Russia-Ukraine War What Happened on Day 3 of Russia’s Assault on Ukraine
Western intelligence reports indicated that the Russian advance had been slowed, if only for the moment. The Russian priority remained the capture of Kyiv.
As Russian forces pressed into Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Ukraine’s defense forces and civilian volunteers battled to hold off Russia’s invasion for a fourth day on Sunday as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said his country’s fighters had “successfully repelled enemy attacks.” Here are the latest developments:
A lawmaker from Mr. Zelensky’s faction, David Arakhamia, said Ukraine “has agreed to meet Russia with no conditions” for talks on the conflict, but there were no immediate details on who would meet, or where. The government of Belarus said the two sides would hold talks at the Belarus-Ukraine border. Earlier, Mr. Zelensky had rejected the Kremlin’s offer to hold talks in Belarus, saying the country was not neutral territory because Russia had carried out part of its invasion from there.
President Vladimir V. Putin has ordered his military to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert. He gave the order in a televised meeting with his defense minister and top military commander.
Fighting drew closer to the center of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, according to videos and photographs analyzed by The New York Times. The footage showed Ukrainians firing rockets toward Russian troops, as well as some Russian military vehicles burning and others being ransacked by Ukrainian troops.
As Ukraine’s armed forces targeted Russian supply lines, the Kremlin’s offensive seemed likely to intensify, as U.S. officials said that most of the more than 150,000 Russian troops who had massed around Ukraine were now engaged in the fighting.
In response to the invasion, a growing number of European countries said they would ban Russian aircraft from their airspace, and Germany’s chancellor announced a significant increase in military spending, reversing a longstanding policy.
Turkish officials, in a reversal, label Russia’s invasion a ‘war.’
A Russian Navy vessel sailing in the Bosporus near Istanbul earlier this month.
Turkey will implement a 1936 international treaty that would potentially ban both Ukrainian and Russian warships from passing through the straits connecting the Black Sea to the south, Turkey's top diplomat said on Sunday.
Turkey said it had decided that the invasion of Ukraine and the resulting fighting constituted a war. The word “war” allows Turkey to close the straits to vessels of the countries involved.
“To be honest, we have reached the conclusion that this now turned into war,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a televised interview on the CNN Turk news network.
Turkey on Sunday described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “war,” with consecutive tweets and statements from top officials of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr. Erdogan had earlier called the invasion a “military operation” of Russia that violated international law.
Ukraine has been appealing to Turkey to stop Russian warships from passing through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, which fall under the 1936 Montreux Convention.
Mr. Cavusoglu mentioned in his remarks Sunday that both countries still have the right to move vessels to home bases in the Black Sea.
“There shouldn’t be abuses,” he said. “It shouldn’t join the war after crossing the strait saying that it would go to its base.”
On Saturday, a short time after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine posted on Twitter indicating that Turkey had banned the Russia passage of warships through the Black Sea, Turkey denied there had been any measures taken.
A Turkish official close to Erdogan who asked to remain anonymous as he is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said that Mr. Erdogan did not tell Mr. Zelensky that he had agreed to a ban on the passage of Russian military vessels.
The confusion may have come from a grammar mistake, which is common for Ukrainian speakers, since the language has no articles, and he may have meant to say “a” ban rather than “the” ban in his English language post.
Two hours after reporting that 200,000 Ukrainians had arrived in neighboring countries, the United Nations refugee agency vastly raised the figure based upon reporting from national authorities. “The current total is now 368,000 and continues to rise,” the agency tweeted.
Belgium became the latest European nation to close its airspace to Russian airlines. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo tweeted: “Our European skies are open skies. They’re open for those who connect people, not for those who seek to brutally aggress.”
Russian troops have escalated their assault on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, according to videos and photographs analyzed by The New York Times.
The imagery from Sunday shows clashes between Russian and Ukrainian troops occurring closer to the city center than was previously seen, suggesting a deeper Russian incursion into Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine.
In several locations, it appears that these advances may have stalled. Videos show some Russian vehicles burning, and others being ransacked by Ukrainian troops.
