Zelensky declares Russia 'a terrorist state' following rocket attack on Kharkiv and vacuum bomb blast in Kyiv and warns Putin: 'No one will forgive. No one will forget'

• President Zelensky has branded Russia a 'terrorist state' following the use of a cluster bomb in central Kharkiv 
• In an address last night, Vlodymyr Zelensky said there would 'definitely be an international tribunal' on Russia
• He has already accused President Vladimir Putin of war crimes during an attack on the eastern city of Kharkiv 
• An attack on Kharkiv on Monday with alleged cluster bombs on the city today killed at least 11 and injured 44
• If Russia, also accused of using vacuum bombs, confirmed to have used cluster bombs it would be war crime
• Get the latest breaking news and updates from Russia's invasion of Ukraine 

By LAUREN LEWIS and CHRIS PLEASANCE  and HARRY HOWARD and NICK CRAVEN IN KYIV, UKRAINE, FOR MAILONLINE and MARK NICOL DEFENCE EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 06:48 EST, 1 March 2022 | UPDATED: 10:55 EST, 1 March 2022

Ukraine's President Vlodymyr Zelensky has declared Russia 'a terrorist state' following a rocket attack in front of a civilian public administration building in Kharkiv which destroyed the road outside and blew the windows out of the building itself on Tuesday morning. 

Zelensky, speaking in a video posted on Facebook, said the attack in the central square of Kharkiv was 'an open, undisguised terror' attack and warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that 'no one will forgive. No one will forget'. 

Footage from inside the the civilian public administration building in Kharkiv on Tuesday showed it was heavily damaged, with ceilings collapsing and rubble strewn around. 

Zelensky has already accused Putin of war crimes after Moscow's forces launched what were believed to be cluster and vacuum bomb attacks in an attempt to turn the tide of a conflict that they have so-far been losing.

In a late night address on Monday directed at Russia, Zelensky said there would 'definitely be an international tribunal' for what he said was a 'violation of all conventions' and added that 'no one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful Ukrainian people.' Prosecutors at The Hague have said they intend to open a probe 'as soon as possible'. 

Zelensky spoke after what appeared to be a cluster bomb attack on the city of Kharkiv on Monday which killed eight people and wounded a further six, the regional emergency services said in a statement, adding that 10 people had been discovered alive under rubble as rescue workers cleared debris.

It came after Ukraine's ambassador to the US accused Putin's forces of using a banned thermobaric bomb on the capital of Kyiv overnight.

Ukraine war: The latest 

• Russia promised on Monday that it would hit back against the EU following its support of Ukraine and warned the West against supplying weapons to the country
• A second round of talks aimed at ending Russia's attack on Ukraine is set to take place after the first meeting ended without resolution 
• Ukraine's MoD says Russia has lost 5,300 soldiers, 29 planes, 29 helicopters and 151 tanks
• Russia's MoD has for the first time acknowledged suffering losses, but refused to say how many
• Ukraine reports 352 civilian deaths since the start of the invasion, including 14 children. The UN puts the civilian toll at 102, including seven children. 
• Russian economy entered freefall as Western sanctions put in place over the weekend took effect, with ruble sliding to its lowest level ever
• Moscow's central bank has more-than doubled the interest rate to 20 per cent
• Russia orders people and companies to sell 80 per cent of their revenue in foreign currencies, forcing them to buy the ruble to help prop it up
• Moscow stock exchange won't open until at least 3pm in an attempt to head off all-out crash
• Zelensky has allowed Ukrainian prisoners to be freed if they join defence forces to 'repay their debt' 
• Ukraine president also announced creation of 'international brigade' for foreign volunteers wishing to join military, after 'thousands' applied 
• Spain's foreign minister called Putin's order to put nuclear forces on high alert 'one more sign of [his] absolute irrationality'
• Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his country should be open to hosting nuclear weapons
• Germany announced a $112million fund to rebuild the country's armed forces, more-than double its current self-defence budget
• EU announced, for the first time in its history, that it will send funds to Ukraine for weapons - including fighter jets 

  

It came as Russia's invasion of Ukraine - which met with heavy defeat in its initial plan to seize key targets and infrastructure in precision strikes - entered a new phase, with the aim seemingly to surround and besiege cities such as Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mariupol, Sumy and Kherson which have so-far put up fierce resistance - and bomb them into submission using indiscriminate weapons in echoes of tactics Russia used against rebel forces in Syria while fighting alongside dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Fears that Kyiv will be hard-hit have been growing and reached new heights on Tuesday as satellite images revealed a column of Russian vehicles heading towards the capital is actually 40 miles long, as opposed to the 4 miles that were reported on Monday.

