Ukraine war: UN demands Russia withdraw, pounding of Kharkiv continues

The UN General Assembly has voted to demand that Russia stop its offensive in Ukraine and withdraw all troops, with nations from world powers to tiny island states condemning Moscow.

The vote Wednesday was 141 to 5, with 35 abstentions. It came after the 193-member assembly convened its first emergency session since 1997.

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Assembly resolutions aren't legally binding, but they do have clout in reflecting international opinion.

The resolution deplored Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine "in the strongest terms" and demanded an immediate and complete withdrawal of all Moscow's forces.

The results of a vote on a resolution concerning Ukraine are displayed during an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly. Photo / Seth Wenig, AP

Countries that spoke up for Russia included Belarus, Cuba, North Korea and Syria.

A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry says 498 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine and 1597 wounded.

Major General Igor Konashenkov rejected reports about the "incalculable losses" of the Russians as "disinformation" on Wednesday and reported Moscow's casualties for the first time since the start of the attack last Thursday.

Konashenkov also said more than 2870 Ukrainian troops have been killed and about 3700 wounded, while 572 others have been captured.

Ukrainian officials have not yet commented on the figures, and they could not be immediately verified.

Firefighters extinguish a fire at a building of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) after a rocket attack in Kharkiv. Photo / Andrew Marienko, AP

Before the UN General Assembly vote, Ukraine's UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said of Russian forces: "They have come to Ukrainian soil, not only to kill some of us ... they have come to deprive Ukraine of the very right to exist".

"The crimes are so barbaric that it is difficult to comprehend."

Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia urged UN members to vote against the resolution, alleging that Western nations exerted "unprecedented pressure" with "open and cynical threats" to gain support for the measure.

"This document will not allow us to end military activities. On the contrary, it could embolden Kyiv radicals and nationalists to continue to determine the policy of their country at any price," Nebenzia warned.

"Your refusal to support today's draft resolution is a vote for a peaceful Ukraine" that would not "be managed from the outside", he said. "This was the aim of our special military operation, which the sponsors of this resolution tried to present as aggression."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters immediately after the vote: "The message of the General Assembly is loud and clear: end hostilities in Ukraine — now. Silence the guns — now. Open the door to dialogue and diplomacy — now.

"We don't have a moment to lose," Guterres said. "The brutal effects of the conflict are plain to see … It threatens to get much, much worse."

Russia, meanwhile, has renewed its bombardment of Ukraine's second-biggest city on Wednesday, pounding Kharkiv with attacks that shattered buildings and lit up the skyline with balls of fire. At least 21 people were reported killed.

But both sides said they were ready to resume talks aimed at stopping the fighting, which had Ukraine under threat on multiple fronts. A 65km-long column of Russian tanks and other military vehicles stood outside the capital, and Russian invaders pressed their assault on the strategic port cities of Kherson and Mariupol.

The 65km long Russian military convoy en route to the Ukraine capital Kyiv. Graphic / Maxar Technologies, AP

"Kharkiv today is the Stalingrad of the 21st century," said Oleksiy Arestovich, a top presidential adviser, invoking what is considered one of the most heroic moments in Russian history, the five-month defence of the city from the Nazis during World War II.

Russian attacks, many with missiles, blew the roof off Kharkiv's five-storey regional police building and set the top floor on fire, and also hit the intelligence headquarters and a university building, according to officials, videos and photos released by Ukraine's State Emergency Service. Officials' residential buildings were also hit but did not provide details.

Oleg Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said 21 people were killed and at least 112 injured over the past day. The city has a population of about 1.5 million. Arestovich said several Russian planes were shot down over Kharkiv, though that could not be confirmed.

Ukrainian emergency service personnel carry the body of a victim out of the damaged City Hall building following shelling in Kharkiv. Photo / Pavel Dorogoy, AP

Seven days into Russia's invasion, a refugee crisis unfolded on the European continent, with the United Nations saying more than 870,000 people have fled Ukraine and that the number could soon hit one million.

The State Emergency Service reported that more than 2000 civilians have been killed, but that could not immediately be independently verified, and neither side has disclosed its military casualties.

The two sides held talks on Monday, agreeing only to keep talking. It was not immediately clear when new talks might take place or what they would yield. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Russia should stop bombing before another meeting.

Zelenskyy has decried Russia's attacks on civilian targets as a blatant terror campaign, while US President Joe Biden warned that if Russian leader Vladimir Putin is not made to "pay a price" for the invasion, the aggression won't stop with one country.

Russia, too, ramped up its rhetoric, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reminding the world about the country's vast nuclear arsenal. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, he said: "A third world war will be nuclear, and devastating," according to Russian news sites.

In the northern city of Chernihiv, two cruise missiles hit a hospital, according to the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency, which quoted the health administration chief Serhiy Pivovar as saying authorities were working to determine the casualty toll.

In besieged Mariupol, at least one teenager died and two more were wounded by apparent Russian shelling.

Paramedics move a man injured by the shelling at the maternity hospital converted into a medical ward and used as a bomb shelter in Mariupol. Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka, AP

The three boys were rushed to a regional hospital. One had lost his legs in the attack and died soon after arriving, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Family members told the AP the three had been playing soccer near a school when the shelling hit.

The attacks came a day after Russia, intensifying its attacks on cities, bombed Kharkiv's central square — where at least six people were reported killed — and struck Kyiv's main TV tower, where authorities said five died. Kyiv's nearby Babi Yar Holocaust memorial also came under fire, but the main monument was not damaged.

Even as Russia's invasion continued on multiple fronts, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a delegation would be ready later in the day to meet Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also said his country was ready but noted that Russia's demands have not changed and that he wouldn't accept any ultimatums. Neither side said where the talks might take place.

In other developments:

• Britain's Defence Ministry said Kharkiv and Mariupol were encircled. A third city, Kherson, was under pressure, but there were conflicting reports as to who was in control.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the attacks there had been relentless.

• The price of oil continued to soar, reaching $112 per barrel, the highest since 2014.

• US President Joe Biden is taking steps to rein in rising energy costs even if those moves run counter to his agenda for addressing climate change. Biden announced 30 million barrels of oil would be released from US strategic reserves as part of a 31-nation effort to help ensure supplies will not fall short.

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• Russia found itself even more isolated economically as Airbus and Boeing said they would cut off spare parts and technical support to the country's airlines. Airbus and Boeing jets account for the vast majority of Russia's passenger fleet.

• Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, acknowledged the global economic punishment hitting Russia is unprecedented but said Moscow had been prepared for all manner of sanctions and that the potential damage had been taken into account before launching the invasion. "We have experience with this. We have been through several crises," he said.

• The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, said Russia had told the agency that its military had taken control around Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant, but operations there were continuing normally. The agency's top official warned that the fighting poses a danger to Ukraine's 15 nuclear reactors.

• There have been social media messages calling for peace, an image of a murdered Russian opposition figure, a newspaper editorial demanding Putin "stop this war". As Russian forces pound Ukraine's cities, the sentiments might not be surprising. Their source is — they come from rich Russians, including billionaires close to the Kremlin.

• The International Paralympic Committee says Russians and Belarusians at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing will compete as "neutral athletes" because of their countries' roles in the war against Ukraine. Russian athletes had already been slated to compete as RPC as punishment for the state-sponsored doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and a subsequent cover-up.— AP