By Maria Tsvetkova and Aleksandar Vasovic
KIEV, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Russian military vehicles entered Ukraine’s second-largest city on Sunday and explosions rocked oil and gas facilities on the fourth day of fighting in the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two.
Russian soldiers and armored vehicles were seen in different parts of the northeastern city of Kharkov and shots were heard, a witness said. A video released by the government showed a tank on fire.
Russian troops blew up a natural gas pipeline in Kharkov before dawn, a Ukrainian state agency said, sending a cloud of flames into the darkness.
“Russian enemy light vehicles have broken into Kharkiv, including the city center,” regional governor Oleh Sinegubov said. “The Ukrainian armed forces are destroying the enemy. We ask civilians not to go out.”
Ukraine’s Western allies stepped up their response to Russia’s invasion by land, sea and air late on Saturday with sanctions to kick major Russian banks out of the world’s largest payment system and other measures aimed at limiting Moscow’s use from a $630 million war fund of central bank reserves.
Finland and Sweden became the latest European countries to close their airspace to Russian flights, and the EU could follow suit with a Europe-wide coordinated ban, an official said.
Ukrainian forces were holding back the advance of Russian troops on the capital, Kiev, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But the bombing hit infrastructure and civilian targets, including ambulances, he said.
A United Nations agency reported the deaths of 64 civilians and Ukraine claimed to have killed more than 4,000 Russian soldiers. Reuters was unable to verify the figures.
More than 368,000 refugees, mostly women and children, have poured into neighboring countries, clogging railways, roads and borders since Russian President Vladimir Putin, 69, launched what he called a special military operation. Thursday.
Ignoring weeks of frantic diplomacy and threats of sanctions by Western nations seeking to avert war, Putin has justified the invasion by saying “neo-Nazis” rule Ukraine and threaten Russia’s security, an accusation Kiev and Western governments say That is baseless propaganda.
The Kremlin sent a diplomatic delegation to neighboring Belarus to offer talks, but Ukraine rejected the offer, saying Belarus had been complicit in the invasion. Ukraine was willing to hold talks elsewhere, Zelenskiy said.
Russian missiles found their target overnight, including an attack that set fire to an oil terminal in Vasilkov, southwest of Kiev, the city’s mayor said. The explosions sent huge flames and black smoke into the night sky, online posts showed.
“The enemy wants to destroy everything,” said Mayor Natalia Balasinovich.
The Ukrainian gas pipeline operator said the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, vital for Europe’s energy needs, was continuing as normal. Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom (MCX) also declared that gas exports through Ukraine were continuing as normal.
Russian-backed separatists in the eastern province of Luhansk said a Ukrainian missile had blew up an oil terminal in the town of Rovenky.
Reuters witnesses in Kiev reported explosions and occasional gunshots overnight. There were also three explosions after air raid sirens sounded shortly before 9 a.m. (0600 GMT).
The Ukrainian authorities were defiant.
“We have resisted and are successfully repelling the enemy’s attacks. The fight continues,” Zelenskiy said in a video message from the streets of Kiev posted on his social media.
A US defense official said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were putting up “viable” resistance to Russia’s air, land and sea advance.
$630 BILLION IN WAR FUNDS
The United States and its allies have authorized more arms transfers to help Ukraine fight back and have imposed a series of sanctions on Russia in response to the assault, which threatens to upend Europe’s post-Cold War order.
On Saturday, they moved to block certain Russian banks’ access to the SWIFT international payment system, making it difficult for Russia to trade and do business for their companies.
They also said they would impose restrictions on the Russian central bank to limit its ability to support the ruble and finance Putin’s war campaign.
“We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin,” the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Canada and the United States wrote.
They did not name the banks that would be expelled. An EU diplomat said that around 70% of the Russian banking market would be affected.
Sanctions on Russia’s central bank could limit Putin’s use of his more than $630 billion in international reserves, widely seen as a way to shield Russia from some economic harm.
Google (NASDAQ:) has banned Russian state media outlet RT and other channels from receiving money for ads on its websites, apps and YouTube videos, similar to a move by Facebook (NASDAQ:).
Putin, a black belt in judo, was suspended as honorary president of the International Judo Federation (IJF) on Sunday, in response to the war.
GOING FORWARD
The Kremlin said its troops were advancing again “in all directions” and Putin thanked Russia’s special forces, highlighting those who are “heroically performing their military duty” in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian presidential adviser said some 3,500 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded. Western officials have claimed that intelligence services indicate that Russia has suffered more casualties than expected.
Russia has not released casualty figures and Reuters has not been able to verify the number of casualties or the exact situation on the ground.
Ukraine, a democratic nation of 44 million people, gained independence from Moscow in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union and has pushed to join NATO and the EU, goals Russia opposes.
Putin has said he must eliminate what he sees as a grave threat to his country from his smaller neighbor, accusing it of genocide against Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine, something Kiev and its Western allies reject as a lie.
(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Aleksandar Vasovic and Natalia Zinets in Kiev; Alan Charlish in Medyka, Poland; Fedja Grulovic in Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania; and Reuters newsrooms; Writing by Robert Birsel and Frank Jack Daniel; Editing in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)
