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian families are without drinking water.
WHAT DOES PUTIN WANT AND HOW ARE NATO ALLIES REACTING?
Day 6 of the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II found Russia increasingly isolated. Western officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to overthrow Ukraine’s government and replace it with a compliant regime, reviving Moscow’s Cold War-era influence.
The United States and European Union have levied sanctions on Russia’s biggest banks and its elite, frozen the assets of the country’s Central Bank located outside the country, and excluded its financial institutions from the SWIFT bank messaging system — but have largely allowed its oil and natural gas to continue to flow freely to the rest of the world.
Sanctions experts expect Russia to try to mitigate the impact of the financial penalties by relying on energy sales and leaning on the country’s reserves in gold and Chinese currency. Putin also is expected to move funds through smaller banks and accounts of elite families not covered by the sanctions, deal in cryptocurrency and rely on Russia’s relationship with China.
With Russia playing such an outsized role in global energy markets as the third-largest oil producer, the International Energy Agency’s 31 member countries agreed Tuesday to release 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves — half of that from the United States — “to send a strong message to oil markets” that supplies won’t fall short due to the invasion.
Canada’s foreign minister, Melanie Joly, said Tuesday that her country will refer Russia to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes over the Ukraine invasion. The move will speed up an investigation by the court’s top prosecutor.
HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE FLED UKRAINE?
The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that about 660,000 people have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries since the invasion began. Agency spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said “at this rate, the situation looks set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century.”
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, has said the U.N. expects the total to reach 4 million in the coming weeks. Poland has seen the most refugees, with Hungary, Romania and Moldova also accepting tens of thousands. Germany’s national train company issued a special free ticket for Ukrainian refugees to reach relatives.
WHAT’S HAPPENING TO THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY?
Sanctions are “going to cause the Russian economy to collapse,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France Info radio on Tuesday. Nations have blocked some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system and are restricting Russia’s use of its massive foreign currency reserves.
Russia’s central bank has taken drastic steps to prop up the plunging ruble, but foreign investment is flooding out of the country.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Tuesday that the government had readied measures to temporarily restrict foreign investors from divesting Russian assets, saying the step would help them make “a considered decision” rather than succumb to political pressure of sanctions.
Oil companies such as BP and Shell have pulled out of their stakes in Russian energy ventures. Norwegian Oil and Gas, an association for oil and supplier companies in the world’s third-largest natural gas exporter, followed suit Tuesday by suspending two Russian companies. And the French energy conglomerate TotalEnergies said it wouldn’t fund any new projects in Russia, but it stopped short of abandoning its holdings there.
The world’s biggest shipping company, A.P. Moller-Maersk, announced that all new bookings to and from Russia “will be temporarily suspended, with exception of foodstuffs, medical and humanitarian supplies.” Britain and Canada closed ports to Russian ships.
HOW ELSE IS RUSSIA BEING PUNISHED?
A day after its teams were suspended from all international hockey and soccer matches, including qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, Russia was barred from competing in international ice skating, skiing, basketball, track and some tennis events.
The decisions by the various sports’ organizing bodies follow the International Olympic Committee’s request to keep Russian athletes out of their events.
The International Skating Union’s decision to ban athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus means Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova and 15-year-old teammate Kamila Valieva, who was the focus of a still-unresolved doping dispute at last month’s Winter Olympics, will be excluded from this month’s world figure skating championships in France.
The backlash also intensified in the entertainment world, as the Cannes Film Festival said no Russian delegations would be welcome this year and the Venice festival announced free screenings of a film about the 2014 conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
The announcements came on the heels of other high-profile protests in the arts, including Hollywood’s decision to pull films scheduled for release in Russia.
The European Broadcasting Union announced last week that Russia wouldn’t be allowed to enter an act for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. On Tuesday, it emerged that the 2016 winner of the contest, Ukrainian singer Jamala, fled Ukraine for Turkey with her two children.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE UNITED NATIONS?
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the U.N.’s top human rights body to hold Russia accountable for the invasion.
In recorded remarks delivered to the Human Rights Council, the top U.S. diplomat also urged it to send a message to Putin that he should unconditionally stop the “unprovoked attack” and withdraw his forces from Ukraine.
The comments came as the U.S. returned to its seat at the council, which was abandoned under President Donald Trump, who alleged that the 47-member-state body was too accepting of autocratic governments and too biased against Israel.
Meanwhile, the U.N.’s the 193-nation General Assembly met Tuesday for a second day of speeches about the war. More than 110 member states signed up to speak. The assembly, which allows no vetoes, is expected to vote later in the week on a resolution coordinated by EU envoys, working with Ukraine.
The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, demands that Russia immediately stop using force against Ukraine and withdraw all troops.
Follow AP’s coverage of the tensions between Russia and Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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