![Soldiers run through the city streets as the thump of shelling echoed from the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24. [PHOTO CREDIT: JACK LOSH PHOTOS FOR FOREIGN POLICY]](https://i0.wp.com/media.premiumtimesng.com/wp-content/files/2022/02/kharkiv.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1)
Russian troops have attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s former capital, but are being battled by Ukrainian troops, Al Jazeera quotes regional governor Oleh Sinegubov as saying
“The Russian enemy’s light vehicles have broken into Kharkiv, including the city centre,” Mr Sinegubov said. “Ukraine’s armed forces are destroying the enemy. We ask civilians not to go out.”
Videos published by Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection showed several light military vehicles moving along a street.
Russian troops have also blown up a natural gas pipeline in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s state communications service said.
A mushroom-shaped explosion was shown in a video it posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Al Jazeera also reported that Russian missiles have hit the Ukrainian town of Vasylkiv, southwest of Kyiv, setting an oil terminal ablaze,
“The enemy wants to destroy everything around,” Mayor Natalia Balasinovich was quoted as saying in a video.
It was not immediately clear how important the pipeline was and whether the blast could disrupt gas shipments outside the city or country. Despite the war, Ukraine continues to ship Russian natural gas to Europe.
The United Nations says it has confirmed at least 240 civilian casualties but believes the “real figures are considerably higher” because many reports of casualties remain to be confirmed.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) relayed the count from the UN human rights office, which has strict verification procedures about the toll from conflict.
OCHA also said damage to civilian infrastructure has deprived hundreds of thousands of people of access to electricity or water and produced a map of “humanitarian situations” in Ukraine – mostly in northern, eastern and southern Ukraine.
Civilians fighting for Ukraine
A Ukrainian company in charge of building and maintaining roads is removing road signs that could be used by invading Russian forces to find their way around the country.
“The enemy has poor communications, they cannot navigate the terrain,” the company Ukravtodor said in a Facebook update. “Let us help them get straight to hell.”
It posted an edited photo of a standard road sign in which directions to nearby cities have been replaced with profanities.
Russia commenced an attack on Ukraine Thursday after it recognised two breakaway regions in the east of Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin claims the attack is to ‘denazify’ Ukraine.
The attack has been condemned by many countries including the U.S. and its allies, many of whom have imposed sanctions on Russia.
WATCH: Governor Yahaya Bello's Roadmap to Hope 2023
Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility
Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.
For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.
By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.
TEXT AD: Why women cheat: what every Nigerian man should know
![VTBank, one of Russia's most successful banks [PHOTO: @vtb]](https://i0.wp.com/media.premiumtimesng.com/wp-content/files/2022/02/vtb.jpg?resize=75%2C75&ssl=1)
