RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin has ordered his nuclear deterrent forces onto a “special regime of combat duty”.
The move comes following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, for which President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia should be stripped of its seat at the United Nations Security Council.
Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, the Russian president said that leading Nato powers had made “aggressive statements” alongside the West imposing hard-hitting financial sanctions against Russia and him personally.
Putin ordered the Russian defence minister and the chief of the military’s general staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a “special regime of combat duty”.
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The news comes as street fighting broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city on Sunday, and Russian troops put increasing pressure on strategic ports in the country’s south following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere.
Following its gains on the ground, Russia sent a delegation to Belarus for peace talks with Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.
However, Ukrainian President Zelensky suggested other locations, saying his country is unwilling to meet in Belarus because it served as a staging ground for the invasion.
He said Ukraine wants peace talks and will “accept any other city in a country that hasn’t been used for launching missiles. Only then, the talks could be honest and put an end to the war”.
He also said Russia should be thrown out of the United Nations Security Council.
In a video message on Sunday, the Ukrainian leader (above) said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amounts to an act of genocide, adding that “Russia has taken the path of evil and the world should come to depriving it of its UN Security Council seat”.
Russia is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, giving it veto power over resolutions.
Zelensky said Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities should be investigated by an international war crimes tribunal and denounced the Russian invasion as “state terrorism”.
He dismissed as lies Russia’s claims that it is not targeting civilian areas.
Until Sunday, Russia’s troops had remained on the outskirts of Kharkiv, a city with a population of 1.4 million about 12.4 miles (20km) south of the border with Russia, while other forces rolled past to press the offensive deeper into Ukraine.
Videos posted on Ukrainian media and social networks showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv and Russian troops roaming the city in small groups.
One video showed Ukrainian soldiers inspecting Russian light utility vehicles damaged by shelling and abandoned by Russian troops on a street.
Oleh Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, told civilians not to leave their homes.
As Russia pushes ahead with its offensive, the West is working to equip the outnumbered Ukrainian forces with weapons and ammunition while punishing Russia with far-reaching sanctions intended to further isolate Moscow.
Putin (left) chairing a security council meeting in the Kremlin
Huge explosions lit up the sky early on Sunday near the capital, Kyiv, where people hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale assault by Russian forces.
Flames billowed into the sky before dawn from an oil depot near an air base in Vasylkiv, where there has been intense fighting, according to the town’s mayor.
President Zelensky’s office said another explosion hit the civilian Zhuliany airport.
It also said Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline in Kharkiv, prompting the government to warn people to protect themselves from the smoke by covering their windows with damp cloth or gauze.
More than 150,000 Ukrainians fled for Poland, Moldova and other neighbouring countries, and the United Nations warned the number could grow to four million if fighting escalates.
“We will fight for as long as needed to liberate our country,” the president said.
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