Russian troops have entered Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv and fighting was underway on Sunday, the head of the regional administration said on the fourth day of Moscow's invasion of the pro-Western country.
"The Russian enemy's light vehicles broke into the city of Kharkiv," Oleg Sinegubov said in a Facebook post. "The Ukrainian armed forces are eliminating the enemy", reports AFP.
Sweden on Sunday announced it would break its doctrine of not sending arms to countries in active conflict and send military equipment, including anti-tank launchers, to Ukraine.
"My conclusion is now that our security is best served by us supporting Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russia," Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told reporters.
Andersson said 5,000 anti-tank weapons of the model "Pansarskott 86", a single-use anti-tank launcher known internationally as Bofors AT-4, would be sent to Ukraine.
The decision to send arms, 135,000 field rations, 5,000 helmets and 5,000 pieces of body armour is the first time Sweden has sent weapons to a country in armed conflict since the Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939, Andersson added.
Swedish media reported that Ukraine had specifically requested the more advanced Robot-57 anti-tank system.
"A weapons system that can strike against tanks and armoured vehicles has been requested and this is such a system," Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist said when asked about the decision.
Sweden officially abandoned its stance of neutrality at the end of the Cold War but remains officially "non-aligned" and outside military alliances.
Russia's army admitted Sunday that there were "killed and injured" soldiers among its troops in Ukraine on the fourth day of its invasion, without saying how many had died there.
"Russian servicemen are showing courage and heroism while fulfilling combat tasks in the special military operation," Moscow's army spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on state television.
"Unfortunately, there are killed and injured among our comrades."
This was the first time Moscow had spoken about losing men in Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion in the early hours of Thursday.
Konashenkov said the Russian army would return Ukrainian prisoners of war "who surrender" to their families.
Fighting in Ukraine has claimed dozens of civilian lives, forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and turned Russia into a global pariah.
Ukraine said it had agreed to send a delegation to meet Russian representatives at the border with Belarus, which has allowed Russian troops passage to attack Ukraine, insisting there were no pre-conditions to the talks.
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A view shows a burning oil depot reportedly hit by shelling near the military airbase Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region, Ukraine on February 27, 2022 — Reuters Photo
President Vladimir Putin's decision to place his nuclear forces on alert amounts to "irresponsible" behaviour, NATO charged Sunday.
"This is dangerous rhetoric. This is a behaviour which is irresponsible," the alliance's secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told CNN amid heightened tensions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"And, of course, if you combine this rhetoric with what they're doing on the ground in Ukraine, waging war against the independent sovereign nation, conducting a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, this adds to the seriousness of the situation,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his defence chiefs to put the country's nuclear "deterrence forces" on high alert Sunday and accused the West of taking "unfriendly" steps against his country.
"I order the defence minister and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces to put the deterrence forces of the Russian army into a special mode of combat service," Putin said.
"You see that Western countries are not only unfriendly to our country in the economic sphere -- I mean illegitimate sanctions," he added, in a televised address.
"Senior officials of leading NATO countries also allow aggressive statements against our country." Read More
Ukraine on Sunday said it would hold talks with Russia at its border with Belarus -- near the Chernobyl exclusion zone -- after a phone call between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
"The politicians agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet the Russian one without preconditions at the Ukraine-Belarus border, near the Pripyat River," Zelensky's office said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that a Russian delegation was currently in the Belarusian city of Gomel. Read More
Ukraine has filed a suit against Russia at the highest UN court in The Hague for disputes between states, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.
It was unclear on precisely what grounds the case was being brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). A court official could not immediately be reached for comment.
"Ukraine has submitted its application against Russia to the ICJ," Zelensky said on Twitter. "Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression. We request an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now."
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday accused Ukrainian authorities of wasting "an opportunity" to hold talks after Moscow's invasion of its pro-Western neighbour.
The Kremlin said that Putin had briefed Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett about "the course of a special military operation to protect Donbas".
During the call, the statement said, he "also noted that the Russian delegation is in the Belarus city of Gomel and is ready for negotiations with representatives of Kyiv, who, showing inconsistency, have not yet taken advantage of this opportunity".
Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland Sunday said they would close their airspace to Russian planes, joining other European countries in ramping up sanctions over Moscow invading Ukraine.
Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border with Russia, "is preparing to close its airspace to Russian air traffic," Transport Minister Timo Harakka wrote in an overnight tweet.
He did not state when the measure would take effect.
Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said on Twitter his country too would "be closing its airspace for Russian aircraft".
"At today's meeting of EU ministers of foreign affairs we will push for an EU-wide ban," Kofod said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday Ukraine was willing to hold talks with Russia but rejected convening them in neighbouring Belarus as it was being used as a launchpad for Moscow's invasion.
"Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku. We proposed all of them," Zelensky said in an address posted online, reports AFP.
More than 200,000 people have now fled Ukraine into Poland and other neighbouring countries in the wake of Russia’s invasion, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says.
The number has risen rapidly since Moscow launched its onslaught and is expected to continue to climb quickly.
Google on Saturday became the latest US tech giant to prevent Russian state media from earning money on its platforms in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
It follows similar moves by its YouTube subsidiary and Facebook.
"In response to the war in Ukraine, we are pausing Google monetization of Russian state-funded media across our platforms," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
"We're actively monitoring new developments and will take further steps if necessary."
The move was revealed hours after YouTube announced it would block certain Russian media channels from monetizing their videos, among other restrictions. Read More
People in Kyiv were told to make Molotov cocktail petrol bombs on Friday as they hid in makeshift shelters and basements, awaiting a Russian assault on the Ukrainian capital.
Missiles pounded Kyiv overnight and air raid sirens wailed, increasing fears among residents who did not flee the city of 3 million on Thursday that an assault was imminent.
Air raid sirens in Kyiv sound shortly before midnight warning of incoming missiles as the fourth-day offensive continue.
Earlier on Thursday Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian army to conduct a special operation in Ukraine.
Moscow claimed Sunday its troops had "entirely" besieged the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and the city of Berdyansk in the southeast, as the Russian army pressed ahead with the invasion of the pro-Western country, reports AFP.
"Over the past 24 hours, the cities of Kherson and Berdyansk have been completely blocked by the Russian armed forces," defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
China's envoy to Ukraine said Sunday current conditions were too unsafe to evacuate citizens, days after the embassy said it would prepare plans to help people leave after the Russian invasion, reports AFP.
In a lengthy video message on the embassy's official WeChat account, Chinese ambassador Fan Xianrong sought to dispel rumours he had left Kyiv and reassure Chinese nationals left stranded in the war-torn country.
Western allies announced sweeping new sanctions against Moscow on Saturday, including kicking key Russian banks off the main global payments system, as a defiant President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces were repelling Russian troops advancing on Kyiv, reports Reuters.
Seeking to ratchet up economic punishment for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its European partners also said they would impose restrictions on Russia's central bank to limit its ability to support the rouble and finance his war effort.
Moscow ordered its troops to advance in Ukraine "from all directions" while the West responded late Saturday with sanctions that sought to cripple Russia's banking sector, reports AFP.
Ukrainian officials said 198 civilians, including three children, had been killed since Russia invaded on Thursday and warned Russian saboteurs were active in Kyiv where explosions forced residents to flee underground.
