Russian troops stepped up their offensive in urban areas of Ukraine on Tuesday, shelling the central square of the country’s second-largest city and Kiev’s main television tower, in what Ukraine’s president described as a blatant campaign of terror.
“No one will forgive. No one will forget,” promised President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the bloodshed in Kharkiv Square.
Ukrainian authorities said five people were killed in the attack on the television tower, which is about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the center of Kiev and a short distance from residential buildings. A TV control room and an electrical substation were affected and at least some Ukrainian channels stopped broadcasting, authorities said.
Zelenskyy’s office also reported a missile attack on the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial, located near the tower. A spokesman for the monument said a Jewish cemetery on the site, where Nazi occupiers killed more than 33,000 Jews in just over two days in 1941, was damaged, but the extent of the damage will not be known until dawn.
At the same time, a military convoy made up of hundreds of tanks and other armored vehicles was slowly advancing towards the capital, home to nearly 3 million people, in what the West fears is an attempt to overthrow the government and install a pro-Kremlin regime. .
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces also intensified their attacks on other towns large and small, including the strategic ports of Odessa and Mariupol in the south.
On the sixth day of Europe’s biggest ground war since World War II, Russia finds itself increasingly isolated, beset by harsh sanctions that have plunged its economy into crisis. The country has virtually no allies apart from a few nations like China, Belarus and North Korea.
The total number of deaths remains unclear, but a top Western intelligence official estimated on Tuesday that more than 5,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or captured. Ukraine did not release an estimate of casualties.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said it has seen an increase in Russian air and artillery attacks on densely populated urban areas over the past three days. He also indicated that three cities, Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol, are surrounded by Russian troops.
Many military experts worry that Russia is changing tactics. Moscow’s strategy in Chechnya and Syria was to use artillery and shelling to pulverize cities and crush the resolve of the fighters.
The bombing of the TV tower came after Russia announced it would attack broadcast facilities used by the Ukrainian intelligence agency. He called on people living near those places to leave their homes.
In Kharkiv, with a population of 1.5 million, at least six people were killed when the administration building on Freedom Square was hit by a suspected missile.
The attack on Freedom Square, the center of public life in the city, was seen by many Ukrainians as irrefutable proof that the Russian invasion is not only focused on military targets, but also seeks to break the morale of the population. .
The attack shattered windows and walls of buildings surrounding the large central plaza, leaving it littered with dust and debris. Inside one building there were huge chunks of plaster strewn about and doors torn off their hinges in hallways.
“There are people under the ruins. We have removed bodies,” said Yevhen Vasylenko, a delegate from the Ministry of Emergency Situations in Kharkiv.
Zelenskyy called the attack on the square “uncovered terrorism” and a war crime. “This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation.”
In an emotional call to the European Parliament, Zelenskyy declared: “We fight to be equal members of Europe. I think today we are showing everyone that this is who we are.”
He assured that 16 children died on Monday in different parts of the Ukraine, and ironized on the Russian affirmations that it only attacked military objectives.
“Where are the children? What kind of military installations do they work on? What tanks are they traveling in?” asked Zelenskyy.
Human Rights Watch reported that in recent days it documented a cluster bomb attack outside a hospital in eastern Ukraine. Residents also reported the use of such weapons in Kharkiv and in the town of Kiyanka. The Kremlin has denied using cluster bombs.
If the allegations are confirmed, this would represent a new level of brutality in the conflict and could result in further isolation for Russia.
