Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who continues to join his country’s defenders in bunkers and on the streets, called the attack “frank, undisguised terror.”
“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget. This attack on Kharkiv is a war crime,” he said.
Addressing the European Union in a plea for his nation to be granted membership in the bloc on an emergency basis, Zelenskyy said that “thousands of people who were killed, two revolutions, one war and five days of full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation” is a “very high price” to pay to access EU membership.
“We have proven our strengths,” he also said. “We have proven that as at a minimum, we are exactly the same as you are. So do prove that you are with us, do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you indeed are Europeans.”
Russian forces attacked other cities across the Ukraine on Tuesday, including at or near the strategic ports of Odesa and Mariupol in the south, according to the Associated Press. BBC reported that Russian forces are advancing from Crimea, which Moscow invaded and annexed in 2014, moving northeast and northwest.
Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia met at the Belarus border Monday, and though no agreement to cease fighting was reached, the two parties agreed to another meeting. Vladimir Medinsky, who headed the Russian delegation, said Monday’s meeting lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys “found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen,” according to the Associated Press.