Major explosions filled the sky in the Ukrainian capital overnight and other cities reported stepped-up bombardment as Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine enters its second week, following UN members’ condemnation of Moscow’s actions as “deplorable” and their demand that Russia withdraw.
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There were indications that Russia’s military was increasing its attacks on multiple key Ukrainian cities, and Russian troops were reported to have reached the center of their first sizable Ukrainian city since the invasion began.
The mayor of the Black Sea coastal city of Kherson, Ihor Kolykhayev said late on March 2 that Russian troops were in the streets of that city of nearly 300,000 people and had entered the local council building.
He said he had spoken to the “armed visitors” and made no promises but, “I just asked them not to shoot people.”
Regional official Hennady Lakhuta was quoted as saying “occupiers” were in “all parts” of Kherson.
The eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian’s second-largest urban center, reported heavy bombardment.
Britain’s Defense Ministry has said Mariupol, a large port city on the Azov Sea, appeared to be encircled by Russian forces.
A powerful rocket attack was reported in Sumy, with multiple casualties, according to the head of the regional state administration of the region, Dmytro Zhivitskiy.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko told Current Time on March 2 that there were “obvious plans” by Russian troops to surround the capital and that they planned to strangle Kyiv with a blockade.
A huge column of Russian tanks and other vehicles has been occupying dozens of kilometers of highway stretching north of Kyiv for days.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials lowered expectations as they headed to planned cease-fire talks with Russian representatives on March 3 in the southern Belarusian region of Brest.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Russian forces must stop bombarding Ukrainian cities before meaningful cease-fire talks can begin on halting the biggest military operation to invade a European state since World War II.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said the sides would also discuss a possible humanitarian corridor in Ukraine.
Similar Russia-Ukraine talks on February 28 ended with no progress.
WATCH: Russian soldiers have been seen looting grocery stores and banks in several Ukrainian cities. Security camera footage posted on social media showed Russian soldiers grabbing food and trying to steal a safe.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague announced on March 2 that his team had begun gathering evidence “as rapidly as possible” over allegations of war crimes and other atrocities, following appeals from 39 countries for an investigation of events in Ukraine.
“In particular, I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine in relation to the events already assessed during the preliminary examination by the office,” prosecutor Karim Khan said.
The UN’s refugee agency said on March 3 that 1 million people had fled Ukraine in the past seven days to find safety in neighboring countries.
Train stations and border checkpoints with Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary were jammed with mostly women and children.
Ukrainian authorities have barred men aged 18-60 from leaving the country, as military and reserve troops and civil-defense groups battle tens of thousands of Russian troops and paratroopers, aerial bombardment, and columns of tanks and armored vehicles.
The United Nations approved a nonbinding resolution late on March 2 that “deplores” Russia’s “aggression against Ukraine.” It was supported by 141 of the assembly’s 193 members.
Thirty-five members, including China and Russian allies Iran and Cuba, abstained, and five countries, including Russia, Syria, and Belarus, voted against the resolution.
The U.S. State Department also called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “immediately cease this bloodshed” and withdraw Russian troops, and condemned blocks and threatened blocks on independent news outlets and the authorities’ “throttling” of social media.
Protests in Russia against the invasion of Ukraine have incurred mass arrests, and Russian authorities have imposed broad bans on the use of words like “war” or “invasion” to describe events in Ukraine.
International measures to punish Russia’s invasion of its neighbor continued. The United States announced new sanctions against Russia and the introduction of strict controls on the export of high-tech products to Belarus.
In the European Union, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reportedly said his country would not veto another round of EU sanctions against Russia. He said that “unity is paramount” at this point, according to local outlet Mandiner.hu.
Ukrainian former world heavyweight boxing champion Volodymyr Klitschko, brother of the Kyiv mayor, praised the international sports community for its response “standing together” to pressure Moscow with bans on Russian organizations and participation in major events.
“Ban Russian teams from participating. I have nothing against the athletes but they are presenting the regime and in some way the connection with this war,” Klitschko said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on March 2 gave its first casualty estimates since launching the unprovoked invasion. It said 498 of its soldiers have died since the war started last week, while a spokesman added on Twitter that another 1,597 Russian soldiers had been wounded.
The numbers could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which has said Russia’s casualty numbers are close to 6,000.
