On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Moscow would be willing to undertake talks with Kyiv if Ukraine’s military put down its armaments first.
He also stated that “neo-Nazis” should not be allowed to rule Ukraine.
Following President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of war, Russia started an invasion by land, air, and sea on Thursday, the largest attack on a European state since World War II.
After unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and pouring in troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that might rewrite the global post-Cold War security system, Russia pushed its invasion of Ukraine to the outskirts of Kyiv on Friday.
Explosions erupted in Kyiv before dawn, and gunfire was reported in several locations, as Western leaders convened an emergency meeting and Ukraine’s president pleaded for international assistance to fend off an attack that could topple his democratically elected government, result in massive casualties, and cause global economic damage.
The military said Friday that a group of Russian spies and saboteurs was seen in a district on the outskirts of Kyiv, and police told people not to exit a subway station in the city center because there was gunfire in the area, among the signs that the Ukrainian capital was becoming increasingly threatened. Soldiers set up defensive positions at bridges and armored vehicles moved along the streets in other parts of the capital, while many inhabitants stood uncomfortably at the doors of their apartment buildings.
Kyiv “may well be under siege,” according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in what US officials fear is a brazen attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to impose his own dictatorship.
The onslaught, which the US and its Western allies have been anticipating for weeks, amounts to Europe’s largest ground combat since World War II. The autocratic Putin launched his attack on the country, which has steadily moved toward the democratic West and away from Moscow’s authority, after repeatedly denying ambitions to invade.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose hold on power is slipping, has called to world leaders for tougher sanctions than those imposed by Western partners, as well as defense support.
“If you don’t help us now, if you don’t offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, war will come knocking on your door tomorrow,” claimed the leader, who severed diplomatic ties with Moscow, declared martial law, and ordered a complete military mobilization.
Zelenskyy stated that he is the invading Russians’ No. 1 target, but that he intends to remain in Kyiv. The Ukrainian attended a meeting of European Union leaders via video link from what appeared to be some type of bunker, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said early Friday.
Guests of a hotel in the city center were escorted to an improvised basement bunker stocked with heaps of beds and bottles of water as air raid sirens sounded early Friday in the capital. The guests were served tea and cookies by workers who were all local university students. Some individuals went outside to smoke or enjoy some fresh air in a courtyard.
“We’re all terrified and concerned.” Lucy Vashaka, 20, one of the workers, said, “We don’t know what to do then, what’s going to happen in a few days.”
The invasion began early Thursday with a series of missile strikes on cities and military posts, followed by a multi-pronged foot assault that drew troops from multiple places in the east, as well as Crimea’s southern region, which Russia annexed in 2014, and Belarus’s north.
Following Ukrainian officials’ announcement that they had lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power station, which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, Russia stated on Friday that it was working with the Ukrainians to safeguard the plant. From the Ukrainian side, there was no evidence of such cooperation.
According to Zelenskyy, 137 “heroes” were killed, including 10 military commanders, while one of his advisers estimated that nearly 400 Russian troops were killed. There has been no official tally of casualties from Moscow. Neither claim could be verified independently.
Thousands of people hurried underground as darkness fell, crowding Kyiv’s subway stations, fearful of a Russian strike on the capital city.
It was almost pleasant at times. Dinner was served to the families. The kids were having fun. Adults conversed. People packed sleeping bags, dogs, and crossword puzzles to help pass the time and prepare for the long night ahead.
“No one expected this battle to start and for them to take Kyiv by force,” Anton Mironov remarked as he waited out the night in one of the ancient Soviet metro stations. “I’m mostly exhausted.” None of it feels real.
Many of those who slept in makeshift shelters awoke to a comparatively peaceful city in the early hours of Friday. Highways were busy with traffic and cars, as well as military columns. The lines at the gas stations had vanished the day before.
It was difficult to determine exactly what was going on, with social media magnifying a flood of military claims and counter-claims.
Although Russia claimed it was not targeting cities, journalists reported seeing wreckage in numerous civilian areas, and Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko stated a rocket hit a multistory apartment building in the city on Friday, causing a fire. Meanwhile, a school building was hit by Ukrainian shelling, according to the mayor of a city in the rebel-controlled east.
On Friday, the Ukrainian military reported a heavy battle in Ivankiv, some 60 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Kyiv, as Russian soldiers attempted to push from the north on the capital. Russian troops also invaded Sumy, a city near the Russian border that stands on a route running east to Kyiv.
Later some worried Europeans speculated about a new world war, the United States and its NATO allies have shown no signs of sending troops into Ukraine, fearing a bigger confrontation. NATO countries in Eastern Europe were bolstered as a precaution, and Biden said the US was sending more troops to Germany to bolster NATO.
Ukrainians were advised to take cover and not panic.
“I didn’t think it would happen until the very last moment.” “I just pushed these ideas aside,” Anna Dovnya, a horrified civilian in Kyiv, said as she saw soldiers and police retrieve shrapnel from an exploding shell. “We’ve lost all hope. There are also reports of some forces approaching from a considerably closer distance.
“Today will be the most difficult day.” On Telegram, Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko warned that the enemy’s plan is to break through with tank columns from the side of Ivankiv and Chernihiv to Kyiv.
According to presidential adviser Myhailo Podolyak, Russian forces gained control of the now-decommissioned Chernobyl plant and its surrounding exclusion zone a few hours after the assault began.
Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of the takeover, which said that “no injuries or destruction at the industrial facility” had occurred.
The violence rattled global financial markets, sending stocks plunging and oil prices soaring amid fears of skyrocketing heating costs and food prices. Many governments prepared further sanctions in response to the condemnation, which came not only from the US and Europe, but also from South Korea, Australia, and others. Even sympathetic leaders like Viktor Orban of Hungary tried to distance themselves from Putin.
President Joe Biden announced further sanctions against Russian banks, billionaires, state-controlled companies, and high-tech sectors, claiming that Putin “chose this conflict” and displayed a “sinister” worldview in which nations grab what they want by force. He went on to say that safeguards were put in place to avoid disrupting global energy markets. Oil and natural gas exports from Russia are critical energy sources for Europe.
Biden was scheduled to meet with fellow NATO leaders on Friday morning for a “special virtual meeting” to discuss Ukraine, according to the White House.
Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, said he wanted to cut Russia off from the United Kingdom’s financial markets as he announced sanctions that included freezing the assets of all large Russian banks and a plan to prevent Russian companies and the Kremlin from raising funds on British exchanges.
“We now know Putin for what he is – a bloodstained aggressor who believes in imperial conquest,” Johnson added.
Zelenskyy asked the US and the rest of the world to go even further and cut Russia off from the SWIFT system, which connects thousands of banks around the world. The White House has been hesitant to do so, fearful that it will wreak havoc on Europe’s and the West’s economies.
