Russia pummels Ukraine's No. 2 city as convoy nears Kyiv

Kyiv: Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine's second-largest city again Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital tactics Ukraine's embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe's largest ground war in generations.

With the Kremlin increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have tanked the ruble currency, Russian troops attempted to advance on Ukraine's two biggest cities. In strategic Kharkiv, an eastern city with a population of about 1.5 million, videos posted online showed explosions hitting the region's Soviet-era administrative building and residential areas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack on Kharkiv's main square frank, undisguised terror," blaming a Russian missile and calling it a war crime. Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget...This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation." Throughout Ukraine, many civilians spent another night huddled in shelters, basements or corridors.

The casualty toll mounted as Ukraine faced Day 6 of a Russian invasion that has shaken the 21st century world order. Hopes for a negotiated solution to the war dimmed after a first, five-hour session of talks between Ukraine and Russia yielded no stop in the fighting, though both sides agreed to another meeting in coming days.

With Western powers sending weapons to Ukraine and driving a global squeeze of Russia's economy, President Vladimir Putin's options diminished as he seeks to redraw the global map and pull Ukraine's western-leaning democracy back into Moscow's orbit.

I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method," Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address, referring to stepped-up shelling. He did not offer details of the talks between Ukrainian and Russian envoys, but he said Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions when one side is hitting another with rocket artillery. As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in the capital, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million.