Russian troops enter Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv after failing to seize Kyiv

Russian forces have entered Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv after failing in their overnight efforts to seize control of the capital city of Kyiv - as Ukraine's president today said his country were ready for peace talks.

Footage shared on social media Sunday morning showed Putin's army trucks rolling through the city of 1.41 million people, which sits in Eastern Ukraine close to the border with Russia.

Soldiers were also seen marching through Kharkiv on foot, with a very dramatic clip showing Russians slowly advancing along a road before running and firing their guns as Ukrainians opened fire on them.

Another clip shared online shows an army vehicle said to belong to the Russians ablaze, with locals saying it had been torched by Ukrainians seeking to defend their city.

The breach of Ukraine's defenses came hours after Russia was dealt a significant blow when a column of Chechen special forces sent to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were blown up by locals just two days into their mission.

The armed group - famed for their barbaric violence and human rights abuses - are said to have been obliterated after their convoy of 56 tanks was blown to smithereens near Hostomel, just northeast of Kyiv, by Ukrainian missile fire on the second day of the Chechens' deployment. It is unclear how many died - but the number is likely to run into the hundreds.

Their deaths were reported by The Kyiv Independent news outlet as officials in Kyiv revealed that they'd managed to maintain control of Ukraine's capital city throughout combat on Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

First Deputy Chairman of Kyiv City State Administration Mykola Povoroznyk said: 'The situation in Kyiv is calm, the capital is fully controlled by the Ukrainian army and the terror defense. At night there were several clashes with sabotage group.'

But Russian forces were seen entering Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv on Sunday morning. Footage shared on social media showed Russian tanks and trucks rolling through the city, which sits in eastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border, with gunshots also heard ringing out.

Other videos shared online showed Russian troops walking in to the city of 1.419 million people on foot, as well as an army truck said to be Russian consumed by flames.  

Among the Chechens said to have been wiped out was general Magomed Tushaev. He was commander of the 141th motorized national guard brigade - Chechen head of state Ramzan Kadyrov's elite force.

Tushaev had also been pictured with Kadyrov, in a measure of his importance to the Chechen regime, which shot to notoriety in the west for hunting down, torturing and killing gay men.

Kadyrov is even believed to have visited his doomed squadron in a Ukrainian forest before their alleged deaths.

The terror squadron's reported killings are a crushing psychological blow for Vladimir Putin's stalled efforts to conquer Ukraine. The Russian premiere had dispatched the group to capture or kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, knowing full well that the fighters' brutal reputation would strike further fear into the hearts of besieged Ukrainians.

Each fighter had been given a deck of cards complete with photos of Ukrainian officials they'd been told to target.

But Zelensky remains standing, and has become a global hero for his brave dispatches from the front line - while his would-be assassins' reported killings have brought huge disgrace and widespread grief to Chechnya.

Putin is said to be growing increasingly angry by his stalled efforts to conquer Ukraine, and has not issued a public address in days.

His fire and manpower vastly outnumbers that of Ukraine, and it is widely believed that Russia will eventually conquer its neighbor.

But the surprisingly effective defense being mounted by the smaller nation has badly tarnished Russian military prestige, with the Kremlin still a way-off their objective of seizing the capital of Kyiv and installing its own government.

Today, as the fighting continued, The Kremlin announced that a Russian delegation had arrived in the Belarusian city of Homel for talks with Ukrainian officials. However, while Zelensky said that while said the Ukraine was ready for peace talks, he said they would not be taking place in Belarus - which was a staging ground for Russia troops prior to the invasion.(Daily Mail)