Russian shelling has hit the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Ukrainian officials reported Tuesday.
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Oleh Sinehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said the administration building in the center of Kharkiv came under Russian shelling Tuesday along with residential buildings. Sinehubov didn't give any specific numbers of casualties from the latest shelling.
The shelling took place as a 40-mile convoy of Russian tanks and other vehicles threatened Kyiv on Tuesday and both sides looked to resume talks in the coming days aimed at stopping the fighting.
On Monday, talks at the Belarusian border aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking.
The country's embattled president said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions.
Video: Reuters
"I believe Russia is trying to put pressure [on Ukraine] with this simple method," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the hours-long ceasefire talks that took place earlier, but said that Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions "when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery."
In the same region, more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the head of the region wrote on Telegram.
Dmytro Zhyvytskyy posted photographs of the charred shell of a four-story building and rescuers searching rubble. In a later Facebook post, he said many Russian soldiers and some local residents also were killed during the fighting on Sunday. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The vast convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the city and stretched for about 40 miles, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.
On Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledged US $50 million to fund lethal defensive weapons for Ukraine, including missiles and ammunition, .
Australia has shifted from its stance last week when it said it would only fund military technical assistance.
Morrison told reporters on Tuesday the majority of the new weapons funding for Ukraine would be in the lethal category.
"We're talking missiles, we're talking ammunition, we're talking supporting them in their defense of their own homeland in Ukraine and we will be doing that in partnership with NATO."
Morrison said the weapons would be delivered rapidly, but didn't disclose how.
Zelenskyy also tweeted a message of thanks to Japan for approving an additional $100 million in support and for supporting "tough sanctions" against Russia.
Talked with Prime Minister of Japan @kishida230. Thanked for a strong support to 🇺🇦 in countering aggression. 🇯🇵 allocates $100 million to the already approved aid of $100 million, fully supports tough sanctions against Russia. Thank you! A truly global anti-war coalition works.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 28, 2022
Meanwhile, economic pressure on the Kremlin continued as oil giants pulled up stakes in Russia. Shell announced it would exit all its Russian operations, including a major liquefied natural gas plant.
The Shell decision comes a day after rival BP abandoned its stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft in a move that could cost the British company over $25 billion. Norway's Equinor also plans to exit Russia.
Shell said in a statement it would quit the flagship Sakhalin 2 LNG plant in which it holds a 27.5% stake, and which is 50% owned and operated by Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Shell said the decision to exit Russian joint ventures would lead to impairments. Shell had around $3 billion in non-current assets in these ventures in Russia at the end of 2021, it said.
"We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security," Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said in a statement.
Shell said the Russia exit would not affect its plans to switch to low-carbon and renewables energy.
Rival BP's Chief Executive Bernard Looney called an urgent meeting with his leadership team on Thursday, just hours after the first Russian bombs fell on Ukrainian capital Kyiv last week, two BP sources told Reuters. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation."
During that previously unreported meeting, Looney made it clear the company's investment in Rosneft had become untenable, the sources said.
"There was only one decision we could make," one of the BP insiders said. "The exit was the only viable way."
The company also plans to end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 Baltic gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany, which it helped finance as a part of a consortium of companies. Germany last week halted the project.
Norway's Equinor, majority owned by the Norwegian state, said earlier on Monday that it would start divesting from its joint ventures in Russia. That came after the country's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, said on Sunday it would divest its Russian assets.
Other Western companies including global bank HSBC and the world's biggest aircraft leasing firm AerCap said they plan to exit Russia as Western governments ratchet up economic sanctions on Moscow.
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