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Ukraine, Russia battle for control
On the fourth day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the capital was still in Ukrainian government hands, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rallying his people despite Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Ukrainian forces secured full control of Kharkiv on Sunday following street fighting with Russian troops in the country’s second biggest city, the local governor said.
“Kharkiv is fully under our control,” the head of the regional administration, Oleg Sinegubov, said on messaging app Telegram, adding that the army was expelling Russian forces during a “clean-up” operation. Earlier Sunday he had said that Russian forces’ light vehicles broke into the city, with fighting breaking out in the streets.
On the fourth day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the capital was still in Ukrainian government hands, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rallying his people despite Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Russia’s military also put increasing pressure on strategic ports in the south of Ukraine, blocking the strategic cities of Kherson on the Black Sea and the port of Berdyansk on the Azov Sea, a Russian defense ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said.
He said the Russian forces also have taken control of an air base near Kherson and the city of Henichesk on the Azov Sea. Ukrainian authorities previously have reported fighting in various areas along the coast.
As Russia has closed in on the Ukrainian capital, it has also focused on pressing its offensive in the country’s south in an apparent bid to take control of its coast stretching from the border with Romania in the west to the border with Russia in the east. The Ukrainian authorities have reported fighting going on near Odesa, Mykolaiv and other areas.
Russia’s advances along Ukraine’s coast mark an attempt to cut the country’s access to its sea ports that would deal a major blow to its economy. The offensive in the south also could allow Moscow to build a land corridor to Crimea, which until now was connected to Russia by a 19-km bridge, the longest bridge in Europe which opened in 2018.
Russians protest war
From Moscow to Siberia, Russian anti-war activists took to the streets again Sunday to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite the arrests of hundreds of protesters each day by police.
Demonstrators held pickets and marched in city centers, chanting “No to war!”
Protests against the invasion started Thursday in Russia and have continued daily ever since, even as Russian police have moved swiftly to crack down on the rallies and detain protesters.
According to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests, by Sunday evening police detained at least 1,474 Russians in 45 cities over anti-war demonstrations that day.
