UNDER SIEGE
Russia seizes Ukrainian town with naval base as tanks roll in and ‘armed troops’ take over buildings
RUSSIAN troops have reportedly seized a Ukrainian town with a naval base as tanks rolled in and armed soldiers took over buildings.
As Vladimir Putin's army continues their stumbling but deadly assault on Ukraine, Russian forces are said to have taken control of Berdyansk - a port city of 100,000 on the Azov Sea coast.
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Oleksandr Svidlo, acting mayor of the town close to the Crimea peninsula, confirmed on Facebook that troops had taken over on Sunday, as footage showed tanks moving in.
"A few hours ago, you and I witnessed how heavy military equipment and armed soldiers entered the city and began advancing throughout our hometown," he said.
"As soon as I learned about that, I tried to inform all the residents of the city so that you have the opportunity to hide in shelters."
Svidlo - an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office - said "armed soldiers" entered the executive committee building and introduced themselves as soldiers from the Russian army.
"They informed us that all administrative buildings were under their control and that they were taking control of the executive committee building," he added.
"Under the control of armed men, I consider this proposal unacceptable, so we, as all members of the operational headquarters, left the building of the executive committee.
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"Today Berdyansk was on the line of fire. I don't know what tomorrow will be like, but I think tonight will be very, very hard."
It comes after Putin's forces failed to take the country’s second city Kharkiv, where The Sun witnessed them being beaten back with tanks and rockets.
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Panic had spread through the city’s 1.4million residents when officials ordered a lockdown at dawn.
The authorities confirmed that invading forces were inside the metropolis, which lies just 20 miles from the Russian border.
Russian units launched a pincer move into the city with convoys of Tiger armoured vehicles following all-night shelling by Grad rockets, tank shells and Smerch missiles had failed to crush Ukraine’s courageous forces.
Meanwhile, the world's largest aircraft has reportedly been destroyed by Russian troops - with the restoration set to cost £2.2billion.
Ukrainian officials say the huge plane - the only one of its kind - was parked at an airfield near Kyiv when it was struck by "Russian occupants".
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Meanwhile, peace talks are due to be held between Ukraine and Russia, Zelenskyy confirmed today - despite Putin putting his nuclear forces on high alert.
Diplomats from Kyiv and Moscow are set to meet "without preconditions" near the Prypyat River on the Belarusian border as Putin's invasion rumbles on for the fourth day.
But Zelenskyy admitted he's not confident of a positive resolution from the talks, saying: "I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try, so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war."
It comes after Putin put his nuclear forces on high alert just after warning the West "may face the greatest consequences in history".
The Russian tyrant is said to be "furious" he's not been able to subdue Ukraine and lashed out at NATO for its "unfriendly measures" he says forced him into the chilling nuclear gamble.
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The move means Putin has ordered the world's largest stockpile of nuclear warheads prepared for launched readiness - raising the terrifying possibility the crisis and a miscalculation could spill over into nuclear war.
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