Amid relentless Russia strikes, Ukrainians refuse to bow down

The week-old invasion is yet to achieve its aim of overthrowing the country's government

A view of war-torn Kharkiv after Wednesday's missile attack.: Twitter/@oleksii_kharkiv

Reuters   |   Kyiv   |    03.03.22  : Ukrainians said on Wednesday they were battling on in the port of Kherson, the first sizeable city Russia claimed to have seized, while air strikes and bombardment caused further devastation in other cities, especially Kharkiv in the east.

Russia’s week-old invasion is yet to achieve its aim of overthrowing Ukraine’s government. More than 870,000 people fled to neighbouring countries and jolted the global economy as governments and companies line up to isolate Moscow.

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to deplore the invasion “in the strongest terms”. It demanded that Russia withdraw its forces. India, like Pakistan and China, abstained. 

The bombing of Kharkiv,  a city of 1.5 million people, has left its centre a wasteland of ruined buildings and debris.

“The Russian ‘liberators’ have come,” one Ukrainian volunteer lamented in sarcasm, as he and three others strained to carry the body of a man wrapped in a bed sheet out of the ruins on a main square.

 At least 25 people have been killed by shelling and air strikes in Kharkiv in the past 24 hours, authorities said. After an air strike on Wednesday, the roof of a police building in central Kharkiv collapsed in flames.

Pavel Dorogoy, 36, a photographer who lives near the city centre, said: “The Russians cannot enter the town. So, they’re just attacking us from afar, they just want to destroy what they can.” Moscow denies targeting civilians.

In Washington’s assessment, a US official said, there has been no significant change on the ground in Ukraine since Tuesday despite the launch of more than 450 Russian missiles against Ukrainian targets.