A BOY stares down the barrel of a smashed Russian tank in a poignant show of Ukrainian resistance.
The lad was among those checking out destroyed enemy vehicles in Kyiv even as war continued to rage in the east and south of the country.
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Russian forces – who arrived in a 50-mile column of tanks and armour – were held up by brave resistance fighters brandishing shoulder-launched weapons in late March.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky ordered wrecks to be put on display as a monument to Vladimir Putin’s failure.
Other pictures emerging from Ukraine reflected the warrior spirit of the nation as it battled for its existence – and the willingness of younger generations to continue the fight.
Camouflage-uniformed kids Andrii, 12 and six-year-old Valentyn were snapped handing each other a toy gun in a trench.
Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or any territorial concessions to Moscow on Sunday.
Ukraine’s lead negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said: “The (Russian) forces must leave the country and after that the resumption of the peace process will be possible,” adding that concessions would backfire because Russia would use the break in fighting to come back stronger.
Meanwhile, Poland’s president travelled to Kyiv to support the country’s European Union aspirations, becoming the first foreign leader to address the Ukrainian parliament since the start of the war.
Lawmakers gave a standing ovation to President Andrzej Duda, after he said that only Ukrainians could decide their future.
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In the meantime, Russia stepped up its attack in the country’s east and south, pounding the Donbas and Mykolaiv regions with airstrikes and artillery fire.
The heaviest fighting focused around the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, interior ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko told Ukrainian television on Sunday.
The Ukrainian military said that Russian forces had mounted an unsuccessful attack on Oleksandrivka, a village outside of Sievierodonetsk.
In a victory for Ukraine, an explosion on Sunday injured the Moscow-appointed mayor of the city of Enerhodar next to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
According to Russia’s RIA news agency, 48-year-old Andrei Shevchuk, is in intensive care after the hit .
A military source revealed that a Russian cruise missile was yards from causing an environmental disaster when it hit a Ukrainian chemical plant.
It exploded in a fireball and gouged a 10ft deep, 40ft wide crater just 100 yards from storage tanks at the sprawling fertiliser manufacturing plant.
About 120,000 tons of the toxic and explosive compressed liquid was stored at the facility in the southern port of Odessa.
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Help those fleeing conflict with The Sun’s Ukraine Fund
PICTURES of women and children fleeing the horror of Ukraine’s devastated towns and cities have moved Sun readers to tears.
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