Local militiaman Valery, 37, carries a child as he helps a fleeing family across a bridge destroyed by artillery. Photo / AP
The International Criminal Court's prosecutor is investigating possible war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Ukraine dating back to 2013, but also covering the conflict sparked by Russia's invasion.
Prosecutor Karim Khan said he launched the probe after 39 of the court's member states asked for it, a process known as a referral.
"These referrals enable my office to proceed with opening an investigation into the situation in Ukraine from 21 November 2013 onwards, thereby encompassing within its scope any past and present allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed on any part of the territory of Ukraine by any person," Khan said.
"Our work in the collection of evidence has now commenced," he added.
Putin 'chose war' - Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron says Russian President Vladimir Putin "chose war", but that he would continue his contacts with the Russian leader to try to stop the conflict and avoid its spread beyond Ukraine's borders.
In an address to the nation on Wednesday, Macron hammered home that the consequences of the conflict will reverberate to France and other European countries, thrusting the continent into a new era.
Macron's 14-minute address was meant to apprise the French of what has happened and what he predicts the fallout will be. It was his second such address and came days before Macron must by law declare his candidacy in French presidential elections in April.
After outlining the unsuccessful efforts by Western powers to prevent the invasion, Macron said, "It is, therefore, alone and in a deliberate way that by denying engagements taken before the international community, President Putin chose war".
The war in Ukraine "marks a rupture", jolting Europeans into a new era that will force new, costly decisions in all spheres, from defence to energy, Macron warned.
The French president stressed that he won't abandon contacts with Russia. Macron has travelled to the Kremlin and had multiple telephone conversations with Putin, the latest on Monday, trying to facilitate an end to the Ukraine conflict.
"I chose to stay in contact and will remain in contact as much as I can and as long as it is necessary with President Putin, to convince him to renounce arms, to aid as much as France can and prevent contagion and enlargement of the conflict as best we can," Macron said.
Russians besiege Ukrainian ports as armored column stalls
Russian forces laid siege to two strategic Ukrainian seaports Wednesday and pressed their bombardment of the country's second-biggest city, while the huge armoured column threatening Kyiv appeared stalled outside the capital.
Moscow's isolation deepened, meanwhile, when most of the world lined up against it at the United Nations to demand it withdraw from Ukraine.
A second round of talks aimed at ending the fighting was expected Thursday, but there appeared to be little common ground between the two sides.
Russia reported its military casualties for the first time since the invasion began last week, saying nearly 500 of its troops have been killed and almost 1600 wounded. Ukraine did not disclose its own military losses but said more than 2000 civilians have died, a claim that could not be independently verified.
With fighting going on on multiple fronts across the country, Britain's Defence Ministry said Mariupol, a large city on the Azov Sea, was encircled by Russian forces, while the status of another vital port, Kherson, a Black Sea shipbuilding city of 280,000, remained unclear.
Putin's forces claimed to have taken complete control of Kherson, which would make it the biggest city to fall yet in the invasion. But a senior US defence official disputed that.
"Our view is that Kherson is very much a contested city," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko said the attacks there had been relentless.
"We cannot even take the wounded from the streets, from houses and apartments today, since the shelling does not stop," he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Meanwhile, the senior US defence official said the immense column of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles appeared to be stalled roughly 25km from Kyiv and had made no real progress in the past couple of days.
The convoy, which earlier in the week had seemed poised to launch an assault on the capital, has been plagued with fuel and food shortages and has faced fierce Ukrainian resistance, the official said.
On the far edges of Kyiv, volunteer fighters well into their 60s manned a checkpoint to try to block the Russian advance.
"In my old age I had to take up arms," said Andrey Goncharuk, 68. He said the fighters needed more weapons, but "we'll kill the enemy and take their weapons".
Russia also pounded Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city with about 1.5 million people, in another round of aerial attacks that shattered buildings and lit up the skyline with flames. At least 21 people were killed and 112 injured over the past day, said Oleg Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration.
Several Russian planes were shot down over Kharkiv, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"Kharkiv today is the Stalingrad of the 21st century," Arestovich said, invoking what is considered one of the most heroic episodes in Russian history, the five-month defence of the city from the Nazis during World War II.
From his basement bunker, Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov told the BBC: "The city is united and we shall stand fast".
Russian attacks, many with missiles, blew the roof off Kharkiv's five-story regional police building and set the top floor on fire, and also hit the intelligence headquarters and a university building, according to officials and videos and photos released by Ukraine's State Emergency Service. Officials said residential buildings were also hit, but gave no details.
Seven days into Russia's invasion, the United Nations said more than 870,000 people have fled Ukraine in a mounting refugee crisis on the European continent, while the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency warned that the fighting poses a danger to Ukraine's 15 nuclear reactors.
Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency noted that the war is "the first time a military conflict is happening amid the facilities of a large, established nuclear power programme", and he said he is "gravely concerned".
"When there is a conflict ongoing, there is of course a risk of attack or the possibility of an accidental hit," he said. Russia already has seized control of the decommissioned Chernobyl power plant, the scene in 1986 of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
In New York, the UN General Assembly voted to demand that Russia stop its offensive and immediately withdraw all troops, with world powers and tiny island states alike condemning Moscow. The vote was 141 to 5, with 35 abstentions.
Assembly resolutions aren't legally binding but can reflect and influence world opinion.
The vote came after the 193-member assembly convened its first emergency session since 1997. The only countries to vote with Russia were Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea. Cuba spoke in Moscow's defence but ultimately abstained.
Ukraine's UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said Russian forces "have come to the Ukrainian soil, not only to kill some of us; they have come to deprive Ukraine of the very right to exist". He added: "The crimes are so barbaric that it is difficult to comprehend".
A large explosion shook central Kyiv on Wednesday night in what the president's office said was a missile strike near the capital city's southern railway station. There was no immediate word on any deaths or injuries. Thousands of Ukrainians have been fleeing the city through the sprawling railway complex.
A spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, released his side's military casualty figures, disputing as "disinformation" reports of much higher losses. Ukraine's leader claimed almost 6000 Russian soldiers have been killed.
Konashenkov also said more than 2870 Ukrainian troops have been killed and about 3700 wounded, and over 570 have been captured.
Russia also ramped up its rhetoric. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reminded the world about the country's vast nuclear arsenal when he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera that "a third world war could only be nuclear".
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 other developments:
• The price of oil continued to soar, reaching $112 per barrel, the highest since 2014.
• 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, a major blow. Airbus and Boeing jets account for the vast majority or Russia's passenger fleet.
- AP
The site was used by Hezbollah to plan attacks on Israeli civilians.