Russian troops enter Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv and fierce fighting breaks out after Putin was said to be 'raging' at stalled invasion: Ukrainians obliterate Chechen special forces column of 56 tanks outside Kyiv and kills top general

• The group - likely to number in the hundreds - was blown to smithereens on their second day in the country
• Those killed include Chechen general Magomed Tushaev - one of the regime's most highly-decorated soldiers
• Vladimir Putin had green-lighted their deployment, with each fighter given a deck of cards to help them recognize Ukrainian leaders they were encouraged to capture and kill
• But Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky is still reported to be alive - and is fast becoming a global hero - while Putin has faced scorn over his huge army's slow progress to capture the country
• On Sunday morning, Ukrainian government ministers confirmed they'd managed to keep control of the capital city of Kyiv for the third night running
• But Russian forces entered Kharkiv - Ukraine's second-largest city - around the same time, with street battles reported to be taking place
• Russia has struck the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine in Kyiv, which stores nuclear waste
• The facility's radiation detector was also destroyed - although a preliminary inspection suggests there is no immediate danger to locals
• First confirmed death toll has also emerged - UN says at least 240 Ukrainian citizens have been killed
• Woman was killed in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, after Russian artillery shell struck nine-story residential apartment building
• Two blasts went off in the south west of the Ukrainian capital shortly after midnight local time
• A fuel depot in the city of Vasylkiv was targeted by Russian ballistic missiles, its mayor said
• Russia also blew up a gas pipeline in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, which sits close to the Russian border
• Vladimir Putin is said to be furious at his troops' apparent lack of progress, and is reportedly fuming in his heavily-guarded Russian mountain lair
• An eerie orange glow filled the sky, CNN reports that a fuel depot may have been hit
• Blast took place close to one of Kyiv's two airports - Boryspil International Airport, whose capture is vital to Russian takeover ambitions

Russian forces have entered Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv after failing in their overnight efforts to seize control of the capital city of Kyiv - as Ukraine's president today said his country were ready for peace talks.

Footage shared on social media Sunday morning showed Putin's army trucks rolling through the city of 1.41 million people, which sits in Eastern Ukraine close to the border with Russia.

Soldiers were also seen marching through Kharkiv on foot, with a very dramatic clip showing Russians slowly advancing along a road before running and firing their guns as Ukrainians opened fire on them.

Another clip shared online shows an army vehicle said to belong to the Russians ablaze, with locals saying it had been torched by Ukrainians seeking to defend their city.

Oleh Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said Ukrainian forces are fighting Russian troops in the city and asked civilians not to leave their homes.

Meanwhile, the UK's Ministry of Defence released its latest intelligence update, saying there had been an 'intensive' exchange of rocket artillery in the city, followed by 'heavy fighting' between Ukrainian and Russian forces. It said fighting in the capital Kyiv had been 'less intense' than previous nights.

The breach of Ukraine's defenses came hours after Russia was dealt a significant blow when a column of Chechen special forces sent to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were blown up by locals just two days into their mission.

The armed group - famed for their barbaric violence and human rights abuses - are said to have been obliterated after their convoy of 56 tanks was blown to smithereens near Hostomel, just northeast of Kyiv, by Ukrainian missile fire on the second day of the Chechens' deployment. It is unclear how many died - but the number is likely to run into the hundreds.

Their deaths were reported by The Kyiv Independent news outlet as officials in Kyiv revealed that they'd managed to maintain control of Ukraine's capital city throughout combat on Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

Chechen general Magomed Tushaev was one of 56 highly-feared elite soldiers blown up by Ukraine after they joined the Russian invasion with their sights set on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 

First Deputy Chairman of Kyiv City State Administration Mykola Povoroznyk said: 'The situation in Kyiv is calm, the capital is fully controlled by the Ukrainian army and the terror defense. At night there were several clashes with sabotage group.'