The most-advanced units in the column are now just 15 miles from the city, having been significantly slowed by Ukrainian resistance but never-the-less inching closer day by day. Russia's plan appears to be using the heavy armour to encircle and shell the city, before troops move in for street-to-street fighting.

A taste of what was to come struck Kharkiv on Monday when bombs rained down on the most Russia-friendly city in Ukraine – which sits 25 miles from the border and is home to 1.5million people – in a bid to break its will to resist.

The hail of bombs, shells and rockets which began falling at lunchtime left at least 11 dead, including three children, with homes and even a school reduced to rubble.

A military source told MailOnline that videos of the onslaught showed 'cluster' munitions - which are illegal under international law - had been used.

'The BM-21 Grad is a multiple launch rocket system used for "area denial", dropping cluster bombs on a concentrated area,' the expert said. 'It's mainly used on enemy troops before an offensive. Used against civilians, it's not only a war crime, but has only one purpose – to spread terror and alarm among the civilian population.' 

Later on Monday, Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S. claimed that Russia used a devastating vacuum bomb on Ukraine.  

Oksana Markarova, speaking after briefing members of the U.S. congress, said: 'They used the vacuum bomb today, which is actually prohibited by the Geneva convention. The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large.' 

The vacuum bombs, which are also known as thermobaric weapons, can vaporise bodies and crush internal organs. They use oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, typically producing a blast wave of a significantly longer duration than that of a conventional explosive.

They are among the most powerful non-nuclear weapons ever developed. 

Ms Markarova's comments came after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he plans to open an investigation 'as rapidly as possible' into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. 

As Russia's attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian forces continued, security sources said that, 96 hours in to the invasion, Putin had 'stirred up a hornets' nest' by 'underestimating the strength of the resistance' and the 'will of the people to fight'.

However, in a concerning statement that further signalled the ramping up tensions between the West and Putin, Russia's foreign ministry promised that it would hit back against the EU after the bloc imposed sanctions.   

A spokesman also warned that 'EU citizens and structures' involved in sending weapons to Ukraine would be 'responsible for any consequences'.    

Amid the ongoing fighting, it was announced that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Tuesday fly to Poland to visit British troops manning Nato's eastern border with Russia. 

It comes after huge explosions rocked a suburb of Kyiv on Monday evening, just hours after the attack in Kharkiv. 

Dramatic video showed the moment that the night sky lit up with an enormous fire ball that reportedly stemmed from a military radar communication center in the Brovary suburb of the capital.

Kharkiv was struck by more Russian rockets on Tuesday morning, with one striking outside the civilian public administration building which was heavily damaged in the blast. The rocket can be seen a split second before it slams into the building, triggering a massive blast

The blast blew debris across the square outside the administrative building and demolished several parked cars

Ukraine's President Vlodymyr Zelensky has declared Russia 'a terrorist state' following a rocket attack in front of a civilian public administration building in Kharkiv which destroyed the road outside and blew the windows out of the building itself on Tuesday morning.

People help a wounded woman in the aftermath of a Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday morning after Ukrainian President Zelensky declared Russia a 'terrorist state' over the attack

This image, posted by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, shows the square outside the administrative building covered in rubble following the rocket attack

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of war crimes on Monday after Vladimir Putin's forces launched what were believed to be cluster and vacuum bomb attacks on the fifth day of their invasion. Above: Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, coming under heavy attack on Monday

Harrowing images show the brutality of the Russian attacks in Ukraine. This citizen was caught in a rocket blast in Kharkiv on Monday and lost a leg

Thermobaric explosives apply the principles underlying accidental unconfined vapor cloud explosions, just like those that plagued British flour mills in the 19th century. The weaponry initially releases an aerosol consisting of very fine particles, such as metal, flammable dusts or chemical droplets. An ignition source then ignites the cloud of particles and their rapid combustion causes an explosion and a vacuum in the surrounding vicinity

What IS a 'vacuum bomb'? 

