On day seven of the Russian invasion, Ukrainians came under heavy bombardment in residential areas, and at least two key cities, Mariupol and Kharkiv, were in the process of being encircled.
Russian troops claimed they had captured another strategic city in the south, Kherson, though local officials said it was still in Ukrainian hands.
Mariupol’s deputy mayor Serhiy Orlov described a situation close to humanitarian catastrophe after more than 15 hours of continuous shelling.
He said hundreds of people in one residential district were feared dead, including Mr Orlov’s own father, who lived in the area and hadn’t been heard from since the attack.
In Kherson, a city of 250,000 just north of Crimea, 58-year-old paramedic Larysa Pavlovska said some residential areas had been “bombed out”, while video verified by the BBC appeared to show Russian troops in the city centre.
Ukrainian forces said Russian paratroopers had landed in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, and there was street fighting on the outskirts.
