Windows in apartment blocks in Kharkiv shaking due to constant blasts
Darpan News Desk IANS, 24 Feb, 2022 12:15 PM
New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) Residents of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, said on Thursday that windows in apartment blocks were shaking from constant blasts as the Ukrainian military and Russian forces exchanged shellfire, BBC reported.
Clashes have also been taking place around the capital Kiev in the north and the Black Sea port cities of Odesa and Mariupol in the south, the report said.
Air strikes from Russia have been carried out on Ukrainian military bases and airports, with fierce fighting reported around a key airport near Kiev.
The Ukrainian military claims to have shot down at least six Russian aircraft, while Russia claims to have destroyed more than 70 military targets in Ukraine, BBC reported.
Many Ukrainians are seeking shelter or trying to leave larger cities around the country, including thousands seen fleeing Kiev.
Soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, videos and images claiming to be from the conflict zones began trending on major social networks.
While there are many genuine footage, some viral clips racking up hundreds of thousands of views show events from past conflicts or old military exercises. Many of these seem to coming from users posting content without checking, BBC reported.
The BBC has seen videos of the 2014 Russia-Ukraine war, the 2011 Libyan war and the 2020 Beirut explosions going viral.
In one example, a former Ukrainian ambassador to the US tweeted a video which he claimed was taken in Mariupol, but a version of the same clip was uploaded on TikTok weeks ago, apparently showing a lightning hitting a power station, the report said.
Another viral video claiming to show Russian military paratroopers landing in Ukraine first appeared online in 2016, BBC reported.
A team from the University of South Australia (UniSA), led by an Indian-origin researcher, have begun developing a drone to monitor patients with infectious respiratory conditions including the novel coronavirus.
The California-based Sikh Coalition has prepared COVID-19 guidelines in Punjabi to enable the about 500,000 Sikhs living in America to better understand the pandemic, a media report said.
Displaying uncharacteristic political solidarity, the US Congress has voted the largest ever economic stimulus package worth about $2 trillion to rescue the nation from the clutches of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thousands of people across the UK opened their doors and windows to applaud medical workers of the country's National Health Services (NHS) dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, a media report said on Friday.
The UK's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have left Canada amid the coronavirus pandemic and moved permanently to California, according to a media report.
Asked at his briefing on Thursday specifically if Sikhs and Hindus who are are under attack there should be given asylum in India, he said, "The asylum regime, the refugee regime must be respected the world over."
