Russia on Tuesday intensified the shelling on the sixth day of its military operations in Ukraine by targeting the capital city Kyiv as well as the second-largest city Kharkiv with France providing Ukraine with USD 111 million financial and humanitarian aid and Volodymyr Zelenskyy asserting that "Nobody can break Ukrainians".
Eight people have died and 35 injured in a rocket attack on a housing block in the second-largest city of Kharkiv in Ukraine.
Notably, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier in the day denied the reports of attacking infrastructure, residential areas in Ukraine.
"During the course of the special operation, Russian troops do not carry out any strikes on civilian infrastructure facilities and on a residential complex. This is out of the question. We are talking only about the demilitarization of Ukraine and military facilities. We must not forget that in a large number of cases, we are talking about the fire of nationalist groups that use living objects as a shield," Peskov said as quoting` according to Sputnik.
Despite that claim, Russia is striking cities and building up its forces near the capital Kyiv, vowing not to stop until "set goals are achieved".
Russian Defence Ministry that it was planning to launch a strike in Kyiv and asked its residents to leave.
"We call on...Kiev residents living near relay nodes to leave their homes," Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, reported by TRT World.
"In order to suppress information attacks on Russia, the technological infrastructure of the SBU (Ukraine's Security Service) and the 72nd main PSO (Psychological Operations Unit) centre in Kyiv will be hit with high-precision weapons," the spokesperson added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba informed that Kyiv TV tower which was situated on the territory of Babyn Yar has been hit by a missile.
"Kyiv TV tower, which has just been hit by a Russian missile, is situated on the territory of Babyn Yar. On September 29-30, 1941, Nazis killed over 33 thousand Jews here. 80 years later, Russian Nazis strike this same land to exterminate Ukrainians. Evil and barbaric," he said in a Tweet.
According to Ukrainian authorities, more than 70 Ukrainian servicemen were killed by a rocket attack and dozens of civilians have died in the shelling. Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in Kyiv, in an advisory issued Tuesday, asked Indians asked to leave Kyiv urgently through "any means available".
Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union, a largely symbolic move for now.
Google announced that it is blocking the YouTube channels linked to Russia's RT broadcaster.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor