United Nations overwhelmingly votes to reprimand Russia for unprovoked invasion

Russian forces are pressing their attack against Ukraine’s major cities, as the United Nations overwhelmingly voted to reprimand Russia for its unprovoked invasion. Ukrainian officials say more than two-thousand civilians have died since the war began.

Ukraine’s second-largest city is under heavy aerial bombardment by Russian forces. A university building and a police department were destroyed. The regional governor says Russian shelling has killed at least 21 people and wounded more than 100 others. Bodies lay on the ground as people who live here walk by in shock. People line up for groceries and medicine, angered and in disbelief.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, there is fierce fighting in the strategically important city of Kherson, where Russia claims to have taken control, but Ukrainian officials say they still hold some areas and the southern port city of Mariupol is under relentless shelling as Russia steps up its offensive there.

The U.S. envoy to the UN says Russian forces are using cluster munitions and vacuum bombs, both are banned under the Geneva convention.

In the north of Ukraine, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko says the Ukrainian capital is prepared to fight, as a 65-kilometre long column of Russian armour and troops approaches from the north, now just outside the city.

Varvara Shmygalova, whose parents live in Kyiv says, “they are trying to protect Kyiv as much as possible from the outside, there’s a lot of Russian troops. Shymgalova’s father Kyrylo is a member of Kyiv’s territorial defense unit that is made up of civilians who have volunteered to defend their homes. She spoke to her father today from her home in Toronto for the first time since the war began. She says, “they are the ones right now going to face the tanks basically.” She says he told her many Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and injured so his unit has been moved to the front line, north of the city. Her grandparents live in central Kyiv and she says at one point Russian troops were only one subway stop away. She hasn’t been able to contact her mother Iulia who is in a town to the west of Kyiv since Sunday. That town is very close to a recent Russian attack, so she is hoping her mom is okay. “The neighboring village is completely destroyed like it doesn’t exist anymore, where was the village is just a hole in the land.” Not far from there homes burnt overnight in the city of Zhytomyr, a Russian strike flattening buildings and killing at least four.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiyy says Russia is trying to erase his country, once again imploring the west to do more today. He says nearly 6000 Russians have been killed in the first week of the war. The Russian defence ministry will only admit to about 500 Russian deaths and another 1600 wounded claiming its military has killed nearly 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

In a historic vote, the UN general assembly overwhelmingly voted to reprimand Russia and demanded Moscow withdraw its forces. But for many Ukrainians its not enough,
they say NATO must establish a no-fly zone to stop the Russian bombardment.

To see an extended interview with Varvara Shmygalova visit our YouTube here.