Civilian volunteers sorted empty bottles to be used for Molotov cocktails in a parking lot in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Sunday.
A spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey called for an “immediate halt of Russian attacks and the start of ceasefire negotiations.”
An around-the-clock curfew was in effect on Sunday in Kyiv, with only soldiers, emergency workers and newly armed civilian volunteers allowed to be on the streets. We were confined to a hotel, unable to report. Ukrainian news media reported no major fighting in the city, but on the southern outskirts of the city a fuel depot bombed early Sunday morning burned, sending up a gigantic plume of smoke.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, told the BBC on Sunday that she would support Britons who want to go to Ukraine to take up arms for the Ukrainian resistance. She also said that, if Russia escalates its invasion, its leaders and military commanders could be charged with war crimes.
Ukraine’s gas pipeline operator said Sunday that transmission was continuing “normally” and that it had not recorded a drop in pressure because of an explosion in the area of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city.
The Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine added that it was unable to visually inspect the site because of military activity in the city.
Ukraine is one of the major transmission routes for Russian gas to Europe, and concerns about disruptions have driven up European gas prices.
French customs authorities have intercepted a Russian cargo ship suspected of belonging to Russian interests targeted by the new U.S. and European sanctions, according to the French finance ministry.
The boat, which was transporting vehicles to St. Petersburg, is owned by PSB Lizing, a Russia-based financial company on the sanctions list. It was diverted to a port in northern France on Saturday for “inspections,” the French ministry said on Twitter.
The International Judo Federation announced that it was suspending President Vladimir Putin from his post as the group’s honorary president.
The Philippines’ top diplomat travelled to Poland on Saturday to welcome 13 Filipinos who were the first from their country to be evacuated from Ukraine. Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. met the evacuees at the Rava-Ruska border crossing shortly after noon on Saturday. A total of 350 Filipinos are estimated to be in Ukraine, and Mr. Locsin said in a statement that his government was working “to repatriate them as soon as possible.”
Britain's Ministry of Defense said fighting overnight in the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, had been less intense than the night before.
The United Nations refugee agency said on Sunday that more than 200,000 people had fled the violence in Ukraine. Most have entered neighbouring countries to the west, including Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania.
As oil and gas prices surge amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European energy ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss the situation, France's ecology minister, Barbara Pompili, said on Twitter.
Ukraine says it has slowed Russia’s advance with the help of volunteers.
Volunteers gathered in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, on Saturday to prepare to join the country’s defense against Russian forces.
LVIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian army, with the assistance of growing ranks of citizen soldiers, said on Sunday that it had slowed Russia’s advance by wreaking havoc on Russian supply lines while fighting to keep control over the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv.
“Enemy troops, deprived of timely replenishment of fuel and ammunition, are stopped,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement at 6 a.m. on Sunday. “The personnel of the occupying forces, the vast majority of whom are young conscripts, are exhausted by previous military exercises and have low morale.”
It was impossible to independently verify the claims made in the statement, but the Ukrainian military’s focus on what it suggested was a lack of will on the Russian side seemed part of a broader strategy to tap into the resolve of a nation fighting to hold onto its independence and to undermine the determination of the Russian forces.
For its part, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that its military had completely blockaded the Ukrainian port cities of Kherson and Berdyansk.
The main tactic of the Russian forces, according to the Ukrainian military, is to capture small towns, villages and highways, where some of the most pitched fighting was thought to be taking place.
On Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called on people from around the world to come and help defend Ukraine.
“All friends of Ukraine who want to join the defense — come. We will give you a weapon,” Mr. Zelensky said.
Under martial law in Ukraine, all men of fighting age who are in good health must join the country’s defense, and many are doing so with the determination of those protecting their homes.
It is a dynamic the Ukrainians hope can help them gain an edge in a war against an enemy with vastly superior weaponry.
“Due to strong resistance from the civilian population, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard and the National Police, attempts to take control of large cities were unsuccessful,” according to the Ukrainian statement on Sunday.
