KYIV: The Russian army said it had taken control of a port on the Black Sea, Kherson, as its troops advanced and pounded cities across southern and eastern Ukraine, defying sanctions and international isolation.

Russian paratroopers also landed in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, triggering clashes in the streets, Ukrainian forces said.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and Moscow said on Wednesday that they were prepared to hold talks for the second time since the invasion began. The talks are expected to take place Thursday in Belarus, the head of the Russian delegation said. They were announced the same day that the UN General Assembly condemned the invasion and called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

Russia’s assault on Ukrainian cities continued on day seven of the conflict, including a strike on the country’s second-largest, Kharkiv, termed by one official “the Stalingrad of the 21st century”.

Moscow says nearly 500 soldiers killed in offensive; Biden lauds Ukrainians’ heroism, Johnson calls Putin ‘war criminal’

The human toll of the war kept mounting, too, with the number of Ukrainians who have fled from their homeland expected to reach one million soon and the Ukrainian government putting the civilian death toll in the thousands, though the claim couldn’t be verified.

The UN human rights office said it has recorded 136 civilian deaths. The real toll is believed to be far higher.

A military adviser to Zelensky said over 7,000 Russian servicemen have been killed since the invasion started and hundreds taken prison.

Moscow also gave its first casualty figures, saying 498 Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine and another 1,597 had been wounded. The defence ministry said more than 2,870 Ukrainian soldiers and “nationalists” had been killed and about 3,700 wounded.

Fierce fighting outside Kharkiv has helped hold up the Russian advance, according to Ukrainian officials. Elsewhere, two cruise missiles hit a hospital in the northern city of Chernihiv.

The Chernihiv region’s state administration said dozens of nearby homes and a police station were damaged in the strike. Concern is rising about Ukraine’s four operating nuclear power plants.

World leaders also roundly condemned the Russian aggression on Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden used his first State of the Union address to highlight the resolve of a Western alliance that has worked to rearm the Ukrainian military and adopt tough sanctions including closing US airspace to all Russian flights.

Biden devoted the first 12 minutes of his address to Ukraine, with lawmakers of both parties repeatedly rising to their feet and applauding as he praised the bravery of Ukraine’s people and condemned Putin’s assault.

In London, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal. “What we have seen already from Vladimir Putin’s regime, in the use of the munitions that they have already been dropping on innocent civilians, in my view already fully qualifies as a war crime,” Johnson said.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2022