Russian military forces escalated attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine's largest cities Wednesday as the nation's leaders pledged to repel the invaders and the citizenry joined the military effort to defend their battered country.

Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly voted 141-5, with 35 abstentions, to demand Russia halt the war. The vote came after the 193-member assembly convened its first emergency session in a quarter century.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a televised address to the nation one week into the hostilities, rallied his people and praised them for their resolve.

“During this time, we have truly become one. We forgave each other. We started loving each other. We help each other. We are worried for each other," Zelenskyy said.

Outside Kyiv, an enormous Russian military convoy -- estimated at 40 miles -- continues to encounter strong Ukrainian resistance and supply problems, stalling its progress toward the capital city.

In the besieged northeastern city of Kharkiv, Mayor Igor Terekhov said the unrelenting assault has caused "massive destruction." A rocket strike hit the regional police headquarters, killing four people and wounding several others,” Ukraine Emergency Services said.

Food, medicine and other supplies were being distributed at central locations and by trucks rolling through the city of 1.5 million residents, the mayor said. Efforts were underway to provide heat to lost utilities in the bombing as temperatures dip toward freezing.

"Kharkiv is holding on and will hold on. Today the main goal of our enemy is to sow panic and devastation, but Kharkiv will always stand," Terekhov said on Ukrainian TV.

Sixty miles south of Kharkiv, Russian armored vehicles rolled into Balakliya, a town of about 30,000 people. City leaders said they would not cooperate with the occupying forces, the Ukraine government said.

In Melitopol, a city of 150,000 people in the southeast, thousands of people took to the streets to stop the Russian occupation of the city, the government said.

Russia claimed to have taken control of Kherson, a southern Ukraine city of almost 300,000. Kherson Mayor Igor Nikolayev, however, denied the claim.

(USA Today)

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