The Russian bombing of Kharkiv has resulted in "dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded Ukrainian citizens," the Ukrainian general staff tweeted on Monday.
Located on the northeastern side of Ukraine, Kharkiv is home to 1.5 million people, and has seen heavy fighting since the conflict began, the Washington Examiner reports.
When Russian troops entered the city on Sunday, they were repelled by Ukrainian forces, and Russian troops across the city were surrendering, Ukrainian officials said.
"Control over Kharkiv is completely ours!" Oleg Sinegubov, the city's regional governor, wrote in a post on Facebook. "The Armed Forces, the National Police, and the Defense Forces are working, and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy."
"Directly in Kharkiv, throwing enemy vehicles in the middle of the road, whole groups of 5-10 people surrender to Ukrainian troops," Sinegubov continued. "As soon as they see at least one representative of the Armed Forces, they surrender."
Ukrainian officials reportedly warned residents to cover windows with damp cloth to provide some smoke protection, following the Russian bombing of a nearby natural gas pipeline on Saturday.
A senior U.S. defense official told Reuters that the Russians could be adopting a "siege mentality," due to their inability thus far to capture key Ukrainian cities.
"It appears that they are adopting a siege mentality, which any student of military tactics and strategy will tell you, when you adopt siege tactics, it increases the likelihood of collateral damage," the official said.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted that images of Kharkiv would "shock and outrage the world," after reports that Russia used cluster munitions on the city, which have been condemned and banned in 121 countries, according to the Examiner.
As of Sunday, there have been 352 civilian casualties, including 14 children, with hundreds more wounded, according to Ukraine's Ministry of the Interior.
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