The mood in the historic center of Lviv, in western Ukraine, is decidedly more anxious. People are being stopped on street corners as Ukrainian soldiers hunt for Russian saboteurs. The city is preparing itself for what all assume is a coming battle, but it is also a place of refuge where, in addition to soldiers on street corners, you see families sitting with luggage, stranded.
Zelensky rejects the Kremlin’s offer to hold talks in Belarus, saying it’s not neutral territory.
MOSCOW — President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday rejected the Kremlin’s offer to hold talks in Belarus because the country had taken Russia’s side in the fighting in Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky said that he wanted talks with Russia, but that the only way they could be “honest” and end the hostilities would be if they were held in a neutral country.
Russia has carried out part of its invasion from Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north.
“We want peace, we want to meet, we want an end to the war,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video address. “Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku — we proposed all that to the Russian side. Any other city would work for us, too, in a country from whose territory rockets are not being fired.”
The Kremlin said on Sunday that it had already sent a delegation to Belarus for talks. It has not indicated that it is prepared to hold them in any other country.
Mr. Zelensky, who has repeatedly addressed the people of Russia in videos he has posted to social media in the past week, spoke in Russian on Sunday to address the people of Belarus. The country is holding a referendum on Sunday that is expected to tighten the grip of its strongman leader, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko.
“How will you look your children in the eyes?” Mr. Zelensky said. “How will you look into each others’ eyes? How will you look into your neighbours’ eyes? We are your neighbours. We Ukrainians.”
“I genuinely hope you become the good, secure Belarus that Belarus was not so long ago,” he added. “Make the right choice. I’m sure this is the main choice of your great people.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the Kremlin’s offer of talks in Belarus because he said that country has taken Russia’s side in the conflict. In remarks delivered in Russian, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine wanted talks with Russia on ending the fighting, but insisted on holding them in another city like Warsaw or Istanbul. The Kremlin said on Sunday that a Russian delegation had already arrived in Belarus for potential talks.
President Vladimir V. Putin, making his first public remarks since Friday, referred to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a “special operation to provide assistance to the people’s republics of the Donbas.” The remarks, made during a brief televised address congratulating soldiers on Special Forces Day, were the latest example of the Kremlin hiding the true extent of the war from the Russian public.
The Ukrainian government remained in control of Kyiv, the capital, as the Russian invasion entered its fourth day, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement released at 6 a.m. on Sunday. “The Russian occupiers are actively using sabotage and reconnaissance groups, which are destroying civilian infrastructure and killing civilians in large cities,” the statement said. The Ukrainians accused the Russians of violating humanitarian law, saying that an attack on an oil depot in Vasilkov, outside the city of Kyiv, and the destruction of a gas pipeline in Kharkiv were direct assaults on civilian infrastructure.
Some Russian vehicles have broken through and entered the central part of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, a regional official said, as social media showed images of military trucks driving through the city early Sunday. Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, announced the incursion on Facebook and warned residents to seek shelter and not go outside.
Chanting “death to Putin,” a crowd of Iranians defied their government, an ally of Russia, by protesting outside the Ukrainian Embassy in Tehran on Saturday night, according to videos posted on social media.
The protest’s organizers had issued a call for people to join a public condemnation of the war in Ukraine and show solidarity with its people. The demonstrators waved Ukrainian flags, clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live Ukraine” and “The Russian Embassy is a den of spies.” Security guards watched over the crowd, which included children, but did not interfere, videos showed.
There had also been calls to demonstrate outside the Russian Embassy, but there was no indication that protesters had gathered there. A photograph shared on social media showed members of the Iranian special forces on motorcycles guarding the Russian Embassy and blocking access to its gates.
The Iranian government has not outright endorsed the invasion of Ukraine, but it has expressed support for Russia’s position. That appears to be deepening the growing rift between Iran’s leaders and its people. Many Iranians harbor deep mistrust of Russia and have expressed outrage on social media about the government’s attitude toward the war.