Vacuum bombs — also known as thermobaric weapons — are among the most powerful non-nuclear weapons ever developed, and are banned under the Geneva Conventions. 

The high-powered explosive weapons, which use the atmosphere itself as part of the explosion, are capable of vaporising bodies, crushing internal organs and reducing cities to rubble, causing huge loss of life.  

Thermobaric weapons were developed by both the US and the Soviet Union in the 1960s. 

In September 2007, Russia detonated the largest thermobaric weapon ever made, which created an explosion equivalent to 39.9 tons. 

The US version of the weapon reportedly costs more than $16 million each. 

A vacuum bomb, or thermobaric weapon, sucks in oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, typically producing a blast wave of a significantly longer duration than that of a conventional explosive and is capable of vaporizing human bodies. 

The bomb works by using oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, making it far deadlier than a conventional weapon.

Thermobaric explosives apply the principles underlying accidental unconfined vapor cloud explosions, just like those that plagued British flour mills in the 19th century. 

The weaponry initially releases an aerosol consisting of very fine particles, such as metal, flammable dusts or chemical droplets. 

According to the Journal of Military and Veterans' Health, this cloud flows around objects and into cavities and structures, and may penetrate small openings, such as openings in buildings, bunkers and engine bays of armoured vehicles. 

An ignition source then ignites the cloud of particles and their rapid combustion causes and explosion and a vacuum in the surrounding vicinity. 

According to reports, Russia is already using a thermobaric rocket system called TOS-1 Buratino, also referred to as a flamethrower. 

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The new explosion took place hours after the Kremlin warned civilians to leave the city via a 'safe route' to the south-west, amid fears that the city was about to come under further heavy attack. 

Russia used similar tactics in Syrian cities while fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad before its forces heavily bombed them. 

Russian armour was working to surround Kyiv with tanks manoeuvering to cut it off from the west, after attacks by advanced forces failed to penetrate the outskirts. 

New satellite images also showed how a military convoy that stretched more than 17 miles (27km) was moving closer to the capital, a private U.S. company said. 

U.S. company Maxar Technologies Inc said the convoy on the eastern edge of Antonov airport contained hundreds of armoured vehicles, tanks, towed artillery and logistics support vehicles and continued to move south towards Kyiv. Other images showed also Russian ground forces close in Zdvyzhivka, northeast of Kyiv. 

Colonel General Alexander Syrsky said early Monday that Kyiv had survived another night while inflicting 'heavy losses' on Russian attackers. 

In the attack in Kharkiv, 44 people are believed to have been injured.   

Graphic images and video revealed streets littered with the bodies of dead and badly wounded civilians, with other images showing showing spent BM-21 Grad rocket cartridges laying in the streets and having fallen through apartment roofs. 

Cluster munitions were also to destroy a school in Okhtyrka, activist group Amnesty said, in which three people including a child were killed. The attack 'appears to have been carried out by Russian forces, which were operating nearby, and which have a record of using cluster munitions in populated areas,' Amnesty said. 

'There is no possible justification for dropping cluster munitions in populated areas, let alone near a school,' secretary Agnes Callamard added.

The blasts mark some of the most serious attacks on civilians since the war began five days ago, and came after the first round of Ukraine-Russian peace talks - held in Belarus - ended without resolutions. 

A a second round of negotiations is set to be held in the coming days.   

Ukraine said ahead of the negotiations that it was seeking a ceasefire and total withdrawal of all Russian forces from its country, with President Zelensky saying he was not hopeful of results but had to try. Moscow would not be drawn on what its ambitions are.

Observers warned that the talks could pre-sage an increase in violence, as Putin increasingly deploys heavy weaponry that was absent from early fighting in an attempt to force a victory that he has been unable to achieve by subtler means.

