AGENCIES
Kharkiv, the Ukraine’s second-largest city, faced increased Russian shelling Tuesday, while a column of Russian forces stretched out along a road north of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on the sixth day of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry shared a video of one strike at the Kharkiv Regional State Administration building in the center of the city that created a huge ball of fire and smoke as several cars passed through.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Russia’s missile attack on Kharkiv’s main square Tuesday as “frank, undisguised terror” as well as a war crime. “Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget. …This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation.”
An emergency services official said the strike killed at least six people and injured 20 others.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday that Russian shelling of civilian infrastructure that took place Monday in Kharkiv “violates the laws of war.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed allegations of war crimes and told reporters that “Russian troops don’t conduct any strikes against civilian infrastructure and residential areas,” despite evidence of Kremlin attacks on homes, schools and hospitals, which reporters for The Associated Press have documented.
Ukraine also reported Tuesday that troops from Russian ally Belarus had entered Ukraine’s Chernihiv region.