But Russian forces were seen entering Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv on Sunday morning. Footage shared on social media showed Russian tanks and trucks rolling through the city, which sits in eastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border, with gunshots also heard ringing out.

Other videos shared online showed Russian troops walking in to the city of 1.419 million people on foot, as well as an army truck said to be Russian consumed by flames.

Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko, meanwhile, said their airforce had shot down a missile aimed at the capital Kyiv, by a plane that flew in from Russian ally Belarus.

But while fighting raged in the north, Russian forces said they had successfully blocked Kherson and Berdyansk in the south, effectively opening up a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula - which it annexed in 2014.

Among the Chechens said to have been wiped out was general Magomed Tushaev. He was commander of the 141th motorized national guard brigade - Chechen head of state Ramzan Kadyrov's elite force.

Tushaev had also been pictured with Kadyrov, in a measure of his importance to the Chechen regime, which shot to notoriety in the west for hunting down, torturing and killing gay men.

Kadyrov is even believed to have visited his doomed squadron in a Ukrainian forest before their alleged deaths.

The terror squadron's reported killings are a crushing psychological blow for Vladimir Putin's stalled efforts to conquer Ukraine. The Russian premiere had dispatched the group to capture or kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, knowing full well that the fighters' brutal reputation would strike further fear into the hearts of besieged Ukrainians.

Each fighter had been given a deck of cards complete with photos of Ukrainian officials they'd been told to target.

But Zelensky remains standing, and has become a global hero for his brave dispatches from the front line - while his would-be assassins' reported killings have brought huge disgrace and widespread grief to Chechnya.

Putin is said to be growing increasingly angry by his stalled efforts to conquer Ukraine. His fire and manpower vastly outnumbers that of Ukraine, and it is widely believed that Russia will eventually conquer its neighbor.

But the surprisingly effective defense being mounted by the smaller nation has badly tarnished Russian military prestige, with the Kremlin still a way-off their objective of seizing the capital of Kyiv and installing its own government.

Today, as Russia marked special forces day, he thanked soldiers for 'heroically fulfilling their military duty' in Ukraine. But he remained insistent that his armies were providing assistance to the 'people's republics of Donbas' - referring to two rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine that Russia recognised as independent states ahead of its invasion - despite conflicts taking place in cities outside the region such as Kyiv and Kharkiv.

'I want to thank the command, the personnel of the special operations forces, veterans of the special forces units for their loyalty to the oath, for their impeccable service in the name of the people of Russia and our great motherland,' he said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's defence ministry today appealed for foreigners to come forward to join its armed forces and fight back Putin's army, with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine urging people to contact his department. 'Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin too,' he said in a Twitter post this morning.

Today, as the fighting continued, The Kremlin announced that a Russian delegation had arrived in the Belarusian city of Homel for talks with Ukrainian officials. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the delegation includes military officials and diplomats.

'The Russian delegation is ready for talks, and we are now waiting for the Ukrainians,' he said.

However, while Zelensky said that while said the Ukraine was ready for peace talks, he said they would not be taking place in Belarus - which was a staging ground for Russia troops prior to the invasion.

In a televised address, Zelensky, standing beside a Ukrainian flag dressed in an army green t-shirt and jumper, said: 'If there had been no aggressive action from your territory, we could talk in Minsk... other cities can be used as the venue for talks.

'Of course we want peace, we want to meet, we want the war to end. Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku - we've offered them to the Russians.

'Any other city would suit us, too - in a country, from whose territory missiles are not launched at us. This is the only way negotiations can be honest and can really end the war.'

With Ukraine's military putting up a staunch defence, Putin's forces are also reportedly being bogged down by poor planning and ineffective coordination. Many units are reportedly operating without the protection of air cover.

With Russia's invasion stalling three days in, UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey, writing in The Telegraph, warned Putin's days 'will surely be numbered' if he fails in his ambition to take Kyiv.

'Progress to Kyiv has been much slower than they'd expected, they were unable to take key cities early and now must try to...

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