State media outlets have used the Kremlin’s terminology when reporting on the war, calling it “a special military operation,” not an invasion. A conservative former lawmaker in Iran, Ali Mottahari, wrote
As Russian forces pressed into Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Ukraine’s defense forces and civilian volunteers battled to hold off Russia’s invasion for a fourth day on Sunday as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said his country’s fighters had “successfully repelled enemy attacks.” Here are the latest developments:
A lawmaker from Mr. Zelensky’s faction, David Arakhamia, said Ukraine “has agreed to meet Russia with no conditions” for talks on the conflict, but there were no immediate details on who would meet, or where. The government of Belarus said the two sides would hold talks at the Belarus-Ukraine border. Earlier, Mr. Zelensky had rejected the Kremlin’s offer to hold talks in Belarus, saying the country was not neutral territory because Russia had carried out part of its invasion from there.
President Vladimir V. Putin has ordered his military to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert. He gave the order in a televised meeting with his defense minister and top military commander.
Fighting drew closer to the center of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, according to videos and photographs analyzed by The New York Times. The footage showed Ukrainians firing rockets toward Russian troops, as well as some Russian military vehicles burning and others being ransacked by Ukrainian troops.
As Ukraine’s armed forces targeted Russian supply lines, the Kremlin’s offensive seemed likely to intensify, as U.S. officials said that most of the more than 150,000 Russian troops who had massed around Ukraine were now engaged in the fighting.
In response to the invasion, a growing number of European countries said they would ban Russian aircraft from their airspace, and Germany’s chancellor announced a significant increase in military spending, reversing a longstanding policy.
Turkish officials, in a reversal, label Russia’s invasion a ‘war.’
A Russian Navy vessel sailing in the Bosporus near Istanbul earlier this month.
Turkey will implement a 1936 international treaty that would potentially ban both Ukrainian and Russian warships from passing through the straits connecting the Black Sea to the south, Turkey's top diplomat said on Sunday.
Turkey said it had decided that the invasion of Ukraine and the resulting fighting constituted a war. The word “war” allows Turkey to close the straits to vessels of the countries involved.
“To be honest, we have reached the conclusion that this now turned into war,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a televised interview on the CNN Turk news network.
Turkey on Sunday described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “war,” with consecutive tweets and statements from top officials of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr. Erdogan had earlier called the invasion a “military operation” of Russia that violated international law.
Ukraine has been appealing to Turkey to stop Russian warships from passing through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, which fall under the 1936 Montreux Convention.
Mr. Cavusoglu mentioned in his remarks Sunday that both countries still have the right to move vessels to home bases in the Black Sea.
“There shouldn’t be abuses,” he said. “It shouldn’t join the war after crossing the strait saying that it would go to its base.”
On Saturday, a short time after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine posted on Twitter indicating that Turkey had banned the Russia passage of warships through the Black Sea, Turkey denied there had been any measures taken.
A Turkish official close to Erdogan who asked to remain anonymous as he is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said that Mr. Erdogan did not tell Mr. Zelensky that he had agreed to a ban on the passage of Russian military vessels.
The confusion may have come from a grammar mistake, which is common for Ukrainian speakers, since the language has no articles, and he may have meant to say “a” ban rather than “the” ban in his English language post.
Two hours after reporting that 200,000 Ukrainians had arrived in neighboring countries, the United Nations refugee agency vastly raised the figure based upon reporting from national authorities. “The current total is now 368,000 and continues to rise,” the agency tweeted.
Belgium became the latest European nation to close its airspace to Russian airlines. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo tweeted: “Our European skies are open skies. They’re open for those who connect people, not for those who seek to brutally aggress.”
Russian troops have escalated their assault on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, according to videos and photographs analyzed by The New York Times.
The imagery from Sunday shows clashes between Russian and Ukrainian troops occurring closer to the city center than was previously seen, suggesting a deeper Russian incursion into Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine.
In several locations, it appears that these advances may have stalled. Videos show some Russian vehicles burning, and others being ransacked by Ukrainian troops.
Civilian volunteers sorted empty bottles to be used for Molotov cocktails in a parking lot in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Sunday.
A spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey called for an “immediate halt of Russian attacks and the start of ceasefire negotiations.”
An around-the-clock curfew was in effect on Sunday in Kyiv, with only soldiers, emergency workers and newly armed civilian volunteers allowed to be on the streets. We were confined to a hotel, unable to report. Ukrainian news media reported no major fighting in the city, but on the southern outskirts of the city a fuel depot bombed early Sunday morning burned, sending up a gigantic plume of smoke.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, told the BBC on Sunday that she would support Britons who want to go to Ukraine to take up arms for the Ukrainian resistance. She also said that, if Russia escalates its invasion, its leaders and military commanders could be charged with war crimes.
Ukraine’s gas pipeline operator said Sunday that transmission was continuing “normally” and that it had not recorded a drop in pressure because of an explosion in the area of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city.
The Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine added that it was unable to visually inspect the site because of military activity in the city.
Ukraine is one of the major transmission routes for Russian gas to Europe, and concerns about disruptions have driven up European gas prices.
French customs authorities have intercepted a Russian cargo ship suspected of belonging to Russian interests targeted by the new U.S. and European sanctions, according to the French finance ministry.
The boat, which was transporting vehicles to St. Petersburg, is owned by PSB Lizing, a Russia-based financial company on the sanctions list. It was diverted to a port in northern France on Saturday for “inspections,” the French ministry said on Twitter.
The International Judo Federation announced that it was suspending President Vladimir Putin from his post as the group’s honorary president.
The Philippines’ top diplomat travelled to Poland on Saturday to welcome 13 Filipinos who were the first from their country to be evacuated from Ukraine. Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. met the evacuees at the Rava-Ruska border crossing shortly after noon on Saturday. A total of 350 Filipinos are estimated to be in Ukraine, and Mr. Locsin said in a statement that his government was working “to repatriate them as soon as possible.”
Britain's Ministry of Defense said fighting overnight in the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, had been less intense than the night before.
The United Nations refugee agency said on Sunday that more than 200,000 people had fled the violence in Ukraine. Most have entered neighbouring countries to the west, including Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania.
As oil and gas prices surge amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European energy ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss the situation, France's ecology minister, Barbara Pompili, said on Twitter.
Ukraine says it has slowed Russia’s advance with the help of volunteers.
Volunteers gathered in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, on Saturday to prepare to join the country’s defense against Russian forces.
LVIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian army, with the assistance of growing ranks of citizen soldiers, said on Sunday that it had slowed Russia’s advance by wreaking havoc on Russian supply lines while fighting to keep control over the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv.
“Enemy troops, deprived of timely replenishment of fuel and ammunition, are stopped,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement at 6 a.m. on Sunday. “The personnel of the occupying forces, the vast majority of whom are young conscripts, are exhausted by previous military exercises and have low morale.”
It was impossible to independently verify the claims made in the statement, but the Ukrainian military’s focus on what it suggested was a lack of will on the Russian side seemed part of a broader strategy to tap into the resolve of a nation fighting to hold onto its independence and to undermine the determination of the Russian forces.
For its part, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that its military had completely blockaded the Ukrainian port cities of Kherson and Berdyansk.
The main tactic of the Russian forces, according to the Ukrainian military, is to capture small towns, villages and highways, where some of the most pitched fighting was thought to be taking place.
On Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called on people from around the world to come and help defend Ukraine.
“All friends of Ukraine who want to join the defense — come. We will give you a weapon,” Mr. Zelensky said.
Under martial law in Ukraine, all men of fighting age who are in good health must join the country’s defense, and many are doing so with the determination of those protecting their homes.
It is a dynamic the Ukrainians hope can help them gain an edge in a war against an enemy with vastly superior weaponry.
“Due to strong resistance from the civilian population, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard and the National Police, attempts to take control of large cities were unsuccessful,” according to the Ukrainian statement on Sunday.
