Russian forces laid siege to 2 strategic Ukrainian seaports and pressed their bombardment of the nation's second-biggest metropolis, whereas the massive armoured column threatening Kyiv appeared stalled outdoors the capital.
After seven days of Russian assault, the United Nations refugee company introduced that 1 million individuals have fled Ukraine for the reason that invasion, the swiftest exodus of refugees this century.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred to as on Ukrainians to maintain up the resistance. He vowed that the invaders would have “not one quiet second” and described Russian troopers as “confused kids who've been used".
LIVE UPDATES: Russian missiles hit Ukrainian colleges
Moscow's isolation deepened, in the meantime, when many of the world lined up in opposition to it on the United Nations to demand it withdraw from Ukraine. And the prosecutor for the Worldwide Legal Court docket opened an investigation into potential warfare crimes.
Russia reported its navy casualties for the primary time for the reason that invasion started final week, saying almost 500 of its troops have been killed and nearly 1600 wounded.
Ukraine didn't disclose its personal navy losses however stated greater than 2000 civilians have died, a declare that might not be independently verified.
'I am going to jab them with a pitchfork': Ukrainians react to Russia's warfare
With combating occurring on a number of fronts throughout the nation, Britain’s Defence Ministry stated Mariupol, a big metropolis on the Azov Sea, was encircled by Russian forces, whereas the standing of one other important port, Kherson, a Black Sea shipbuilding metropolis of 280,000, remained unclear.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces claimed to have taken full management of Kherson, which might make it the most important metropolis to fall but within the invasion.
However a senior US defence official disputed that.
“Our view is that Kherson may be very a lot a contested metropolis," the official stated, talking on situation of anonymity.
Mr Zelenskyy’s workplace instructed The Related Press that it couldn't touch upon the scenario in Kherson whereas the combating was nonetheless occurring.
However the mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolykhaev, stated Russian troopers had been within the metropolis and got here to the town administration constructing.
He stated he requested them to not shoot civilians and to permit crews to collect up the our bodies from the streets.
"I merely requested them to not shoot at individuals,” he stated in a press release.
“We don’t have any Ukrainian forces within the metropolis, solely civilians and other people right here who need to stay.”
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko stated the assaults there had been relentless.
“We can not even take the wounded from the streets, from homes and residences at the moment, for the reason that shelling doesn't cease,” he was quoted by the Interfax information company as saying.
In a video tackle to the nation early at the moment, Mr Zelenskyy gave an upbeat evaluation of the warfare.
“We're a individuals who in every week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,” he stated.
“They'll don't have any peace right here. They'll don't have any meals. They'll have right here not one quiet second.”
He stated the combating is taking a toll on the morale of Russian troopers, who “go into grocery shops and attempt to discover one thing to eat”.
“These will not be warriors of a superpower. These are confused kids who've been used.”
In the meantime, the senior US defence official stated the immense column of tons of of tanks and different autos gave the impression to be stalled roughly 25km from Kyiv and had made no actual progress within the final couple of days.
The convoy, which earlier within the week had appeared poised to launch an assault on the capital, has been plagued with gasoline and meals shortages and has confronted fierce Ukrainian resistance, the official stated.
On the far edges of Kyiv, volunteer fighters effectively into their 60s manned a checkpoint to attempt to block the Russian advance.
“In my previous age, I needed to take up arms,” Andrey Goncharuk, 68, stated.
He stated the fighters wanted extra weapons, however “we’ll kill the enemy and take their weapons.”
Russian warplanes bombed the village of Gorenka, a half-hour's drive from Ukraine's capital, yesterday, leaving the our bodies of villagers strewn amongst ruined houses, residents stated.
Within the aftermath, Larissa Lipatova crowded underneath blankets with seven different villages in a chilly, damp concrete cellar amongst jars of pickled greens.
A candle caught in a pickle jar, propped up in entrance of a non secular icon, offered their solely mild.
Ms Lipatova wept, overlaying her face with one hand, as she spoke at nighttime with a message for Ukraine's invaders.
“We do not must be freed. Go away us alone!”
Russia additionally pounded Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis with about 1.5 million individuals, in one other spherical of aerial assaults that shattered buildings and lit up the skyline with flames.
Not less than 21 individuals had been killed and 112 injured over the previous day, stated Oleg Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration.
A number of Russian planes had been shot down over Kharkiv, in response to Oleksiy Arestovich, a high adviser to Mr Zelenskyy.
“Kharkiv at the moment is the Stalingrad of the twenty first century,” Mr Arestovich stated, invoking what is taken into account one of the crucial heroic episodes in Russian historical past, the five-month defence of the town from the Nazis throughout World Battle II.
From his basement bunker, Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov instructed the BBC: “The town is united and we will stand quick.’’
Russian assaults, many with missiles, blew the roof off Kharkiv’s five-story regional police constructing and set the highest flooring on fireplace, and in addition hit the intelligence headquarters and a college constructing, in response to officers and movies and photographs launched by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Officers stated residential buildings had been additionally hit, however gave no particulars.
Seven days into Russia’s invasion, the United Nations stated greater than 934,000 individuals have fled Ukraine in a mounting refugee disaster on the European continent, whereas the pinnacle of the UN nuclear watchdog company warned that the combating poses a hazard to Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors.
Rafael Grossi of the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company famous that the warfare is “the primary time a navy battle is occurring amid the services of a giant, established nuclear energy program,” and he stated he's “gravely involved.”
“When there's a battle ongoing, there's after all a threat of assault or the potential of an unintentional hit," he stated.
Russia already has seized management of the decommissioned Chernobyl energy plant, the scene in 1986 of the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe.
In New York, the UN Common Meeting voted to demand that Russia cease its offensive and instantly withdraw all troops, with world powers and tiny island states alike condemning Moscow.
The vote was 141 to 5, with 35 abstentions.
Meeting resolutions aren’t legally binding however can mirror and affect world opinion.
The vote got here after the 193-member meeting convened its first emergency session since 1997.
The one nations to vote with Russia had been Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea. Cuba spoke in Moscow's defence however in the end abstained.
Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya stated Russian forces “have come to the Ukrainian soil, not solely to kill a few of us ... they've come to deprive Ukraine of the very proper to exist.”
He added: ”The crimes are so barbaric that it's tough to grasp.”
A big explosion shook central Kyiv on Wednesday night time in what the president’s workplace stated was a missile strike close to the capital metropolis’s southern railway station.
There was no rapid phrase on any deaths or accidents.
1000's of Ukrainians have been fleeing the town by way of the sprawling railway advanced.
A spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, Main Common Igor Konashenkov, launched his aspect's navy casualty figures, disputing as “disinformation” reviews of a lot larger losses. Ukraine's chief claimed nearly 6000 Russian troopers have been killed.
Main Common Konashenkov additionally stated greater than 2870 Ukrainian troops have been killed and about 3700 wounded, whereas over 570 have been captured.
Russia additionally ramped up its rhetoric.
International Minister Sergei Lavrov reminded the world in regards to the nation's huge nuclear arsenal when he stated in an interview with Al-Jazeera that “a 3rd world warfare may solely be nuclear."
Within the northern metropolis of Chernihiv, two cruise missiles hit a hospital, in response to the Ukrainian UNIAN information company, which quoted the well being administration chief, Serhiy Pivovar, as saying authorities had been working to find out the casualty toll.