The Latest Breaking News from Kharkiv

Moscow signalled on Friday it was scaling back its ambitions in Ukraine to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists in the East as Ukrainian forces went on the offensive to recapture towns outside the capital Kyiv.

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES: A pharmacist from Kharkiv in the east of Ukraine agreed for a photo of her severely scarred face to be shared "to show the world" the results of Russian shelling

LVIV, Ukraine — The war in Ukraine entered its second month Thursday with Ukrainian military forces fending off Russian ground advances in major cities even as deadly bombings continued to worsen the country’s humanitarian crisis.

KHARKIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an impassioned appeal to President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders for more aid Thursday as the war ravaging his country entered its second month with more bombing by Russian forces and civilian suffering in besieged cities.

In our heroic but heavily damaged city we’ve become somewhat defiantly complacent. I’ve even just spent my third night in my own flat instead of an air raid shelter.

Around 100 young Ukrainian students of circus arts fled their country as Russian bombings made conditions there too dangerous to remain

Nkateko Muyimane and six fellow African students hid in a subway while Russian shells pounded Kharkiv, before fleeing on a train to Budapest they very nearly failed to board.

Sequential urban sieges are brutally effective, but ensure lasting hatred and make long-term success unlikely.

Russia’s failure to score a quick victory has led to a grimmer phase of the war, and much still hangs in the balance