KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces continued to batter targets in Ukraine on Tuesday, striking government buildings, a television tower and the country’s main Holocaust memorial, and assembling a 40-mile-long column of tanks, artillery and other military vehicles outside the capital, Kyiv, in what could be a sign of an imminent assault.
The specter of more violence and the scenes of civilians huddled in bomb shelters or pouring across Ukraine’s western borders come as Russia finds itself increasingly isolated on the world stage, with sanctions inflicting immediate damage to its economy and currency. The United Nations’ refugee agency reported that 660,000 people have fled Ukraine in the last six days — a rate that puts the situation on track to “become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century,” agency spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said in Geneva.
Ukrainian defense officials said at least five people were killed in Kyiv when Russian bombs hit the nation’s main TV tower, disrupting programming. They also reported a “powerful missile attack” near the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial, which marks the site where nearly 34,000 Jews were killed within 48 hours in 1941 when the city was under Nazi occupation.
