LVIV, Ukraine — Russian forces stepped up overnight shelling of Ukrainian cities Monday in the country’s center, north and south, a Ukrainian official said, as a second attempt to evacuate civilians from besieged cities collapsed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shifted blame for the war to Ukraine and said Moscow’s invasion could be halted “only if Kyiv ceases hostilities.”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said on television that the outskirts of Kyiv, Chernihiv in the north, Mykolaiv in the south, and Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, faced intense shelling.
