On the seventh day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, fighting intensifies. The Russian military announced today (Wednesday) that it has taken control of the port city of Kherson on the Black Sea coast, in southern Ukraine. Russian paratroopers also landed in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and battles broke out on the streets, Ukrainian forces said.
After the US called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “dictator,” Ukrainian President Zalansky said last night’s attack on the TV tower in the capital Kiev illustrated Russia’s threat to Ukrainian identity. Five people were killed in an attack targeting the Babi Yar area, a Nazi massacre site. During World War II, more than 33,000 people – most of them Jews. “They know nothing about our capital. About our history. But they were instructed to erase our history. Delete our country. Delete us all, “Zlansky said in a video he posted.
The Ukrainian president, a Jew himself, urged Jews around the world to raise their voices: “I now appeal to all the Jews of the world. Do you not see what is happening? It is very important that millions of Jews around the world do not shut up now.” He added: “Nazism was born in silence. So shout for the killing of civilians. Shout for the murder of Ukrainians.”
Ukraine claims that more than 350 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed so far during the invasion, and the International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into war crimes against Russia.
So far, the Ukrainians have managed to repel the Russian attacks, but this morning Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konshenkov said Russian forces had gained “full control” of Kherson, a city with a population of 290,000. He added that municipal services and transportation continue to operate as usual: “The city is not experiencing a shortage of food and essential products.”
Kherson Mayor Igor Kolikaev wrote on Facebook: “We are still Ukraine. Still strong.” In what sounded like a denial of the Russian military’s claims, he said they were trying to find a way to “collect the bodies of the dead” and “return the electricity, gas, water and heating where they were damaged.”
The Ukrainian military says Russian paratroopers have also landed in Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border with a population of 1.4 million. “There is an ongoing struggle between the invaders and the Ukrainians,” the military said in a statement.