Russia bombards key Ukrainian cities while Kherson falls completely

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ITV News Correspondent Sejal Karia rounds up the latest developments

Russia has pressed its assaults on Ukraine’s second-largest city and two strategic seaports, while the number of refugees who’ve fled the invasion topped one million.

Port city Kherson is under the complete control of Russian forces, the city’s mayor has said, making it the biggest Ukrainian city to fall in the invasion thus far.

Mayor Igor Kolykhaev said when Russian soldiers came to the city administration building, he asked them not to shoot civilians and to allow crews to gather up the bodies from the streets.

“We don’t have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to LIVE,” he said in a statement later posted on Facebook.

Kherson is a port city of 300,000 people, and its position on the Black Sea has led to fears forces from Moscow could use it for amphibious landings.

The mayor said Kherson would maintain a strict 8pm to 6am curfew and restrict traffic into the city to food and medicine deliveries. The city will also require pedestrians to walk in groups no larger than two, obey commands to stop and not “provoke the troops.”

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, residents desperate to escape falling shells crowded the city’s train station and pressed onto trains.

Ukraine’s emergency services said that since Wednesday, 34 people in Kharkiv were killed, while striking dashcam footage shows a bomb exploding in a residential area.

At least two people died in the nearby village of Yakivlivka after intense overnight shelling.

Mariupol, another seaport, is encircled by Russian troops, Britain’s Defense Ministry said. There are fears that, in recent days, hundreds of civilians have been killed there amid intense shelling.

In Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, four major explosions were reported overnight. It was not immediately clear where the explosions hit or the number of explosions.

A 40-mile long convoy of Russian military vehicles continues to advance on the capital city of nearly three million people. On Thursday, the UK Ministry of Defense said the convoy remains over 30km from the city centre, having been delayed by “staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion”.

There are fears the military equipment could be used to step up the bombardment of the capital, resulting in a greater loss of life.

The lack of progress in meeting the aims of the invasion had led to a change in tactics, focusing on aerial and bombardment of cities rather than the kind of lightning military advances originally envisaged by the Kremlin, Western analysts believe.

Senior International Correspondent John Irvine and his team film the moment Russian tanks turn their turrets on the last convoy out of Mariupol

In the week since the invasion began, around one million refugees have fled Ukraine, the UN said. It’s the swiftest exodus of people this century.

The tally from UNHCR amounts to more than 2% of Ukraine’s population being on the move.

As the invasion continued into its eighth day, the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into possible war crimes by Russia in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Vladimir Putin of committing war crimes by bombarding cities and launching “abhorrent” attacks in his invasion of Ukraine.

Is Russia committing war crimes in Ukraine? ITV News correspondents analyse latest developments

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said work would begin “immediately”, with his team already collecting evidence, after a coordinated referral freed him to get to work without the need for judicial approval.

Mr Johnson warned the Russian president he “cannot commit these horrific acts with impunity”.

A second round of talks aimed at ending the fighting was expected on Thursday, having originally been scheduled for Wednesday.

Russian is open to negotiations, its foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said, “But we will continue the operation because we won’t allow Ukraine to preserve a military infrastructure that threatens Russia.”

What is the world doing to support Ukraine – and are there any outliers?

ITV News learned from Western intelligence that Russian officials were told by the Chinese government to delay the invasion of Ukraine until after the Winter Olympics. The closing ceremony in Beijing was on February 20 and the full-scale invasion was launched in the early hours of February 24.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will meet counterparts from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as part of the UK’s effort to demonstrate support for eastern Nato allies.

The PM had spoken to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, promising further support and weapons for the forces resisting Russia’s military and sharing his “disgust” at the Kremlin’s attacks.

Strikes that damaged the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial in Kyiv and the central square in Kharkiv have caused revulsion, and Western allies fear it is a sign of a shift in Russian tactics towards the indiscriminate targeting of urban areas.

Footage from Kharkiv appears to show damage to residential and commercial buildings.

Moscow’s international isolation was further displayed when the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to demand it immediately withdraws its military from Ukraine, with 141 nations backing the motion and only five, including alleged co-aggressor Belarus, opposing it.

How many people have died during the invasion?

On Thursday, the UN human rights office said 227 civilians have been killed and another 525 injured. The office admits that these figures are a vast undercount – the UN uses a strict methodology and counts only confirmed result.

Ukrainian officials have presented far higher numbers. The state emergency said more than 2,000 civilians have died since the invasion began, but this figure has not been service independently verified.

Is Russia committing war crimes in Ukraine? Listen to our What You Need To Know podcast

Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry said 498 Russian soldiers have been killed since the assault began. UK officials believe the actual number of fatalities to be “considerably higher”.

Mr Zelenskyy claimed 9,000 Russian soldiers have been killed – a figure which could also not be verified – and urged them to return home as they would only face “resistance” from Ukraine.

He also vowed that Russian soldiers would have “not one quiet moment”, and described them as “confused children who have been used.”.

What will the UK do about Russia’s ‘war crimes’?

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, a former lawyer who has prosecuted war crimes, said the UK will assist the ICC in hunting down suspected Russian war criminals.

The deputy prime minister told The Daily Telegraph that Britain could house Russian commanders suspected of atrocities in its prisons – in addition to providing a safe haven for witnesses who testedified against them.

He added that “few countries around the world” had the UK’s “lead information” which would likely prove “absolutely critical” to the ICC.

At PMQS on Wednesday, Mr Johnson promised to publish a list of people associated with Mr Putin who could be liable for sanctions, as he said “the vice is tightening on the Putin regime” through the restrictions imposed by the West.

(PA Graphics) Credit: PA Graphics

But he was urged by labor leader Sir Keir Starmer to immediately ramp up the measures against allies of the Russian leader.

UK officials have said more sanctions are coming, against oligarchs, Russian National Security Council members and banks, and that they believe the economic shock of the moves has been more significant than Mr Putin was expecting.

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