UKRAINE has spent another night under siege with massive explosions rocking Kyiv.
Fireballs erupted in the night sky above the Ukrainian capital as residents have woken up to once again to view the devastation.
The horror bombardment in Kyiv came just hours after a blast at a train station where thousands were sheltering from the assault.
Russia launched a large scale invasion of Ukraine one week ago today and the bloodshed has not ceased since.
And the conflict shows no signs of stopping, despite ongoing peace talks.
But instead they have found themselves bogged down against a staunch resistance.
Russia is also becoming increasingly isolated in the world as it feels the crushing weight of Western sanctions.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenksyy today said his nation had so far thwarted Russia’s “sneaky” plans – and hailed the resistance as “heroic”.
“We are a nation that broke the enemy’s plans in a week. Plans written for years: sneaky, full of hatred for our country, our people,” he said.
Earlier a large explosion shook central Kyiv in what the president’s office said was a missile strike near a rail station in the south of the capital.
The building and the rail station are on either side of the road from each another in the city.
Thousands of Ukrainians have been fleeing the city by train, with many sheltering inside stations as they wait to escape harm.
The 40 mile-long convoy appeared poised to launch an assault on the capital earlier in the week.
And it has made no real progress for almost 72 hours. Mariupol’s mayor accused the Russians of carrying out “genocide” on his city, while his deputy claimed an entire neighbourhood home to 130,000 people has been flattened.
Footage reportedly filmed in the city appears to show gun battles between Ukrainian and Russian forces on Wednesday.
The city lies in a key location, between the annexed Crimean Peninsula where a number of Russian forces are based, and the pro-Russia breakaway provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Mariupol has reportedly been under continuous fire for the past 14 hours, according to the city government.
One lost his leg and died soon after arrival, an AP reporter said.
The other two were rushed to hospital and remain in intensive care.
All three lads were around 15 to 16 years old.
Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, told Ukraine‘s 1+1 TV Channel that Russian troops have also stopped civilians from escaping the port city.
He said: “There’s been colossal destruction of residential infrastructure, there are many wounded and unfortunately many civilian dead, women, children, old people.”
“A full-scale genocide of the Ukrainian people is underway.
“You have to understand that the occupation forces of the Russian Federation have done everything to stop the exit of civilians from our city of half a million people.
“So their mission is to destroy us, they have no intention of helping civilians.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Boychenko said the number of wounded civilians “is growing every day”.
He said: “Today there are 128 people in our hospitals. Our doctors don’t even go home anymore. They are fighting for the lives of Mariupol residents.”
Water supplies are also reportedly under threat in the city following more than half a day of Russian bombardment.
He said Putin’s troops are surrounding the city on all sides and are only several kilometres away.
“The situation is dire, we are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
“We can’t go inside to pick up the bodies, so we can’t count them.”
He told the BBC: “The Ukrainian army is very brave and they will continue to defend the city but the style of the Russian army is like pirates.
“They do not fight with their army, they just destroy entire districts.”
It comes days after a six-year-old girl was killed in a Russian airstrike in Mariupol.
Horror images showed the poor child in unicorn pyjamas lying fatally wounded in a hospital in the city.
An angry doctor told reporters: “Show this to Putin,” after the girl died despite the medical team’s heroic efforts.
Another child, 10-year-old Polina, was shot dead by Russian troops after they opened fire on her family’s car in Kyiv.
On Tuesday, Russia issued a chilling warning for Ukrainians to flee parts of Kyiv ahead of another massive bombardment.
So far, more than 2,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, and around 6,000 Russian troops.
Further rocket attacks have struck Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, hitting the regional police department and part of a university.
On Wednesday, Russian paratroopers landed in the city and began fighting for control, according to the Ukrainian military.
