Russia claims to have control of Kherson in south Ukraine

Russian forces are escalating attacks on urban areas, in what Ukraine’s leader called a blatant campaign of terror

Damage after the shelling of buildings in central Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA

Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tank obstacles to be placed on roads around Kyiv as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters

Anti-war protesters attach sunflowers to barriers in front of the Russian embassy. Reuters

Ukrainian volunteers prepare food for displaced people outside Lviv railway station in western Ukraine. AP

A Ukrainian soldier holds an anti-tank launcher north-east of Kyiv. AFP

Ukrainian refugees rest at Warsaw East train station in Poland. EPA

Children look out from a carriage window as a train prepares to depart from a station in Lviv to the town of Uzhhorod near the border with Slovakia. AFP

A girl who fled Ukraine is reunited with her father in Medyka, south-eastern Poland. AP Photo

Tears outside a house damaged by a Russian airstrike in Gorenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP Photo

A civil defence member is poised to shoot as a vehicle approaches a checkpoint in Gorenka. AP Photo

A Ukrainian civil defence member in the garden of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike. AP Photo

Members of the US Army 3rd Infantry Division board a plane bound for Germany in Savannah, Georgia. EPA

Prayers for peace in Ukraine at the Vatican's Saint Peter's Square. AFP

A woman (right) hugs an arriving passenger from a train carrying refugees at Berlin's central station. EPA

Firefighters battle a blaze in a Kharkiv police building hit by shelling. AFP

A Ukrainian woman makes a phone call after crossing the Slovakian border. AFP

A doctor takes shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters

Debris which locals say was caused by shelling in separatist-controlled Horlivka, Donetsk. Reuters

MPs in London give a standing ovation to Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, who was in the public gallery. AP

Distraught women and children fleeing Ukraine wait to enter Poland at the Korczowa crossing. Getty

Newborn Ivan lies next to his mother as they shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters

Firefighters hand water to people in a Ukrainian train full of refugees in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters

Ukrainian refugees queue to file for residency permits at Prague's police headquarters. AFP

Firefighters work to contain a blaze in buildings housing the Kharkiv regional police department. AFP

A woman and her children sit in a tent in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter. AP

Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze at the Kharkiv National University building, which city officials said was damaged by Russian shelling. Reuters

An elderly woman comforts a child as they take shelter inside an underground station in Kyiv. Reuters

People queue at a pharmacy in central Kyiv. Reuters

A woman is consoled by a volunteer after fleeing from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Siret, Romania. Reuters

A Ukrainian civilian in the city of Zhytomyr practises throwing petrol bombs. Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses after an interview with Reuters in Kyiv. Reuters

A blast is seen at Kyiv's TV tower. Reuters

A girl in Siret, Romania, covers herself with a blanket after fleeing from Ukraine. Reuters

Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, acknowledges applause from US first lady Jill Biden as they attend President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address in Washington. AFP

A man walks past the remains of Russian military vehicles in Bucha, close to Kyiv. AFP

Civilians cross a river on a blown-up bridge on Kyiv's northern front. Defending the capital is a 'key priority', Ukraine's president has said. AFP

Russian aircraft on the ground at Luninets Airbase, Belarus, about 50 kilometres north of the Ukrainian border. AFP

People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha. AP

A woman with a child who fled from the war in Ukraine reunite with their family after crossing the border in Medyka, Poland. AP

Animal keeper Kirilo Trantin comforts an elephant at Kyiv Zoo. AP

An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha. AP

Ukrainian families say goodbye as they prepare to board a bus to Poland at Lviv, western Ukraine. AP

Paramedics move a man who was wounded by shelling in a residential area of Mariupol, south-eastern Ukraine. AP

Rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike in Zhytomyr. Reuters

US actor and director Sean Penn attends a press briefing at the Presidential Office in Kyiv. Reuters

Demonstrators participate in a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at Lafayette Square in Washington. AFP

Ukrainian soldiers rest while others eat near the front line with Russian troops in northern Kyiv. AP

A barricade made of trams, buses and sand bags is seen through the window of car in the northern part of Kyiv. AP

Members of the European Parliament applaud after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech at a special session to debate its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Reuters

Ambassadors and diplomats walk out as Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (on screen) speaks during a recorded message at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. EPA

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

The Russian army claimed on Wednesday that it had taken control of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, as Moscow’s attack on Ukraine entered its seventh day.

“Russian divisions of the armed forces have taken the regional centre of Kherson under full control,” Russia’s Defence Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said on television.

He said public services and transport were operating as usual.

“The city is not experiencing shortages of food and essential goods,” he said.

Kherson’s mayor, Igor Nikolayev, said on Facebook: “We are still Ukraine. Still firm.”

Contradicting the Russian Army’s claims, Mr Nikolayev said he needed to find a way to “collect the dead” and “restore electricity, gas, water and heating where they are damaged”.

“But I warn you right away: to complete these tasks today means to perform a miracle,” he said.

Kherson is about 73 kilometres west of Kakhovka hydroelectric plant on the Dnieper River, where a large build-up of Russian forces has been observed.

More than 2,000 civilians have been killed since the Russian incursion began last week, Ukraine’s emergency service said on Wednesday.

‘No time to be neutral’

Russia is aiming to erase Ukraine, its history and people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video on Wednesday, amid the heavy shelling of the Black Sea port of Mariupol.

