BREAKING: The alarming step came as street fighting broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city and Russian troops squeezed strategic ports in the country's south, advances that appeared to mark a new phase of Russia's invasion.
, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces put on high alert Sunday in response to what he called"aggressive statements" by leading NATO powers.
Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Putin told his defense minister and the chief of the military's General Staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a"special regime of combat duty." If Putin is arming or otherwise raising the nuclear combat readiness of his bombers, or if he is ordering more ballistic missile submarines to sea, then the United States might feel compelled to respond in kind, according to Hans Kristensen, a nuclear analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. That would mark a worrisome escalation and a potential crisis, he said.
Following its gains to the east in the city of Kharkiv and multiple ports, Russia sent a delegation to Belarus for peace talks with Ukraine, according to the Kremlin. Zelensky suggested other locations, saying his country was unwilling to meet in Belarus because it served as a staging ground for the invasion.
Huge explosions lit up the sky early Sunday near Kyiv, where terrified residents hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. Cutting Ukraine's access to its sea ports would deal a major blow to the country's economy. It also could allow Moscow to build a land corridor to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and until now was connected to Russia by a 19-kilometer 12-mile bridge, the longest bridge in Europe which opened in 2018.
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