The mood in the historic center of Lviv, in western Ukraine, is decidedly more anxious. People are being stopped on street corners as Ukrainian soldiers hunt for Russian saboteurs. The city is preparing itself for what all assume is a coming battle, but it is also a place of refuge where, in addition to soldiers on street corners, you see families sitting with luggage, stranded.
Zelensky rejects the Kremlin’s offer to hold talks in Belarus, saying it’s not neutral territory.
MOSCOW — President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday rejected the Kremlin’s offer to hold talks in Belarus because the country had taken Russia’s side in the fighting in Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky said that he wanted talks with Russia, but that the only way they could be “honest” and end the hostilities would be if they were held in a neutral country.
Russia has carried out part of its invasion from Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north.
“We want peace, we want to meet, we want an end to the war,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video address. “Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku — we proposed all that to the Russian side. Any other city would work for us, too, in a country from whose territory rockets are not being fired.”
The Kremlin said on Sunday that it had already sent a delegation to Belarus for talks. It has not indicated that it is prepared to hold them in any other country.
Mr. Zelensky, who has repeatedly addressed the people of Russia in videos he has posted to social media in the past week, spoke in Russian on Sunday to address the people of Belarus. The country is holding a referendum on Sunday that is expected to tighten the grip of its strongman leader, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko.
“How will you look your children in the eyes?” Mr. Zelensky said. “How will you look into each others’ eyes? How will you look into your neighbours’ eyes? We are your neighbours. We Ukrainians.”
“I genuinely hope you become the good, secure Belarus that Belarus was not so long ago,” he added. “Make the right choice. I’m sure this is the main choice of your great people.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the Kremlin’s offer of talks in Belarus because he said that country has taken Russia’s side in the conflict. In remarks delivered in Russian, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine wanted talks with Russia on ending the fighting, but insisted on holding them in another city like Warsaw or Istanbul. The Kremlin said on Sunday that a Russian delegation had already arrived in Belarus for potential talks.
President Vladimir V. Putin, making his first public remarks since Friday, referred to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a “special operation to provide assistance to the people’s republics of the Donbas.” The remarks, made during a brief televised address congratulating soldiers on Special Forces Day, were the latest example of the Kremlin hiding the true extent of the war from the Russian public.
The Ukrainian government remained in control of Kyiv, the capital, as the Russian invasion entered its fourth day, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement released at 6 a.m. on Sunday. “The Russian occupiers are actively using sabotage and reconnaissance groups, which are destroying civilian infrastructure and killing civilians in large cities,” the statement said. The Ukrainians accused the Russians of violating humanitarian law, saying that an attack on an oil depot in Vasilkov, outside the city of Kyiv, and the destruction of a gas pipeline in Kharkiv were direct assaults on civilian infrastructure.
Some Russian vehicles have broken through and entered the central part of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, a regional official said, as social media showed images of military trucks driving through the city early Sunday. Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, announced the incursion on Facebook and warned residents to seek shelter and not go outside.
Chanting “death to Putin,” a crowd of Iranians defied their government, an ally of Russia, by protesting outside the Ukrainian Embassy in Tehran on Saturday night, according to videos posted on social media.
The protest’s organizers had issued a call for people to join a public condemnation of the war in Ukraine and show solidarity with its people. The demonstrators waved Ukrainian flags, clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live Ukraine” and “The Russian Embassy is a den of spies.” Security guards watched over the crowd, which included children, but did not interfere, videos showed.
There had also been calls to demonstrate outside the Russian Embassy, but there was no indication that protesters had gathered there. A photograph shared on social media showed members of the Iranian special forces on motorcycles guarding the Russian Embassy and blocking access to its gates.
The Iranian government has not outright endorsed the invasion of Ukraine, but it has expressed support for Russia’s position. That appears to be deepening the growing rift between Iran’s leaders and its people. Many Iranians harbor deep mistrust of Russia and have expressed outrage on social media about the government’s attitude toward the war.
State media outlets have used the Kremlin’s terminology when reporting on the war, calling it “a special military operation,” not an invasion. A conservative former lawmaker in Iran, Ali Mottahari, wrote