Putin himself dashed many hopes for the talks on Monday when, in a call with Emmanuel Macron, he said that he is willing to negotiate with Ukraine - but on the basis that it is disarmed, 'de-Nazified', recognises Crimea as Russian soil and declares neutrality. Kyiv is highly unlikely to accept those terms.  

US intelligence believes around 75 per cent of Russian forces positioned on the borders with Ukraine are now inside the country.

Though Russian advanced forces have been fighting in Kyiv's outskirts for several days, the bulk of Putin's assault force is still located around 20 miles away having been slowed up by determined resistance fighters - with satellite images revealing a huge column of vehicles headed for the city. 

The cities of Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv were also bombed overnight, with air raid sirens sounding in other areas. 

In the south, Russians reported capturing the port city of Berdiansk with troops and armoured vehicles shown rolling through the centre, and were closing in on the city of Mariupol which was in danger of becoming surrounded - though remained under Ukrainian control as of the early hours.

Speaking on Monday morning, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Ukraine to be 'immediately' admitted to the EU - after the alliance stepped up to supply hundreds of million of dollars of military aid to Ukraine, a first in the bloc's history - saying his country had 'earned' the right. He also said Russia's attack had so-far killed 15 children, and wounded dozens more.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet says her office has confirmed that 102 civilians, including 7 children, have been killed, and 304 others injured in violence in Ukraine since Thursday, as she cautioned that the tally was likely a vast undercount.  

It came amid reports that Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko is poised to throw his own troops into the fighting, which US intelligence said could come as soon as Monday. The move follows on from Chechen forces being thrown into battle, which led to the almost-immediate destruction of a column of armoured vehicles and the death of one of their top generals.

Belarus on Sunday also voted to amend the country's constitution allowing them to host Russian nuclear weapons, which came after Vladimir Putin's chilling order to his defence chiefs to put the country's nuclear weapons on 'alert' in response to 'threats' from the West.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that Russia's decision to raise the nuclear alert was 'a reckless, dangerous decision'. He added: 'There's no reason for that. NATO is no threat to Russia. We don't seek confrontation with Russia.'

In his address on Monday evening, Zelensky said that, since the beginning of Russia's invasion, 56 missile strikes and 113 cruise missiles had been launched in Ukraine by Putin's forces.   

He added: 'Today, Russian forces brutally fired on Kharkiv from jet artillery. It was clearly a war crime.'

'Kharkiv is a peaceful city, there are peaceful residential areas, no military facilities. Dozens of eyewitness accounts prove that this is not a single false volley, but deliberate destruction of people: the Russians knew where they were shooting.'

'There will definitely be an international tribunal for this crime — it's a violation of all conventions. No one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful Ukrainian people,' he said.

On the eve of his visit to Poland, the PM said the UK will 'continue to bring maximum pressure to bear' on Russia as he pledged that Putin would 'feel the consequences' for invading Ukraine.

He said international leaders were united in agreeing that the Russian president 'must fail' after his decision to send troops into the neighbouring country.

Mr Johnson is due to meet with Warsaw and Tallinn leaders and visit British troops serving in Estonia, which shares a border with Russia.

Speaking before his visit to the two eastern European members of Nato, the Prime Minister said: 'Today I will visit Poland and Estonia, two countries that are acutely affected by the current crisis in Ukraine.

'We have shared values that are more important than ever to protect, as the humanitarian situation gets worse.

'Alongside all our international allies the UK will continue to bring maximum pressure to bear on Putin's regime to ensure he feels the consequences of his actions in Ukraine.

'We speak with one voice when we say, Putin must fail.'

Officials said Mr Johnson will meet Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to underpin the UK's financial and diplomatic support for central Europe as it faces the prospect of a humanitarian crisis, with Ukrainian refugees continuing to head for the Polish border.

The Prime Minister will then travel on to Estonia, where he will speak with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.

They will jointly visit British troops serving 'on the front line of Russian aggression' in Tapa, No 10 officials said.

Mr Johnson will also meet Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Estonian President Alar Karis to discuss European security and stability.

