Russian Troops Capture Ukraine’s First Major City, Several Other Cities Under Massive Attacks

By Uganda Online Correspondent

Russian troops have seized control of Kherson, in Ukraine’s south and several other cities, including the capital, Kyiv, northeastern Kharkiv, and Mariupol, in the southeast, continue to be attacked.

Russia’s foreign minister has said Moscow’s attack on Ukraine is aimed, among other things, at ensuring that its neighbor does not join the United States-led NATO transatlantic military alliance.

Lavrov told Russian state television that the country’s forces were attacking military targets but added that the term “collateral damage” has been in use since military campaigns waged by Washington and its Western allies in Iraq and Libya.

He added that Western powers were aware of Moscow’s concerns and said they would have to address them at some point, before referring to sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion as a “tax on independence”.

The Kremlin has praised Russian troops fighting in Ukraine as “heroes” who will go down in history alongside the soldiers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II.

Dmitry Peskov made the remarks at a news briefing during which he also dismissed reports that Moscow may be planning to introduce martial law. Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a security council meeting later today.

On Wednesday, Moscow said that 498 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine and 1,597 others wounded as it announced its own death toll for the first time. Zelenskyy on Thursday said about 9,000 Russian troops had been killed.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify either of the figures provided.

Mariupol’s city council says Russian forces are constantly and deliberately shelling critical civilian infrastructure in the key port city, leaving it without water, heating or power and preventing bringing supplies or evacuating people.

“They are breaking food supplies, setting us up in a blockade, as in the old Leningrad,” the council said in a statement.

“Deliberately, for seven days, they have been destroying the city’s critical life-support infrastructure. We have no light, water or heat again.”

The council said it was seeking to create a humanitarian corridor for the city, as well as trying to restore infrastructure.

“We are being destroyed as a nation. This is genocide of Ukrainian people,” it said.

Ukraine’s defense lines are holding amid Russia’s multipronged assault, the country’s president says.

In his latest video address, Zelenskyy said there had been no respite in Moscow’s shelling of his country since midnight.

But he pointed to Russia’s alleged shelling of civilian areas in several key cities as proof Ukraine had been successful in resisting the Kremlin’s initial plan of claiming a quick victory through a land assault.

“We have nothing to lose but our own freedom,” Zelenskyy said, adding Ukraine was receiving daily arms supplies from its international allies.

Several Ukrainian cities have been pounded by Russian attacks in recent days.

Moscow claims it is only targeting military infrastructure, but reports from the ground suggest a mounting civilian death toll.