Fighting escalates in Ukraine despite peace talks

New Delhi: Despite talks aimed at securing a ceasefire, fighting continues in the Russian war against Ukraine.
Missile strikes killed dozens of civilians in the country’s second city, Kharkiv, while air raid sirens sounded again in the capital, Kyiv, BBC reported.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Russian bombardment of Kharkiv a “war crime”.
There were reports of fierce shelling in the northern city of Chernihiv, BBC reported.
Russia is attacking Ukraine on several fronts, but its advance has been slowed by Ukrainian resistance.
All three cities remain under Ukrainian control.
Away from the battlefields, economic and diplomatic moves have continued.
President Vladimir Putin has banned Russians from moving money abroad as he tries to halt a plunge in the value of the rouble following the imposition of sanctions.
And a rare emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly has heard a demand from the secretary general for an immediate halt to hostilities.
On the northern border with Belarus, Ukrainian and Russian officials ended their first round of talks.
There was little expectation the session would bring a breakthrough, but a Ukrainian official said both sides would now return to their respective capitals for further consultations before a second round of negotiations, BBC reported.
Russia said both sides had agreed to continue talking and would meet again “in the next few days”.
(IANS)