- Moscow has started shelling Zaporizhzhia, where thousands of refugees are sheltering after fleeing Mariupol
- Around 20,000 civilians fled the southern seaport along a humanitarian corridor, which runs to Zaporizhzhia
- Russian rockets hit two residential buildings in Svyatoshyn district of Kyiv on Wednesday, injuring two people
- Comes after both Ukraine and Russia said on Tuesday progress is being made in talks on ending the fighting
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Russian forces have started shelling the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia where thousands of refugees are sheltering after fleeing Mariupol - where 500 hostages are being held in a hospital as human shields.
The bombardment came hours after an estimated 20,000 civilians arrived in Zaporizhzhia, the first port of call for those fleeing Mariupol along a humanitarian corridor - supposedly safe passages which allow civilians to leave Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin's troops launched rocket strikes on the city near overnight, hitting a railway station, though there were no reports of casualties, the regional governor Oleksander Vasylyovych said in an announcement on Facebook.
Russian forces in Mariupol have rounded up 400 people from houses neighbouring the city's hospital number two, along with 100 doctors and patients who were already inside, and are refusing to let them leave, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Aid agencies have warned Mariupol is facing a humanitarian catastrophe, since heavy bombardment has left some 400,000 inhabitants with no running water or heating, and food running short.
And Kyiv was rocked overnight by new explosions which wounded at least two people and damaged two residential buildings hours after the city was placed under curfew amid warnings to brace for a 36-hour bombardment at the hands of Russian forces.
Three loud explosions were heard in western parts of the capital just before dawn, partially destroying the top corner of one building, damaging and scorching the other as thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky.
Battles continue to rage in cities like Mariupol, Kharkhiv and Mykolaiv, as well as in suburban towns just outside Kyiv overnight nearly three weeks after Putin ordered an all out invasion of its western neighbour.
Taking Mariupol, which is situated 34miles (55km) from Russia's border, would mark a strategic breakthrough for Russian President Putin.
The city lies between territory held by Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014 and from where it has launched its assault on key southern towns.
The UN's top court is set to rule Wednesday on Ukraine's urgent request for Russia to immediately halt its invasion, with Kyiv claiming that Moscow falsely accused its pro-Western neighbour of genocide in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to justify the war.
The International Court of Justice will hand down its judgement at 3pm GMT in The Hague after Ukraine filed an urgent application shortly after Russia's attack on February 24.
At the same time, both Ukraine and Russia say progress is being made in talks on ending the fighting.
Volodymr Zelensky said on Wednesday peace talks with Russia were sounding 'more realistic' but more time was needed for any deal to be in the interests of Ukraine.
He said a peace deal that will end Russia's invasion of Ukraine will be struck with Vladimir Putin within one or two weeks because Russian forces will run out of fresh troops and supplies by then.
The assessment echoes that of UK defence sources who say that Kyiv has Moscow 'on the run' and the Russian army could be just two weeks from 'culmination point' - after which 'the strength of Ukraine's resistance should become greater than Russia's attacking force.'
But though Russia's ground advance on Kyiv has stalled Moscow's men have kept up a sustained bombardment of the capital and other cities across the country as the the number of people fleeing Ukraine amid Europe's heaviest fighting since World War II passed 3 million.
A senior US defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessment, said the Russians were using long-range fire to hit civilian targets inside Kyiv with increasing frequency.
Russia rained shells on areas around Kyiv and within the city, where a 12-story apartment building erupted in flames after being hit by shrapnel early on Wednesday
Kyiv was rocked overnight by new explosions which wounded at least two people and damaged two residential buildings hours after the city was placed under curfew amid warnings to brace for a 36-hour bombardment at the hands of Russian forces
Kyiv was rocked overnight by new explosions which wounded at least two people and damaged two residential buildings (pictured, a woman with a child evacuates from an apartment block which was hit by Russian shelling early Wednesday)
Three loud explosions were heard in western parts of Kyiv (pictured) just before dawn, partially destroying the top corner of one building, damaging and scorching the other as thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky
In the city's hospital number three, a heartbreaking picture showed tiny premature children who were abandoned by their parents who fled the city.
While in hospital number two, also known as the intensive care hospital, Russian troops were using those inside as human shields, Kyryklenko said, adding: 'It's impossible to leave the hospital, they are shooting hard.'
Zaporizhzhia is the first safe port of call for those fleeing Mariupol (pictured, a baby shelters in a circus building in Zaporizhzhia after fleeing Mariupol) but evacuees now face a new terror after Vladimir Putin's troops launched rocket strikes on the city overnight on Tuesday, hitting a railway station
In the city's hospital number three, a heartbreaking picture showed tiny premature children who had been left behind by their parents who made the decision to flee the city, which aid agencies have warned faces a humanitarian disaster
Kyrylenko said the main building of the hospital has been heavily damaged by shelling, but medical staff are continuing to treat patients in makeshift wards set up in the basement.
He called on the world to respond to these 'gross violations of the norms and customs of war, these egregious crimes against humanity.'
The Ukrainian army's General Staff says Russian troops are trying to block off the city from the western and eastern outskirts of the city. 'There are significant losses,' it said in a Facebook post.
