Yahoo! News
Photos: Residential areas hit by missile strikes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters 7th day
Dylan Stableford and Yahoo News Photo Staff – March 2, 2022
As Russia’s military assault on Ukraine entered its seventh day Wednesday, images taken by photographers inside the war-torn sovereign nation show the devastation left by the apparent bombings of civilian targets.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces are escalating attacks on civilian areas in some of Ukraine’s largest cities.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, the roof was blown off a regional police headquarters as well as a university building, officials there said.
In Gorenka, outside the capital, Kyiv, houses were left destroyed by what local residents said was a Russian airstrike.
Even a gym located near a Kyiv TV tower targeted by Russian missiles was nearly burned to the ground.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decried the attacks on civilian targets as a blatant terror campaign waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had insisted his “special military operation” would not target civilians.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said more than 2,000 civilians have been killed, but that figure could not be immediately verified.
According to the United Nations, more than 800,000 Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s attack began.
Those who did not flee have been forced to take up arms, making Molotov cocktails, welding antitank blockades and learning how to use assault rifles in order to defend themselves from advancing Russian forces.