Homes and buildings were on fire and widespread damage and impact craters were seen throughout the town of Moschun, northwest of Kyiv, Maxar said. Reuters could not independently verify the images.

Britain’s defence ministry said Russia appeared to be gearing up for new attacks in the coming days that would probably include operations against Kyiv.

However, the Russian ground forces were still making only limited progress, hampered by logistical problems and Ukrainian resistance, it said in its intelligence update.

The Ukrainian general staff said Russian forces were regrouping after taking heavy losses. Ukrainian troops had pushed some back to “unfavourable positions” near the Belarus border to the rear of the main Russian column, it said.

Kyiv’s mayor, former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, said the capital had enough essential supplies to last a couple of weeks. Supply lines remained open for now.

Diamonds, caviar, vodka off the menu

On the economic and political front, the US and its allies moved to further isolate and sanction the Kremlin. President Joe Biden announced the US will dramatically downgrade its trade status with Russia and also ban imports of Russian caviar, alcohol and diamonds. The move to revoke Russia’s “most favoured nation” status was taken in coordination with the European Union and Group of Seven countries.

“The free world is coming together to confront Putin,” Biden said.

The United States also accused Russia of violating nuclear safety principles, saying it was concerned by “continued Russian firing on nuclear facilities” in Ukraine but added that there were no signs detected yet of any radiological release.

“We are monitoring reports of damage to a research facility in Kharkiv. Near-term safety risk is low, but the continued Russian firing on nuclear facilities must cease”, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Friday on Twitter.

Ugly already, but getting worse

On the ground, the Kremlin’s forces appeared to be trying to regroup and regain momentum after encountering heavier losses and stiffer resistance than anticipated over the past two weeks. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russia is trying to “re-set and re-posture” its troops, gearing up for operations against Kyiv.

The southern port city of Mykolayiv endured heavy bombardment through the night, according to the regional governor, as Ukrainian forces fought back a Russian advance.

“It’s ugly already, but it’s going to get worse,” said Nick Reynolds, a warfare analyst at Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

With the invasion in its 16th day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there had been “certain positive developments” in Russia-Ukraine talks, but gave no details.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had “reached a strategic turning point,” though he did not elaborate.

“It’s impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it,” he said via video from Kyiv.

A total of 7,144 people were evacuated from four Ukrainian cities on Friday, Ukraine time, Zelensky said in a televised address, a sharply lower number than managed to leave in each of the two previous days.

So far, the Russians have made the biggest advances on cities in the east and south — including in Mariupol, the heavily bombarded seaport where civilians scrounged for food and fuel amid a harrowing 10-day-old siege — while struggling in the north and around Kyiv.

Mariupol maternity hospital victim gives birth

The pregnant woman who was photographed fleeing the maternity hospital in her pyjamas, beauty blogger Mariana Vishegirskaya, has given birth to a baby girl after surviving the attack.

Both mother and child are healthy, but remain in the encircled city of Mariupol near the Black Sea.

Taken to another hospital, Vishegirskaya and another woman who escaped the bombing have since given birth, their babies delivered to the sound of shellfire. A strike hit the new site where they were taken, too.

Facing worldwide condemnation, Russian officials made several false claims — that the hospital had been taken over by far-right Ukrainian forces to use as a base and emptied of patients and nurses.

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Mariupol’s council released a statement saying that at least 1582 civilians had so far been killed during Russia’s shelling and a 12-day blockade of the city.

“We will never forget and will never forgive this crime against humanity,” the council said.

Separately, the UN human rights office said it had received “credible reports” of several cases of Russian forces using cluster munitions in populated areas in Ukraine, adding that indiscriminate use of such weapons might amount to war crimes.

Elsewhere, Ukraine’s armed forces and its Interior Minister said Russian aircraft had fired into Belarus in a “false flag” operation designed to broaden the war and drag that country into the conflict.

The Ukrainian air force said that at 2.30pm local time, Russian planes had left an airfield in Belarus and crossed into Ukrainian airspace before firing back on the village of Kopani. Two other Belarusian settlements were also targeted, it said.

‘Strategic turning point’: Zelensky

Zelensky on Friday accused Russia of relying on conscripts, reservists and Syrian mercenaries to prop up its invasion force after Putin gave the green light for the deployment of up to 16,000 “volunteers” from the Middle East

Zelensky said Ukraine was fighting an enemy that “collects reservists and conscripts from all over Russia to throw them into the hell of war, who came up with the idea of bringing in mercenaries against our people ... thugs from Syria.”

Putin, at a meeting with Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, slammed Ukraine’s own use of foreign fighters.

“As for the gathering of mercenaries from all over the world and sending them to Ukraine, we see the Western sponsors of Ukraine and the regime do not hide it,” Putin said. “They do it openly, dismissing all norms of international law.”

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In the same meetings, Putin maintained his country could thrive despite its increasing isolation on the world stage.

The Russian President specifically cited the former Soviet Union as proof of the nation’s grit, according to a readout by the Kremlin of a Friday meeting.

“The Soviet Union did live the entire time under the conditions of sanctions; it developed and achieved colossal successes,” he was reported as saying.

Reuters, AP, Bloomberg