Russian forces entered Kharkov, Ukrainian officials said early on Sunday after reports that invading troops blew up a natural gas pipeline.
The Russian military pounded several cities with missiles overnight, setting an oil terminal ablaze in Vasylkiv, southwest of the capital Kyiv, the town's mayor said. The blasts sent flames and smoke into the night sky, online posts showed.
"The enemy wants to destroy everything," said the mayor of Vasylkiv, Natalia Balasinovich.
A loud explosion was heard in the capital city early on Sunday after air raid sirens blared. earlier, a local hospital reported a six year old boy was killed and five others injured from the fighting.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said its forces have surrounded Kherson and Berdiansk in southern Ukraine where hundreds of thousands live.
Meanwhile, western allies are preparing sweeping new sanctions against Russia, including banishing its key banks from the main global payments system, drawing thanks from Ukraine on Sunday as its forces battled advancing Russian troops.
"We are resolved to continue imposing costs on Russia that will further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies," the Western allies said as they escalated their punitive response.
"Russia's war represents an assault on fundamental international rules and norms that have prevailed since the Second World War, which we are committed to defending. We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin," the western allies said in a statement.
A U.S. defense official said Ukraine's forces were putting up "very determined resistance" to Russia's air, land and sea advance, which has sent hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing westwards, clogging major highways and railway lines.
The United States and its European partners also said they would impose restrictions on Russia's central bank to limit its ability to support the ruble and finance his war effort.
"We are resolved to continue imposing costs on Russia that will further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies," the Western allies said as they escalated their punitive response.
First published: 08:21, 02.27.22