President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian nuclear forces on high alert amid tensions with the West over his invasion of Ukraine
A women holds a child and a dog in a shelter inside a building in Mariupol, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. Street fighting broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city and Russian troops squeezed strategic ports in the country's south as the prospect of peace talks remains uncertain. YURAS KARMANAU, JIM HEINTZ, VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and DASHA LITVINOVA
The fast-moving developments came as Russian troops drew closer to Kyiv, a city of almost 3 million, street fighting broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under pressure from the invading forces. Ukrainian defenders put up stiff resistance that appeared to slow the invasion.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Putin is resorting to a pattern he used in the weeks before launching the invasion, “which is to manufacture threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression.” She told ABC's “This Week” that Russia has not been under threat from NATO or Ukraine.
If Putin is arming or otherwise raising the nuclear combat readiness of his bombers, or if he is ordering more ballistic missile submarines to sea, then the United States might feel compelled to respond in kind, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. That would mark a worrisome escalation, he said.
Earlier Sunday, the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets. Terrified residents instead hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault.
The images underscored the determined resistance from Ukrainian forces. Ukrainians have volunteered en masse to help defend their country, taking guns distributed by authorities and preparing firebombs to fight Russian forces. He said the Russian forces also took control of an airbase near Kherson and the Azov Sea city of Henichesk. Ukrainian authorities also reported fighting near Odesa, Mykolaiv and other areas.
The number of casualties so far from Europe's largest land conflict since World War II remained unclear amid the fog of combat.
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