Ukraine: Putin aims for knockout blow in Kyiv

Kyiv is bracing for a major Russian attack and Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has faced rocket strikes, as diplomatic talks with Russia on a potential ceasefire ended without a deal.

The square outside the Kharkiv city hall after shelling on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, was bracing for a major Russian attack and its northeastern city Kharkiv was hit with deadly rocket strikes, as diplomatic talks with Russia on a potential ceasefire ended without a deal.

Amid fears that Vladimir Putin was poised to escalate his brutal invasion, Ukraine claimed Russian forces had used a thermobaric “vacuum” bomb and widely banned cluster munitions.

On the fifth day of fighting, satellite images showed a 65km convoy – more than twice as long as previously thought – of Russian tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery and logistics vehicles bearing down on Kyiv from the north. Other images showed additional ground forces and attack helicopters near the Ukraine border in southern Belarus.

A defiant Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country’s fighters would not allow the capital to be taken.

“For the enemy, Kyiv is the key target,” Mr Zelensky said in a video message. “We did not let them break the defence of the capital, and they send saboteurs to us … We will neutralise them all.”

As diplomatic talks on the Belarus border ended in stalemate, Russian forces bombarded ¬Kharkiv, killing at least 11 civilians.

The UN said at least 406 civilians had been killed in the conflict since last Thursday, and more than 520,000 had fled to safety across the western borders, setting off a ¬European refugee crisis.

Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov told Ukrainian media that Russian armoured vehicles and tanks were “everywhere around the city”.

In Kyiv, soldiers and civilians prepared for the coming assault, erecting makeshift barricades as the Russian army urged residents to leave the city “freely” before the anticipated offensive.

“We will greet them with Molotov cocktails and bullets to the head,” bank employee Viktor Rudnichenko said.

“The only flowers they might get from us will be for their grave.”

There were unconfirmed reports that cluster munitions were used in attacks on residential buildings in parts of Kharkiv, prompting accusations by Mr Zelensky of war crimes and the -“deliberate destruction of people” in areas where there were no military facilities.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said he was investigating the “situation in Ukraine”, declaring there was a reasonable basis to believe war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed against the country since 2014.

As his country reeled from paralysing international sanctions, the Russian President branded the West as an “empire of lies”.

Mr Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that the war would end only if Ukraine was -“denazified” and “demilitarised”, and Russian control over annexed Crimea was formally recognised.

The Russian rouble crashed to a record low as sanctions imposed by the West wreaked havoc on the country’s economy.

Russia was also expelled from the soccer World Cup after being suspended from all international competitions “until further notice”, FIFA and UEFA announced in a joint statement on Monday.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, claimed, without citing specific evidence, that Russia had used a thermobaric weapon, which sucks oxygen from the surrounding air to create a blast capable of vaporising human bodies.

“They used the vacuum bomb today,” Ms Markarova said after a meeting with US politicians. “The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large.”

There have been multiple sightings of Russian thermobaric rocket launchers near the Ukrainian border, including by media outlet CNN.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she could not confirm the report, but “if that were true, it would potentially be a war crime”.

Negotiators returned to their capital cities on Monday local time after a first round of talks on the Belarus border, where Ukraine demanded an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops. Further talks are expected in coming days, but neither side would commit to a timetable.

Mr Zelensky said Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions “when one side is hitting the other with rocket artillery”.

Moscow came under renewed criticism at the UN general assembly in an extraordinary meeting that called for an end to Russia’s “unprovoked” and “unjustified” assault.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded: “The fighting in Ukraine must stop. Enough is enough.”

Britain’s UN ambassador, Barbara Woodward, said the war was “unprovoked, unjustified”.

The resolution would be “a message to the world: that the rules we built together must be defended”, she said. “Because otherwise, who might be next?”

China’s UN envoy, Zhang Jun, said “nothing can be gained from starting off a new Cold War”, but did not indicate how Beijing would vote.

Russia defended its decision to invade its neighbour as nation after nation urged peace from the podium. Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said “we do not feel isolated” and reiterated Moscow’s claim its operation was launched to protect residents of breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. “The hostilities were unleashed by Ukraine against its own residents,” Mr Nebenzia said during his address.

On the sidelines of the meeting, the US announced the expulsion of 12 “intelligence operatives” from Russia’s UN mission for ¬“engaging in espionage activities adverse to our national security”.

In a bid for greater foreign support, Mr Zelensky urged US President Joe Biden and NATO to impose a “no-fly zone” over the country. The US rejected the plea, which would have escalated the conflict by forcing it to shoot down Russian aircraft, causing “potentially war with Russia”.

In other developments, the Russian army on Tuesday reached the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, near Moscow-controlled Crimea, while about 70 Ukrainian servicemen were reportedly killed on Sunday at Okhtyrka, between Kharkiv and Kyiv.

NATO ally Turkey delivered a blow to Moscow on Monday by warning warring countries not to send warships through its Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, which separate the Black Sea from the Mediterranean, effectively bottling up Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

Mr Putin also had his honorary black belt in taekwondo revoked by the sport’s international governing body on Tuesday.