Belarusian Troops Storm Ukraine as Massive Russian Bomb Blast Rocks City Center

Belarusian troops are said to have crossed the border to Ukraine to join a Russian invasion that reached brutal new levels of intensity overnight.

Ukraine’s parliament claimed early Tuesday that troops from Belarus had been spotted in the Chernihiv region, which stretches from the Belarusian border down to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. It would make Belarus the third direct participant in the war days after its Putin-backed president, Alexander Lukashenko, issued a dire warning of World War III.

The reported arrival of Belarusian troops coincided with a marked worsening of Russian aggression throughout Ukraine on Tuesday morning.

The main plaza—known as Freedom Square—of Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, was rocked by a huge explosion that caused major damage to the regional government’s headquarters. Emergency officials in the city reportedly said the explosion had killed civilians but exact figures have not been confirmed. President Volodymyr Zelensky told the European Union that dozens had died.

Zelensky said the damage was done by two cruise missiles, although that could not be immediately verified. Ukrainian officials accused Russia of hitting Kyiv with a vacuum bomb (or thermobaric weapon) on Monday. The high-powered explosive is one of the most deadly bombs available outside of a tactical nuclear weapon.

Shocking videos posted on social media showed the moment of the blast in Kharkiv Tuesday.

Addressing the European Parliament by videolink hours after the explosion, Ukraine’s President Zelensky said Russia’s strike on central Kharkiv amounted to a war crime. “Evil, armed with rockets, bombs and artillery, must be stopped immediately,” he said. “Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget... This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation.”

In the eastern city of Okhtyrka, over 70 Ukrainian soldiers were reported to have been killed by a Russian missile strike on a military base. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest single attack since the invasion began. Mayor Pavlo Kuzmenko wrote: “Again, the enemy is waging a vile war. A fuel-air bomb was dropped on an oil depot, oil tanks were blown up.”

Russia’s renewed aggression in Ukraine’s urban areas came as a a military column gathering to the north of Kyiv was shown to be some 40 miles long, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies. Residents are now bracing themselves for a fresh assault on Ukraine’s capital.

Addressing the enormous Russian convoy during his speech to the European parliament, Zelensky said: “They want to break our nationhood, that’s why the capital is constantly under threat.” He added that three missile strikes had hit Kyiv in the past 24 hours, and estimated that hundreds of undercover Russian saboteurs are in the city.