Kyiv ( Ukraine) Russian full-scale war on Ukraine enters 8 days, Russian troops have claimed that it has taken control of Kherson city located in Southern part of Ukraine.

Kherson has a 300,000 population, it is the first significant urban centre of Ukraine sized by Russian troops and it could allow Russian troops to mobilise and use its launching post to push its forces further inland.

Kherson is strategically located at the mouth of the Dnieper River’s exit into the Black Sea, AFP reported.

The massive column of Russian military vehicles amassed north of Kyiv has "stalled" due to fuel and food shortages, and Ukrainian resistance.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who still stayed in the capital, giving a morale boost to his troops accused Russia of trying to "erase" Ukrainians, their country and their history.

Meanwhile, Russia has intensified its missile attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, Russian missile attacks had damaged the police and university buildings among the latest struck.

The EU is expected to rapidly approve a protection mechanism for war refugees fleeing Ukraine -- so far numbered at one million -- and to also set up a humanitarian hub in Romania, officials said Thursday.

The moves by the European Union came in parallel to its muscular sanctions on Russia imposed in successive waves over the course of the invasion, now in its eighth day.

Mariupol city council said Russia was constantly and deliberately shelling critical civilian infrastructure in the Ukrainian southern port, leaving it without water, heating, or power and preventing bringing supplies or evacuating people.

Approximately 8,000 Indians, mainly students, are still stranded in Ukraine, according to the government. India has been evacuating its citizens through special flights from Ukraine's western neighbours since February 24.

India has abstained from voting against Russia at the United Nations General Assembly, where a resolution demanding that Russia stop military operations in Ukraine was passed with 141 votes in favour. There were 35 abstentions and five votes against it