Kharkiv shelled as US slams Putin’s ‘depravity’

KHARKIV, Ukraine: Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv was hit by more deadly shelling on Saturday while Ukrainian forces made some gains in the surrounding region as Washington slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s "depravity".

Although Ukraine has retained control of Kharkiv, the city has been repeatedly battered by Moscow’s forces and still faces daily attacks.

One person was killed and five were injured in artillery and mortar strikes, Kharkiv’s regional military administration said on Telegram.

"The situation in the Kharkiv region is tough. But our military, our intelligence, have important tactical success," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his latest televised address.

Ukrainian forces said they had recaptured the village of Ruska Lozova, near Kharkiv, that had been occupied by Russian troops for two months and evacuated hundreds of civilians.

"It was two months of terrible fear. Nothing else, a terrible and relentless fear," Natalia, a 28-year-old evacuee from Ruska Lozova, told AFP.

"We were in the basements without food for two months, we were eating what we had," said Svyatoslav, 40, who did not want to give his full name, his eyes red with fatigue. Oleksandr Skachko, a resident of nearby Slatyne, which was also recaptured by Ukrainian troops, said 15 people from the village had been killed.

Addressing Russians, the 47-year-old said: "Your army has invaded our land and is killing our children. No matter what anyone says, no matter what Putin says, our people are dying here."

Thousands have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since the Russian invasion of its pro-Western neighbour began on February 24.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Friday briefly choked with emotion as he described the destruction in Ukraine and slammed Putin’s "depravity".

Ukrainian prosecutors say they have pinpointed more than 8,000 war crimes carried out by Russian troops and are investigating 10 Russian soldiers for suspected atrocities in Bucha near Kyiv.

Russia is now intensifying operations in the eastern Donbas region, making some territorial advances, and tightening its stranglehold on the devastated southern port city of Mariupol.

Ukrainian authorities said they planned to evacuate civilians on Friday from the besieged Azovstal steel plant, the last holdout in Mariupol where hundreds are sheltering with Ukrainian troops.

But Denis Pushilin, leader of the breakaway eastern region of Donetsk, accused Ukrainian forces of "acting like outright terrorists" and holding civilians hostage in the steel plant.

From Mariupol’s badly damaged port zone, AFP on Friday heard heavy shelling coming from Azovstal during a media trip organised by the Russian army, with explosions only a few seconds apart.

Russia also on Friday confirmed that it carried out an air strike on Kyiv in which a journalist was killed during a visit by UN chief Antonio Guterres the previous day, the first such attack on the Ukrainian capital in nearly two weeks.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had deployed "high-precision, long-range air-based weapons" that "destroyed the production buildings of the Artyom missile and space enterprise in Kyiv".

Zelensky called for a stronger global response to Thursday’s strikes, which immediately followed his talks in the city with the UN’s secretary general.

"It is unfortunate, but such a deliberate and brutal humiliation of the United Nations by Russia has gone unanswered," he said.

Guterres had also toured Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs where Moscow is alleged to have committed war crimes. Russia denies killing civilians.

"I was moved by the resilience and bravery of the people of Ukraine. My message to them is simple: We will not give up," Guterres tweeted on Friday. "The UN will redouble its efforts to save lives and reduce human suffering. In this war, as in all wars, the civilians always pay the highest price."

Kyiv has admitted that Russian forces have captured a string of villages in the Donbas region. But a senior Nato official said Russia had made only "minor" and "uneven" advances.