Dozens of people have been killed in rocket strikes by Russian forces in Kharkiv, a city in the northeast of Ukraine.
“Kharkiv has just been massively fired upon by grads (rockets). Dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded,” Anton Herashchenko, Ukraine’s interior ministry adviser, said in a post on Facebook this morning.
It comes as peace talks between Ukraine and Russia started at the Belarusian border.
The Ukrainian president’s office said that the goal of the talks was an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defence tweeted an intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine, saying: “The bulk of Putin’s ground forces remain more than 30km to the north of Kyiv their advance having been slowed by Ukrainian forces defending Hostomel airfield, a key Russian objective for day one of the conflict.
“Heavy fighting continues around Chernihiv and Kharkiv however both cities remain under Ukrainian control.
“Logistical failures and staunch Ukrainian resistance continue to frustrate the Russian advance.
“Despite continued attempts to supress details of the conflict from the Russian population, the Russian Armed Forces has for the first time been forced to acknowledge suffering casualties.”
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