Heading towards World War III?

Ukraine's second city Kharkiv endured "heavy fighting" with Russian forces overnight after troops entered and blew up a gas pipeline.

IMAGES released by Ukrainian military show a Russian armoured vehicle burning in Kharkiv as fighting continues.

Images taken from a video released by the Ukrainian military appears to show a Russian armoured vehicle burning in the city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s military says it destroyed the vehicle amid fighting in the city.

Street fighting broke out this morning in Kharkiv as Russian troops entered Ukraine's second-largest city, just following 07:00 GMT. Social media footage appears to show some Russian units in the city.

Troops and tanks have been seen in Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv today - but the real focus remains the capital Kyiv. General Sir Richard Barons explains what hardware is being used to approach the city - the types of forces, the tanks and the armoured vehicles involved.

NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham says the West’s “best hope out” of the Russia-Ukraine crisis is for the Russian people to “rise up against a failed leader”. “And not for the first time in our lifetime, to have a regime change. We’re all hoping Putin doesn’t last,” Mr Latham said. “At the moment, it looks like a miscalculation, in that the international opinion … is against Putin. “He runs the risk of his economy, a frail economy, being isolated and heavily damaged by the sanctions in the medium-term.”

Social commentator Prue MacSween says Russian President Vladimir Putin is “clearly unhinged”. “He’s lost reality - he doesn’t understand reality,” she told Sky News host Chris Smith.

Russian airlines face a near-total airspace blockade to the country's west after an EU official said most European countries are set to impose flight bans.

A formal decision is expected on the measure later on Sunday.

One by one, European countries said they were closing their airspace, including Germany for three months.

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Russia's S7 Airlines said on Facebook it would cancel flights to many of its European destinations until at least 13 March.

Aeroflot, Russia's biggest airline, said it would cancel its services to Latvia and Romania until at least 26 March, and its Prague and Warsaw routes until 28 March.

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Russian-owned planes, including private jets, can no longer enter the skies above the Baltic states, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia. Russian planes have also been banned from UK airspace.

Several more EU countries have now joined the action to close airspace to Russian flights:

• Germany is imposing a three-month ban from 15:00 (14:00 GMT) on Sunday
• Italy will close its airspace to Russian aircraft, the prime minister's office said
• Finland, which shares an 800 mile (1,300km) border with Russia, "is preparing to close its airspace to Russian air traffic," Transport Minister Timo Harakka wrote on Twitter
• Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said European skies were "open for those who connect people, not for those who seek to brutally aggress", and France and the Netherlands will also close their airspace from Sunday evening
• Denmark's foreign minister Jeppe Kofod said on Twitter that his country would close its airspace and push for an EU-wide ban
• Ireland and Austria have thrown their weight behind an EU-wide ban.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60539303

Russia has now committed around three-quarters of the troops it had massed on Ukraine's border.

Its air and artillery strikes have until now been limited.

Western officials say that Russia has still to destroy Ukraine's air defences and gain supremacy in the air.

They also believe that Russia's invasion is not going according to plan because it has met stronger resistance than expected and because of poor preparation. Armoured convoys have been running out of fuel.

But as Russia commits more of its resources and firepower to the fight, it could all change quickly.

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Russian setbacks could lead to more ruthless actions. Russia's indiscriminate bombing campaign in Syria and, before that, Chechnya shows Russia under President Putin is more concerned about results than civilian casualties or international condemnation.

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Newly released satellite imagery shows a massive convoy of Russian armour descending on Kyiv.

Pictures taken on Monday, before noon in Ukraine, show Russian military units near Antonov airport, about 27km (17 miles) from the centre of the capital.

According to Maxar Technologies, the satellite-imaging company that released the photos, the convoy is nearly 17 miles long (27km) and "contains hundreds of armoured vehicles, tanks, towed artillery and logistics support vehicles".

To the west and north-west of Kyiv, satellite pictures show destroyed armoured vehicles and a damaged bridge near Irpin and Stoyanka.

www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60542877

The Russian president’s decision to deploy large numbers of troops to eastern Ukraine has already triggered new Western sanctions on Russia. A full invasion could lead to land warfare on a scale Europe hasn’t seen since World War II, a bloody and devastating conflict for Russians and Ukrainians alike. What could justify even threatening that?

Putin’s clearest answer yet came in a speech delivered on Monday. He believes that Ukraine is an illegitimate country that exists on land that’s historically and rightfully Russian: “Ukraine actually never had stable traditions of real statehood,” as he puts it.

The overtures to the West from the current government of Ukraine are an attempt to stand up to this false regime, as is its antagonistic stance toward Moscow. This combination — an anti-Russian regime in what Putin views as rightfully Russian territory populated by rightfully Russian people — is unacceptable to him.

“Ukraine might have remained a sovereign state so long as it had a pro-Putin government,” says Seva Gunitsky, a political scientist at the University of Toronto who studies Russia. “Reuniting the lands formally would probably not have been at the forefront of the agenda if Putin felt he had enough political support from the Ukrainian regime.”

www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/2/23/22945781/russia-ukraine-putin-speech-transcript-february-22

"If I could leave Russia right now, I would. But I can't quit my job," says Andrey.

He won't be able to afford his mortgage in Moscow now interest rates have been hiked.

Millions of Russians like him are starting to feel the effect of Western economic sanctions designed to punish the country for invading neighbouring Ukraine.

"I am planning to find new customers abroad asap and move out of Russia with the money I was saving for the first instalment," says the 31-year-old industrial designer.

"I am scared here - people have been arrested for speaking against 'the party line'. I feel ashamed and I didn't even vote for those in power."

Like other interviewees for this article we are not using his full name or showing his face for security reasons. Some names have been changed.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60558731

Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday night.

"There will be a harsh response to the EU actions. Russia will continue to ensure the achievement of vital national interests irrespective of the sanctions or their threat. It is time Western nations realized that their complete dominance in the global economy is long gone," the ministry said.

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