The trip comes after Poland and Romania joined a G7, European Union and Nato leaders' phone call on Monday to discuss the crisis in Ukraine.

Downing Street said the leaders 'agreed to pursue every avenue to ensure that Putin fails in his ambitions'.

During the call, Mr Johnson stressed the need for allies to continue to provide Kyiv with defensive weapons and the requirement to support Ukraine's neighbours, which include Poland, in dealing with 'large numbers of Ukrainians escaping violence in the country'.

It came as the ICC's chief Karim Khan said he is planning a war crimes investigation. 

Mr Khan said in a statement that its investigation will look at alleged crimes committed before the Russian invasion, but added that 'given the expansion of the conflict in recent days, it is my intention that this investigation will also encompass any new alleged crimes falling within the jurisdiction of my office that are committed by any party to the conflict on any part of the territory of Ukraine'.

The court already has conducted a preliminary probe into crimes linked to the violent suppression of pro-European protests in Kyiv in 2013-2014 by a pro-Russian Ukrainian administration and allegations of crimes in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and eastern Ukraine, where Russia has backed rebels since 2014.

In December 2020, then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the probe uncovered indications that 'a broad range of conduct constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the Court have been committed' in Ukraine.

However, the court's prosecutors had not yet sought permission from judges to open a full-scale investigation.

Mr Khan says he now wants to open the investigation envisaged by his predecessor and broaden it to include crimes committed in fighting since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week.

Mr Khan said he would continue to monitor developments in Ukraine, where there have been reports of civilian casualties, and he called for 'restraint and strict adherence to the applicable rules of international humanitarian law'.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet says her office has confirmed that 102 civilians, including seven children, have been killed in the Russian invasion and 304 others wounded in Ukraine since Thursday.

She cautioned that the tally was likely a vast undercount.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine is among the court's 123 member states, but Ukraine has accepted the court's jurisdiction, which empowers Mr Khan to investigate.

Mr Khan has told his team to explore how to preserve evidence of crimes and said that the next step is to seek authorisation from the court's judges to open an investigation.

However, he added that the process would be speeded up if a member nation of the court were to ask for an investigation in what is known as a referral.

That 'would allow us to actively and immediately proceed with the (prosecution) Office's independent and objective investigations,' Mr Khan said.

He said he also would seek support from the court's member states and the international community to fund the investigation.

'I will be calling for additional budgetary support, for voluntary contributions to support all our situations, and for the loan of gratis personnel,' he said.

'The importance and urgency of our mission is too serious to be held hostage to lack of means.'

The blast in Brovary is said to have left people wounded, the area's mayor said in a Facebook post on Monday night.

Monday's peace talks ended without resolutions and a second round of negotiations will be held in the coming days, with a member of the Ukrainian delegation saying the discussions were difficult and the Russian side was biased.

Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter: 'The Russian side, unfortunately, still has a very biased view of the destructive processes it has launched.'

Russian officials, meanwhile, said: 'We have identified certain points from which we can predict general positions.'

Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin, said another round of talks had been agreed to.

'Another round of talks was agreed to,' he said. 

'Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave few details except to say that the talks, held near the Ukraine-Belarus border, were focused on a possible cease-fire and that a second round could take place 'in the near future.'

'The next meeting will take place in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border, there is an agreement to that effect.'

Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky earlier admitted he was not confident of a positive resolution, adding that he owed it to his people to at least try and engage.

He had been reticent to agree to talks in Belarus, a country used as a staging ground for the Russian invasion and which is now poised to join the war, offering instead to meet in Istanbul, Warsaw or Baku.

Ukraine had indicated it would request a ceasefire and full withdrawal of Russian forces but Moscow remained tight lipped over what the negotiations, held at noon in Gomel in southeastern Belarus, would entail. 

Some observers warned the talks could be a pretext for Moscow to ramp up its attacks on Ukraine if Kyiv's officials refuse Russian demands.

Among those present at the talks were the Ukrainian defence minister, a lead advisor to the President's office and the deputy minister of foreign affairs.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10564239/Zelensky-declares-Russia-terrorist-state-following-rocket-attack-Kharkiv.html