Russia has announced the establishment of safe corridors to allow civilians to leave Ukraine, but there have appeared to be few takers. Among those fleeing Mariupol on buses travelling to the Rostov region in Russia on Tuesday were mainly elderly people. It is unknown how many Ukrainians took this particular route instead.
Evacuation routes established by Moscow have led mostly to Russia and its ally Belarus, drawing withering criticism from Ukraine and the West. And Russia has continued to pound the cities with rockets even after the announcement of corridors.
A chief Ukrainian official said around 20,000 people have so far managed to flee Mariupol via the humanitarian corridor, and 570 of the 4,000 vehicles that left the city have reached Zaporizhzhia while others will spend the night in various towns along the way.
Mariupol has been besieged by Russian troops for more than 10 days, facing heavy shelling that has killed more than 2,300 people and left residents struggling for food, water, heat and medicine.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a deputy head of office of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said an estimated 20,000 civilians used a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday. It comes after a few dozen vehicles managed to leave yesterday.
Tymoshenko said that the evacuees left Mariupol in an estimated 4,000 private vehicles via the route on Tuesday, adding that 570 of the cars had reached Zaporizhzhia. Others will spend Tuesday night in various towns along the way.
Drivers can only make slow progress due to damaged roads, mines and checkpoints.
Earlier Tuesday, the authorities said that some 2,000 civilian cars had been able to drive out of the city. A first group of 160 cars left Mariupol on Monday, the city council said.
The successful evacuations come after several failed attempts since Russian forces surrounded the port city on the Azov Sea early this month. Heavy bombardment has left some 400,000 inhabitants with no running water or heating and food running short.
Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC show a suspected Ukrainian strike on the Russian-held Kherson International Airport and Air Base set several helicopters and vehicles ablaze.
The images Tuesday at the dual-use airfield show thick black smoke rising overhead from the blazes. At least three helicopters appeared to be on fire, as well as several vehicles. At a pad further away, other helicopters appeared damaged from an earlier strike.
The Ukrainian president's office said that fighting had continued at Kherson airport on Tuesday, with 'powerful blasts' rocking the area during the course of the day. They said they were assessing damage in the area, without elaborating.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Tuesday the situation in Mariupol 'remains dire' and that it was not able to deliver aid to the city.
'The bottom line is that hundreds of thousands of people are still suffering,' the ICRC said.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that altogether, nearly 29,000 people managed to use humanitarian routes to flee encircled cities on Tuesday.
Nearly three weeks into the war, the number of Ukrainians fleeing abroad passed 3 million on Tuesday, the United Nations said. Some 3,000,381 people have so far left Ukraine, data from the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) showed. It is basing its aid plans on 4 million refugees but has said the figure will likely increase.
New efforts to bring civilians to safety and deliver aid were underway around the country. The Red Cross said it was working to evacuate people in about 70 buses from the northeastern town of Sumy, near the Russian border.
Meanwhile hospital workers in Ukraine's second-largest city have said they find themselves on two frontlines, battling Covid-19 in intensive care units as war rages outside.
The Kharkiv Regional Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital, the city's leading facility for treating virus patients throughout the pandemic, has barricaded its windows and is adapting every day.
Hospital director Dr. Pavel Nartov said air raid sirens go off multiple times daily, forcing fragile patients into the hospital's makeshift bomb shelter. Handling ICU patients on ventilators is the most difficult and dangerous part of the process, but also the most crucial, given the dangers of exposing oxygen tanks to bombings and shrapnel, he said.
'Bombing takes place from morning into night. Thank God a bomb has not yet hit our hospital. But it could hit at any time,' he said.
Kharkiv has been under sustained fire from Russian forces since the outbreak of the war, with shelling hitting residential buildings and sending masses of people fleeing
But conditions in other cities continue to worsen. On Tuesday, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko put a three-day curfew in place in the capital - barring civilians from going outside and warning them to prepare for heavy bombardment by Putin's men.
With the number of people driven from the country by the war eclipsing 3 million, large explosions thundered across Kyiv before dawn from what Ukrainian authorities said were artillery strikes, as Russia's assault on the capital appeared to become more systematic and edged closer to the city center.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said barrages hit four multi-story buildings in the city and killed dozens of people. The shelling ignited a huge fire in a 15-story apartment building and spurred a frantic rescue effort.
The strikes, carried out of the 20th day of Russia's invasion, targeted a western district of Kyiv, disrupting a relative calm that returned after an initial advance by Moscow's forces was stopped in the early days of the war.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessment, said the Russians were using long-range fire to hit civilian targets within Kyiv with increasing frequency but that their ground forces were making little to no progress around the country. The official said Russian troops were still about 9 miles from the center of Kyiv.
The official said the U.S. has seen indications that Russia believes it may need more troops or supplies than it has on hand in Ukraine, and it is considering ways to get more resources into the country. The official did not elaborate.
Russia has launched more than 950 missiles so far in the war, and both Russia and Ukraine still retain about 90% of their combat power, the official said.
In the east, Russian forces unleashed scores of new artillery strikes on downtown Kharkiv, hitting the city's historical center, including its main marketplace. Rescuers were pulling the bodies of dead civilians from destroyed apartment buildings.
Alexandra, 86, cries after her apartment was destroyed by a Russian grad rocket attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine on Tuesday
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10618329/No-escape-Putins-bombs-Russia-begins-shelling-Ukrainian-city-refugees-sheltering.html
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