Moscow switched to strikes on Ukrainian cities on Tuesday and appeared poised for an advance on Kiev as the West tightened an economic noose around Russia in retaliation.

But Mr Zelenskyy, unshaven and wearing a khaki T-shirt, said the West’s response was not enough. He called for more international support, including backing for Ukraine’s desire to join the EU.

“This is no time to be neutral,” said Mr Zelenskyy, whose defiant and emotional tone in regular video addresses has offered his country support and leadership in the war.

“They don’t know a thing about Kiev, about our history. But they all have orders to erase our history, erase our country, erase us all.”

In the video, he said almost 6,000 Russian troops had been killed.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, said he had asked Pope Francis to urge Vladimir Putin to open humanitarian corridors.

Russian paratroopers land in Kharkiv

Russian paratroopers landed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Wednesday, where they are involved in heavy fighting with defenders, the Ukrainian army said.

“Russian airborne troops landed in Kharkiv … and attacked a local hospital,” the army said on messaging app Telegram. “There is a continuing fight between the invaders and the Ukrainians.”

A school in Kharkiv was hit by a Russian missile, Ukrainian officials said. They posted photos online showing a huge hole in the side of a building, and debris blown across desks and chairs.

Earlier, the deputy regional governor of the city said a cruise missile had hit the local council building.

Russian forces escalated their attacks on crowded urban areas on Tuesday, in what President Zelenskyy called a blatant campaign of terror.

“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,” Mr Zelenskyy said, after Tuesday’s rocket and missile attack on Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, and the bombing of a TV tower in the capital, Kiev.

At least 10 people were killed and 35 wounded in Tuesday’s strikes at the centre of Kharkiv, Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said.

US President Joe Biden vowed to make Russia’s president “pay a price” for the invasion.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have fled the fighting as a Russian military convoy north of Kyiv – reported to be 60 kilometres long – advances towards the city.

About 140km west of the capital, in the city of Zhytomyr, four people, including a child, were killed on Tuesday by a Russian cruise missile, a Ukrainian official said.

Mr Putin ordered the “special military operation” last Thursday in a attempt to disarm Ukraine, capture the “neo-Nazis” he claims are running the country and crush its hopes of forging closer ties with the West.

Ukraine, which is not a member of Nato, has called on the US-led military alliance to implement a no-fly zone.

The plea was rejected by Washington, which fears such a measure would stoke a direct conflict between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.

The US and its allies have sent weapons to Ukraine instead.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Washington had agreed with partners to convene a task force “to freeze and seize the assets of key Russian elites“.

The Empire State Building in New York lights up with the colours of Ukraine in a show of solidarity. Photo: Empire State Building

Zac Haycock stands in front of the Utah State Capitol, which is lit in blue and yellow in support of Ukraine. AP

The I-35W Bridge glows blue and yellow in support of the people of Ukraine in Minneapolis, Minnesota. EPA

Demonstrators hold flags and a sign during a 'Stand with Ukraine' rally in front of the White House in Washington. Reuters

Protesters gather at Town Square in Jackson, Wyoming, to show solidarity with Ukraine amid the Russian invasion. Several of the protesters were native Ukrainians with family in the country. AP

People protest outside the UN in New York against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Reuters

US first lady Jill Biden wears a mask with a sunflower, the national flower of Ukraine. AFP

An American flag unfurls off a pedicab as it glides past the Denver City/County Building, which is illuminated in yellow and blue in support of Ukraine. AP

Kristina Ulyanenko protests the Russian attack on Ukraine at the state capitol in Austin, Texas. AP

Flowers and messages are piled together outside the Ukrainian embassy in Washington. AP

The Paramount Miami Worldcentre skyscraper in Florida lights up blue and yellow. Paramount Miami Worldcentre via AP

A store in Lewiston, Maine, programmed its 11-metre light tower to dance through a series of blinking yellow and blue lights that eventually come together to form the colors of the flag of Ukraine. AP

Joni Ernst, a Republican senator from Iowa, wears a brooch in the colours of Ukraine during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing at the US Capitol. EPA

Protesters listen to speakers as they gather for a rally in support of Ukraine at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City. AP

Dmytro Stasyshen of Ukraine holds a sign to protest the Russian invasion during a rally in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles. AP

Evergy Plaza in Topeka, Kansas, will be lit in blue and yellow lights. AP

People dine inside Veselka restaurant where a Ukrainian flag hangs in the East Village in New York. AP

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday suggested Mr Putin may have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

“What we have seen already from Vladimir Putin’s regime in the use of the munitions that they have already been dropping on innocent civilians in my view already fully qualifies as a war crime,” he told MPs in the House of Commons.

Ian Blackford, the Scottish National Party’s leader in Westminster, called Mr Putin a “war criminal” who “must face justice” in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Earlier, Mr Johnson spoke to President Zelenskyy to voice his “disgust” at the “abhorrent attacks carried out by Russian forces in Ukraine in recent hours and days", a No 10 representative said in a statement.

“The prime minister told President Zelenskyy that the UK was rallying UN General Assembly members today to ensure the strongest possible condemnation of Russia at this afternoon’s UN meeting in New York,” the representative said.

“Sharing his disgust at the attacks on Ukraine, the prime minister said the UK was doing everything possible to support the Ukrainian people and their resistance.”

Strikes that damaged the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial in Kiev and the central square in Kharkiv have caused revulsion. Western allies fear it is a sign of a shift in Russian tactics towards indiscriminate targeting of urban areas.