After a night of explosions and street fighting forced Kyiv citizens to seek safety underground, Russian troops advanced on Ukraine’s capital on Saturday. The country’s leader turned down an American invitation to go, insisting on staying. “The battle has begun,” stated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It was unclear how far Russian troops had moved at the time. Officials in Ukraine reported some success in repelling attacks, but combat continued near the capital. Small Russian battalions appeared to be attempting to clear a path for the major forces, according to skirmishes reported on the outskirts of the city.
Although Russia says that its attack on Ukraine is primarily directed at military targets, civilians have been killed and maimed in Europe’s largest ground battle since WWII.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a missile hit a high-rise apartment building near one of Kyiv’s two passenger airports in the city’s southwestern suburbs, leaving a jagged crater of damaged flats spanning several floors. Six civilians were hurt, according to a rescue worker.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already fled their homes as a result of the violence. More than 120,000 Ukrainians have fled to Poland, Moldova, and other neighboring countries, according to UN officials.
The street fighting on Saturday came after two days of huge air and missile strikes as Russian troops surged in from the north, east, and south. Hundreds of people were killed or injured as the assault wreaked havoc on bridges, schools, and residential areas.
In the haze of conflict, it was difficult to tell how much of Ukraine was still under Ukrainian control and how much had been seized by Russian soldiers. The Russian defense ministry stated that the Russian military had taken full control of Melitopol, roughly 22 miles (35 kilometers) inland from the Azov Seashore, and that Russia-backed rebels had achieved substantial victories in Donbas’ eastern sector.
Ukrainian and Western officials, on the other hand, claim that Ukrainian soldiers have slowed Russia’s advance. A Russian missile was shot down before dawn Saturday as it headed for the dam of the huge water reservoir that serves Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Western authorities, is hell-bent on overthrowing Ukraine’s government and replacing it with his own administration. The invasion was Putin’s most daring attempt yet to reshape Europe’s geography and reassert Moscow’s Cold War-era clout. It sparked increased international efforts to stop the invasion, including sanctions on Putin directly.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy reiterated his promise that the country’s military would repel the Russian invasion. He claimed in a defiant video shot on downtown Kyiv Street that he would stay in the city and that reports that the Ukrainian military would lay down its arms were false.
“We’re not going to lay down our arms.” “We will defend the country,” stated Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. “Our weapon is our truth, and our fact is that our land, our country, and our children are at stake.” And we’ll defend everything.”
Later Saturday, Zelenskyy declared in a second video that Moscow’s plot to capture the capital and install a puppet administration had failed. He accused Russian forces of striking civilian areas and infrastructure in an emotional speech.
After telling European leaders in a phone call on Thursday that he was Russia’s No. 1 target and that they might not see him alive again, the president’s whereabouts were kept a secret.
According to a senior American intelligence officer with firsthand knowledge of the conversation, the US administration advised Zelenskyy to escape Kyiv early Saturday, but he declined. The president, according to the person, said “the war is here” and that he required anti-tank munitions but “not a ride.”
Because he was not authorized to speak to the media, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Since the Russian onslaught began before daybreak Thursday, 198 people have been killed, including three children, and over 1,000 more have been injured, according to Ukraine’s health minister. It wasn’t clear if the tally included both military and civilian deaths.
Hundreds of Russians were killed in the initial days of conflict, according to Ukrainian sources. There were no casualty estimates reported by Russian officials.
If the war worsens, the United Nations believes that up to 4 million people could leave. Men of fighting age were not allowed to leave Ukraine, according to refugees arriving in the Hungarian border town of Zahony.
“My son was not permitted to attend. Vilma Sugar, 68, said, “My heart is sore, I’m shivering, I can’t settle down, they didn’t let him come.”
Residents in Kyiv were advised to seek shelter, stay away from windows, and take steps to avoid flying debris or gunfire, according to city officials. Many people slept at subway stations, basements, and subterranean parking garages.
“We’re all terrified and concerned.” Lucy Vashaka, 20, a worker at a small Kyiv hotel, said, “We don’t know what to do then, what’s going to happen in a few days.”
Fighting in the city has so far been limited to “quite isolated pockets of Russian special forces and paratroopers,” according to a British official, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey, and “the main armored columns approaching Kyiv are still some way off.”
As the invasion resonated across the world’s economy and energy sources, the US and other global powers moved to freeze Putin’s and his foreign minister’s assets on Friday, as part of stronger penalties against Russia.
Sports leagues have also tried to punish Russia, and the popular Eurovision song contest has barred Russian acts from competing in the event’s finale in Italy in May.
Russia refused to budge, vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for it to halt bombing Ukraine and evacuate its soldiers immediately. The 11-1 vote demonstrated strong opposition to Russia’s invasion of its smaller, militarily weaker neighbor, with China, India, and the United Arab Emirates abstaining.
On Saturday, a senior Russian official dismissed the wide-ranging sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States, the European Union, and other allies as a manifestation of Western “political weakness.”
The deputy president of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, warned that Moscow may respond to the penalties by withdrawing from the last surviving nuclear armaments treaty, freezing Western assets, and severing diplomatic ties with Western nations.
“Maintaining diplomatic connections is not very necessary,” Medvedev stated. “We could use binoculars and gun sights to gaze at each other.”
Meanwhile, NATO voted on Friday to move sections of its response force to the east for the first time to help protect member nations. NATO did not specify how many troops would be deployed, but it did declare that land, sea, and air power would be used.
Late Friday, US President Joe Biden signed a letter approving up to $350 million in extra security support for Ukraine, increasing the total amount of security assistance allowed for Ukraine to $1 billion in the last year. It was unclear how quickly the assistance would arrive.
The US and Western allies had been expecting the assault for weeks, and Putin had denied it for nearly as long. He claimed that by refusing to negotiate Russia’s security demands, the West had left him with no other option.
Putin has been tight-lipped about his long-term objectives for Ukraine. “We want to allow the Ukrainian people to select its own fate,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hinted. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Russia recognizes Zelenskyy as president, but declined to specify how long the Russian military intervention may extend.
On Friday, Zelenskyy proposed to negotiate on a major Putin demand: that Ukraine declares itself neutral and give up its NATO ambitions. The Kremlin said it accepted Kyiv’s offer to meet, but it appeared to be a ruse to extract concessions from Zelenskyy, rather than a move toward a diplomatic settlement.
