KYIV (AP):
Most of the world lined up against Moscow in the United Nations on Wednesday to demand that it withdraws from Ukraine, as invading Russian forces renewed their bombardment of the country’s second-biggest city, menaced its capital, and besieged its strategic ports.
Russia reported its military casualties for the first time since the invasion began last week, saying nearly 500 of its troops had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. Ukraine insisted Russia’s losses were far higher but did not immediately disclose its own.
Envoys from Ukraine and Russia are expected to meet today in Belarus for a second round of talks aimed at ending the fighting. But there appeared to be little common ground between the two sides.
The UN General Assembly voted to demand that Russia stop its offensive and immediately withdraw all troops, with world powers and tiny island states alike condemning Moscow. The vote was 141 to five, with 35 abstentions.
Assembly resolutions aren’t legally binding but can have influence as a reflection of international opinion.
The vote came after the 193-member assembly convened its first emergency session since 1997. Countries that spoke up for Russia included Belarus, Cuba, North Korea and Syria.
AERIAL ATTACK
Meanwhile, Russia pounded Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city with about 1.5 million people, with another round of aerial attacks that shattered buildings and lit up the skyline with balls of fire. At least 21 people were killed and 112 injured over the past day, said Oleg Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration.
Several Russian planes were shot down over Kharkiv, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Kharkiv today is the Stalingrad of the 21st century,” Arestovich said, invoking what is considered one of the most heroic moments in Russian history, the five-month defence of the city from the Nazis during World War II.
From his basement bunker, Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov told the BBC: “The city is united and we shall stand fast.”
Russian attacks, many with missiles, blew the roof off Kharkiv’s five-story regional police building and set the top floor on fire, and also hit the intelligence headquarters and a university building, according to officials and videos and photos released by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. Officials said residential buildings were also hit, but gave no details.
Ukraine found itself under threat on other fronts as well: A huge, 40-mile-long column of Russian tanks and other military vehicles stood outside Kyiv, the capital, and Russian invaders pressed their assault on the strategic port cities of Kherson and Mariupol.
Seven days into Russia’s invasion, a refugee crisis unfolded on the European continent, with the UN saying that more than 870,000 people have fled Ukraine and that the number could soon hit one million.
The State Emergency Service reported that more than 2,000 civilians have been killed, but that could not be independently verified.
A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, gave his side’s military casualty figures, disputing as “disinformation” reports of much higher losses. Ukraine’s leader claimed almost 6,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.