Ukraine has restored full control over Kharkiv, Governor Oleg Sinegubov said Sunday, following fierce fighting with the Russian army.
"Control over Kharkiv is completely ours! The armed forces, the police, and the defense forces are working, and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy," Sinegubov said on Facebook. "Russia's enemy is completely demoralized. Directly in Kharkiv, throwing enemy vehicles in the middle of the road."
Whole units of five to 10 soldiers had surrendered to Ukrainian troops, the city's governor said, adding: "As soon as they see at least one representative of the Armed Forces, they surrender."
"Regarding the situation in the region as of now: Chuguiv (Chuhuiv) is completely controlled by Ukrainian troops, Ukrainian flags are hung on administrative premises," Sinegubov said. "The offensive of the Russian aggressor continues in the Lipetsk direction, Vovchansky and Belgorod. We fix separate columns of the Russian equipment. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are actively fighting in their positions."
Russian military vehicles pushed into Ukraine's second-largest city on Sunday, with explosions rocking oil and gas installations on the fourth day of fighting in the biggest assault on a European state since World War II.
Russian soldiers and armored vehicles were seen in different parts of the northeastern city of Kharkiv and firing could be heard, a witness said. A burning tank was visible in a video posted by the government.
Russian troops blew up a natural gas pipeline in Kharkiv before daybreak, a Ukrainian state agency said, sending a burning cloud up into the darkness.
"The Russian enemy's light vehicles have broken into Kharkiv, including the city centre," Sinegubov said. "Ukraine's armed forces are destroying the enemy. We ask civilians not to go out."
Ukraine's Western allies ratcheted up their response to Russia's land, sea and air invasion late on Saturday with sanctions to banish major Russian banks from the main global payments system and other measures aimed at limiting Moscow's use of a $630 million war chest of central bank reserves.
Finland and Sweden became the latest European countries to close their airspace to Russian flights, and the European Union could follow suit with a coordinated European-wide ban, an official said.
Ukrainian forces were holding off Russian troops advancing on the capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. But shelling hit civilian infrastructure and targets including ambulances, he said.
A United Nations agency reported 64 civilian deaths and Ukraine claimed to have killed more than 4,000 Russian soldiers. Reuters was not able to verify the numbers.
More than 368,000 refugees, mainly women and children, have poured into neighboring countries, clogging railways, roads and borders since Russian President Vladimir Putin, 69, unleashed what he called a special military operation on Thursday.
Ignoring weeks of frantic diplomacy and sanctions threats by Western nations seeking to avoid war, Putin has justified the invasion saying "neo-Nazis" rule Ukraine and threaten Russia's security – a charge Kyiv and Western governments say is baseless propaganda.
The Kremlin sent a diplomatic delegation to neighboring Belarus offering talks, but Ukraine rejected the offer, saying Belarus had been complicit in the invasion. Ukraine was happy to hold talks elsewhere, Zelenskyy said.
Russian missiles found their mark overnight, including a strike that set an oil terminal ablaze in Vasylkiv, southwest of Kyiv, the town's mayor said. Blasts sent huge flames and billowing black smoke into the night sky, online posts showed.
"The enemy wants to destroy everything," said Mayor Natalia Balasinovich.
Ukraine's gas pipeline operator said the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine, vital for Europe's energy needs, was continuing as normal. Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom also said gas exports via Ukraine continued normally.
Russian-backed separatists in the eastern province of Luhansk said a Ukrainian missile had blown up an oil terminal in the town of Rovenky.