Amid Street Fighting, Ukraine Rejects Russia's Offer For Talks In Belarus: 10 Facts

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Moscow ordered its troops to advance in Ukraine “from all directions” while the West responded late Saturday with sanctions that sought to cripple Russia’s banking sector. Ukraine said 198 civilians had been killed since Russia invaded on Thursday.

Here are the 10 latest developments:

Russian forces are pounding Ukrainian cities with artillery and cruise missiles. Their troops have entered Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, head of the regional administration said Oleg Sinegubov, news agency AFP reported. Sinegubov added that Ukrainian forces are “eliminating the enemy”.
The Kremlin has said says a Russian delegation has arrived in the Belarusian city of Homel for talks with Ukrainian officials. News agency Reuters reported that Ukraine had rejected the offer for talks in Belarus while keeping the door open for talks in other locations. “Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku. We proposed all of them,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address posted online.
Ukraine is establishing a foreign “international” legion for volunteers from abroad, President Zelenskiy said in a statement today. The President has vowed to remain in the capital Kyiv and has said it remains completely under Ukraine’s control.
Russia’s invasion force is being slowed and frustrated by unexpectedly stiff resistance from Ukrainian troops, keeping them outside Kyiv, a senior US defence official has said, according to news agency AFP. The official has said that as per information with Pentagon, Russia now has at least 50 per cent of its invasion force inside Ukraine.
Germany and its Western allies have agreed to cut Russia out of the SWIFT global payment system, a spokesperson for the German government said, in a third sanctions package aimed at halting the invasion.
Ukraine President Zelensky has spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking “political support” at the United Nations after India abstained from a vote to condemn Russia’s invasion that was vetoed by Moscow.
Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashko yesterday said 198 civilians, including three children, had been killed in the conflict and 1,115 wounded.
Around 3,500 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured so far, an adviser to Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said. “We are striking the enemy around Kyiv. The enemy is not moving for now,” said Oleksiy Arestovych.
President Joe Biden has instructed the US State Department to release up to an additional $350 million worth of weapons from US stocks to Ukraine. Germany and France are also sending military equipment.
Poland has said 100,000 refugees have crossed its border from Ukraine since Russia invaded, with the UN estimating that a similar number are internally displaced. Some 50,000 have entered Hungary and Romania with thousands more crossing into Moldova.