KYIV and Kharkiv came under fresh bombardment overnight as murderous Vladimir Putin hammered residential homes ahead of a feared second-wave offensive.
Missiles rained down after a day of true horror, which saw Russian troops fire on a nuclear reactor site and a mum and her two children killed as they desperately tried to flee during a ceasefire.
Air raid sirens rang out in the capital Kyiv in the early hours, while social media videos showed a number of explosions in second city Kharkiv.
One terrifying video, believed to have been filmed in Kharkiv, shows the moment a high-rise block of flats was blasted in a huge orange flash.
Another clip records the constant rumble of bombing in the distance.
And a third was claimed to show a Russian attack jet going down in flames.
Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said other areas under bombardment overnight included the outskirts of Kyiv, Chernihiv in the north, and Mykolaiv in the south
The new raids came hours after National Security Secretary Alexei Danilov warned to the nation expect a fresh onslaught.
“We have withstood the first, heaviest wave of attacks by Russian orcs.
“But the enemy is still dangerous as ready and united as possible.”
Thousands of people are trapped in besieged Kharkiv, which has seen some of the heaviest bombing of the invasion so far.
Throughout the city, snowy streets are paved with glass blown from windows and debris torn from smashed buildings by missiles.
Earlier yesterday, Russian forces were accused of firing at a facility with a nuclear reactor, sparking fears of a major radiation leak.
Mad Vlad’s army are said to have fired unguided rockets at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology.
Early this morning Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed without evidence that Ukraine’s spy agency had mined the institute with explosives.
It added Ukraine was planning a dangerous “provocation” and hoped to blame Russia for an explosion causing “an ecological catastrophe”.
The alarming statement raised fears Vladimir Putin was himself planning such a horror in order to justify his slaughter of innocents.
Meanwhile officials in Kyiv warned Russia had now amassed a big enough force to try to seize the capital.
And around 30 Tochka-U tactical missile systems have been brought to Belarus from Russia ready for a feared all-out assault.
Vadym Denysenko, adviser to the interior minister, said: “Russian occupiers gathered sufficient troops near Kyiv and will try to seize the capital in the next few days.”
It comes as:
Russia has fired 600 missiles and deployed 95 per cent of the servicemen who had gathered on the border ahead of the conflict, CNN reports.
Tens of thousands remain trapped in the besieged port city of Mariupol after a “ceasefire” to allow a humanitarian escape route was breached for the second day running.
Desperate residents were struggling for a fifth day with no water or power after an evacuation was halted by Russian shelling.
Vadym Boychenko, mayor of the Black Sea port, said: “They’re destroying us.”
The UK’s Ministry of Defence confirmed that Putin’s forces had promised to let people escape – but once again Russian shelling resumed before refugees could leave.
In Irpin, near Kyiv, at least eight people were killed as merciless troops fired on families fleeing the frontline.
A mother and her two children – one of whom was an eight-year-old girl – died as they attempted to cross the river. Only the father and the family dog survived.
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And the train station in Kyiv was packed with people desperate to escape as explosions rocked the city.
The station in Lviv, in the west, was also crammed as people queued through the night in a bid to make it to Poland.
Elsewhere, Putin’s men have been accused of dropping 500kg bombs on civilians in Chernihiv.
Video also showed rocket launchers firing in Peremoha some 40 miles from the capital. They appear to be aiming towards Kyiv.
Thousands continue to flee their homes in Europe’s biggest refugee exodus since World War Two.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said more than 1.5 million people had been driven out since the start of the war — with the number likely to hit four million by July.
He branded it a “senseless war” and added: “Unless there is an immediate end to the conflict, millions more are likely to be forced to flee Ukraine.”
As the slaughter continues Ukraine claims that Russia has lost 11,000 troops and more than 2,000 army vehicles – although US intelligence says the number of the dead is around 4,500.
Regardless of the true figure, Putin is believed to have been deeply shocked by the ferocity of the heroic Ukrainians.
In just a single day on Saturday, he reportedly lost nine aircraft.
Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff said yesterday the Kremlin had “got itself into a mess” over the invasion.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme that morale in the Russian forces was low and that the Kremlin had lost more troops in a week than the UK did in 20 years in Afghanistan.
“We do know that some of the lead elements of Russian forces have been decimated by the Ukrainian response,” he said.
But he warned aggression will ramp up as Putin struggles with his objectives.
Russia is being strangled by Western sanctions, which Putin raged were almost a “declaration of war” against them.
And he also warned that anyone who attempts to enforce a no fly zone over Ukraine will be considered to have entered the conflict.
Russia has issued a direct threat to Britain saying it “will not forget” support for Ukraine and warning of “tough retaliation”.
