Russian forces inflicted massive casualties on the Ukrainian army when they killed its 70 soldiers in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv.
Russian troops used heavy artillery to pound the military base at Okhtyrka
This follows Moscow’s shelling of Ukraine’s second-largest city Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital,.
Earlier, new satellite images have shown that Russian forces are just 64 kilometers away from Kyiv.
Russian military convoy can be seen advancing from the north of the Ukrainian capital. Additional ground forces deployments and ground attack helicopter units were seen in southern Belarus, less than 32 km north of the Ukraine border.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said it was time to consider imposing a no-fly zone for Russian missiles, planes, and helicopters in response to the Russian shelling of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
In a video address, Zelenskiy did not specify how and by whom a no-fly zone would be enforced. He said Russia had launched 56 rocket strikes and fired 113 cruise missiles against Ukraine in the past five days.
This comes when Moscow and Kyiv held a first round of talks in Belorussia. Soon after Russia shelled Ukraine’s second-largest city with rockets killing dozens.
UN rights chief Bachelet has said that at least 102 civilians, including seven children, have died in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began. 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.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Monday he plans to open an investigation “as rapidly as possible” into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement that the investigation will look at alleged crimes committed before the Russian invasion, but added that “given the expansion of the conflict in recent days, I intend that this investigation will also encompass any new alleged crimes falling within the jurisdiction of my office that is 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.
