Russia escalates attacks on Kyiv, warns residents to flee

Russia continued its quest to take over Kyiv Tuesday, launching at least two attacks on Ukraine’s capital city. One of the attacks, targeting Kyiv’s main TV tower, killed five people. Another attack targeted a nearby Holocaust memorial.

The Russian attacks on Kyiv came on the same day Russia fired what appeared to be a missile at an administrative building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. That attack, video of which went viral on social media, killed at least six people.

“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the Kharkiv attack. It came on the second day of shelling in the city.

While Russian air attacks on Kyiv hit targets, the 40-mile convoy of Russian tanks and vehicles does not appear to be progressing. A senior Defense Department official said the convoy has not advanced in the past hours due to a lack of fuel and food.

In addition to attacking Ukraine’s two largest cities, Russian forces pressed their assault on other towns and cities across the country, including the strategic ports of Odesa and Mariupol. The Russian aggression appears to be stepping up the urgency to have a second round of talks between Russia in Ukraine.

“It’s necessary to sit at the negotiation table with the Russian president, while there’s still readiness to hold talks with him,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday. However, he also told Putin to “stop bombarding people first and start negotiating afterwards.”

With escalating attacks in Ukraine, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) met Tuesday to highlight human rights abuses related to the invasion. In a recorded message, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the council to hold Russia accountable.

“We must condemn firmly and unequivocally Russia’s attempt to topple a democratically elected government and its gross human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law,” Blinken said. “If President Putin succeeds in his stated goal of toppling Ukraine’s democratically elected government, the human rights and humanitarian crises will only get worse.”

Blinken went on to single out other countries like Belarus and China for their human rights abuses and violations. He also went after council “members who argue falsely, that denouncing human rights abuses is politicizing the situation.”

“It is failing to speak up about human rights abuses that politicizes the situation,” Blinken said, adding “council members should stop using language, implying that all sides bear equal responsibility for the unprovoked attack of one side.”