Ukraine Prez Zelenskyy defiant as Russian forces regroup near Kyiv despite setbacks
India Today
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remained defiant as Russian forces regrouped for a possible assault on Kyiv, despite setbacks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday Ukraine was at a "strategic turning point" in the war as Russian forces bombarded cities across the country and appeared to be regrouping for a possible assault on Kyiv, with satellite images showing them firing artillery as they closed in on the capital.
The governor of the Kharkiv region, on the Russian border, said a psychiatric hospital had been hit, and the mayor of the city of Kharkiv said about 50 schools there had been destroyed.
Russia also carried out air strikes deeper into western Ukraine, far from the battlefields in the north, east and south where ground combat has raged.
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In the besieged southern city of Mariupol, the city council said at least 1,582 civilians had been killed as a result of Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade that has left hundreds of thousands trapped with no food, water, heat or power.
Russia's defence ministry said the Black Sea port was now completely surrounded and Ukrainian officials accused Russia of deliberately preventing civilians getting out and humanitarian convoys getting in.
A new effort to evacuate civilians along a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol appeared to have failed, with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk saying Russian shelling prevented them from leaving.
