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Five hours of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations near the Belarus border Monday failed to yield a breakthrough, with the two sides agreeing only to continue their discussions in coming days. Meanwhile, satellite images showed a massive convoy of Russian ground forces making its way toward Kyiv, drawing within 20 miles of the center of the capital on Monday.
Ukrainian officials say at least 11 people were killed and dozens hospitalized in Kharkiv, home to 1.5 million people, after Russia launched rocket strikes on Monday morning. Suspected cluster munitions struck buildings in residential parts of the city, raising fears that as Russia escalates attacks in urban areas it could use tactics similar to those it used in Chechnya and Syria, where it has been accused of widespread wartime abuses.
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Video: North of Kyiv, ordinary Ukrainians join the war effort
Return to menuKYIV, Ukraine â Along a highway flowing north from the capital, lined by businesses and tall apartment buildings, the Ukrainian fighters were taking no chances. The Russians were less than an hourâs drive up the road.
By Monday evening, the Ukrainians â a mix of soldiers and volunteers â had dug deep trenches and erected barricades of giant truck tires topped with sand. At one wide intersection they positioned multiple machine guns, including a Soviet-era heavy gun, shoulder-held antitank rockets and an antiaircraft gun with its barrels pointed at the sky.
An armored personnel carrier with a cannon was covered by a green camouflage tarpaulin. And outside one building, people were making molotov cocktails by the scores. âWe are going to give the Russians lots of presents,â promised Yuriy Syrotyuk, 45, a local journalist turned fighter, an AK-47 rifle slung over his shoulder.
As Ukrainian and Russian envoys held peace talks at the Belarusian border Monday, Ukrainian forces here, driven by deep mistrust of the Russians and a desire to protect their homeland, were preparing for the worst-case scenario. That scenario was Russian tanks and soldiers pressing into Kyiv and seizing the seat of government.
This highway stretching through the cityâs northern Obolon district is one of the main routes by which the Russians could attack.
A visit Monday to this fortified patch, an area the Ukrainian fighters described as âtheir second line,â opened a window into the efforts by ordinary Ukrainians to stand up to the Russian invasion. But it also portended a violent urban conflict, with the prospect of thousands of civilians trapped in the crossfire.
Zelenskyâs past as an entertainer may have prepared him for his most crucial role
Return to menuThe video, posted the day after Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine, is lit in sepia tones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stands in the middle of a street in his war-rattled nation with several other Ukrainian officials.
âWe are all here, defending our independence, our country. And it will stay that way,â Zelensky says in Ukrainian. âGlory to the men and women defending us. Glory to Ukraine. Glory to the heroes.â
The clip, which went up Friday and has been endlessly shared, looks like something out of an action flick â particularly the version that has been overdubbed with âShook Ones, Part IIâ by rap duo Mobb Deep, which has been viewed more than 6 million times. Noted one Twitter user, âI can just see the movie version of this video in my head.â
That may not be coincidental. Before Zelensky became the president of Ukraine in May 2019, he was a comedian and actor, something of an all-purpose celebrity in the country. Now, heâs become a wartime hero, a leader who refuses to flee his country despite the Russian onslaught of the capital city of Kyiv, in the biggest European conflict since World War II.
Video clips from his past life have begun circulating on social media, including his winning Ukraineâs first season of âDancing With the Starsâ and voicing Paddington Bear for the local cuts of the movies. While they might seem jarring in light of the current war, his years as an entertainer seem to have prepared him for this moment.
Suddenly welcoming, Europe opens the door to refugees fleeing Ukraine
Return to menuNations in Europe are opening the door to a historic wave of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, breaking with the continentâs past resistance to asylum seekers from the Muslim world and Africa, and embracing hundreds of thousands of new arrivals who some leaders are hailing as culturally and ethnically European.
The rapidly escalating Ukrainian wave â already more than 520,000 people, over the span of less than a week â appeared poised to dwarf the landmark European migrant crisis of 2015 and 2016, when 2 million people sought sanctuary, mostly Syrians fleeing civil war. Those arrivals sparked intense friction among European Union nations, fueled a resurgent movement of the far-right and led to backlash policies designed to stop or turn back asylum seekers.
The solidarity of current moment stands in stark contrast, particularly amid estimates that numbers could soar into the millions and potentially become the largest refugee wave on the continent of the post-World War II era.
Some leaders have been unabashed about the dramatic shift in attitudes.
âThese are not the refugees we are used to ⦠these people are Europeans,â Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov told journalists about the Ukrainians, as reported by the Associated Press. âThese people are intelligent, they are educated people. ⦠This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been even terrorists.â
âIn other words,â he added, âthere is not a single European country now which is afraid of the current wave of refugees.â
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