Russia has continued its advance on Ukraine, with “ruthless attacks” overnight in the key cities of Mariupol and Chernihiv as terrified citizens try to flee their burning homes.
Fighting has continued overnight in northern Ukraine while residential districts and civilian infrastructure is struck indiscriminately by Russian shells as the invasion enters its tenth day.
Shelling in Kyiv and Mariupol
Footage verified by Sky News shows the continued shelling of the country’s key cities including Kyiv and Mariupol, while a massive blast was caught on a TV camera in Irpin.
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Drone captures explosions
Following days of intense shelling, the port city of Mariupol nearly lost most of its phone services and raised the prospect of food and water shortages, with mayor Vadym Boichenko saying the city “came under enemy fire” by Russian forces in continuing “ruthless attacks”.
In Kyiv, a vast Russian armoured column threatening the Ukrainian capital remains stalled on the outskirts.
But Russia’s military has launched hundreds of missiles and artillery attacks on cities and other sites across the country.
Key developments:
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said battles involving airstrikes and artillery continued northwest of Kyiv, and the northeastern cities of Kharkiv and Okhtyrka came under heavy fire.
In the south of Kyiv, a Russian airstrike on a residential area in Markhalivka killed seven people, including two children.
Russian controlled areas and the sites of Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants
Homes burn down in Chernihiv
As homes in Chernihiv burned following Russian shelling, one resident accused Europe of being a bystander as the violence rages on.
“We wanted to join NATO and the EU and this is the price we are paying, and NATO cannot protect us,” she said.
Another frightened Chernihiv woman was devastated after her house was set on fire.
A devasted Chernihiv woman watches her home burn down
“I was asleep and they (Russians) started to shoot, and the fire broke out. Now we are burning down,” she said.
“My house was hit twice. A first time and then a second. What have you done to my house and to the country you fascist?”, she said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He is an imbecile. How the whole world cannot stop him?”
Ukraine says that more than 840 children have been wounded in the invasion, and 28 have been killed.
At least 331 civilians have been confirmed killed but the true number is probably much higher, the UN human rights office said.
What is happening in other cities?
Russian forces made their biggest advances in the south in the past week, where they captured their first sizeable Ukrainian city, Kherson.
Bombing subsequently worsened in northeastern cities including Chernihiv and also Kharkiv in recent days.
Brave citizens in Kherson came out to protest against the Russian occupation on Saturday – chanting for Putin’s soldiers to go back to Russia.
The occupiers tried to disperse the rally by firing shots in the air.
1.3 million people flee Ukraine
The United Nations has confirmed that well over a million Ukrainian refugees have fled their home country since the conflict with Russia began.
These are largely women and children, as men of fighting age – those aged between 18 and 60 – have been urged to stay behind by President Zelenskyy and defend Ukraine.
The UN says this has quickly become the “biggest refugee crisis this century”, predicting that as many as four million people could leave.
A map of where Ukrainian refugees have fled
Kyiv’s central train station remained crowded with people desperate to escape the conflict. “People just want to live,” one woman told reporters.
In the western city of Lviv, thousands of people waited for hours on Friday outside the railway station at the western city to board trains heading to Poland, with many families arriving with few belongings.
Some were in wheelchairs, others accompanied by pet dogs and cats, uncertain about their fate.