Explosions over Kyiv as Ukraine faces Russian advance

 

 

Missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Friday as Russian forces pressed their advance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with the international community to do more, saying the sanctions announced so far were not enough.

Air raid sirens wailed over the city of three million people, where some were sheltering in underground metro stations, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion that has shocked the world. A Ukrainian official said a Russian plane had been shot down and crashed into a building.

A senior Ukrainian official said Russian forces would enter areas just outside of Kyiv later on Friday and that Ukrainian troops were defending positions on four fronts, despite being outnumbered.

An estimated 100,000 people fled as explosions and gunfire rocked major cities in Ukraine. Dozens have been reported killed. Russian troops seized Chornobyl, the former nuclear power plant north of Kyiv, as they advanced on the city from Belarus.

A senior Ukrainian defence official warned that Russian forces would enter areas just outside the capital later on Friday after officials said Kyiv and other locations had been struck by Russian missiles in the early hours of the morning. Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar added that Ukrainian army units were defending positions on four fronts despite being outnumbered.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials say Russia aims to capture Kyiv and topple the government, which Putin regards as a puppet of the United States.

'Stop the enemy wherever you see it'

Zelensky, who in a statement posted online talked about the terrible explosions over Kyiv, said he understood Russian troops were coming for him but vowed to stay in the city.

"[The] enemy has marked me down as the No. 1 target," Zelensky said in a video message. "My family is the No. 2 target. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state.

"I will stay in the capital. My family is also in Ukraine."

In his remarks, the Ukrainian leader warned that military and civilians were under Russian attack. He urged citizens to help one another and "stop the enemy wherever you see it."

Ukraine, he said, is defending its country alone with powerful forces watching from a distance.

"Did yesterday's sanctions convince Russia? We hear in our sky and see on our earth that this is not enough," the president said. "Foreign troops are still trying to become more active in our territory."

Asked if he was worried about Zelensky's safety, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS: "To the best of my knowledge, President Zelensky remains in Ukraine at his post, and of course we're concerned for the safety of all of our friends in Ukraine — government officials and others."

Russia launched its invasion by land, air and sea on Thursday following a declaration of war by Putin, in the biggest attack on a European state since the Second World War.

Putin says Russia is carrying out "a special military operation" to stop the Ukrainian government from committing "genocide" — an accusation the West calls a baseless fabrication. He says Ukraine is an illegitimate state whose lands historically belong to Russia, a view which Ukrainians see as an attempt to erase their more than 1,000 year history.

Putin's full aims remain obscure. He has said he does not plan a military occupation, only to disarm Ukraine and remove its leaders. But having told Ukrainians their state is illegitimate, it is hard to see how he could simply impose a new leader and withdraw. Russia has floated no name of a figure it would regard as acceptable and none has come forward.

Britain said Moscow's aim was to conquer all of Ukraine, and its military had failed to meet its main objectives on the first day because it failed to anticipate Ukrainians would resist.

"It's definitely our view that the Russians intend to invade the whole of Ukraine," Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News.

"Contrary to great Russian claims — and indeed President Putin's sort of vision that somehow the Ukrainians would be liberated and would be flocking to his cause — he's got that completely wrong, and the Russian army has failed to deliver, on Day 1, its main objective."

A democratic nation of 44 million people, Ukraine voted for independence at the fall of the Soviet Union and has recently stepped up efforts to join the NATO military alliance and the European Union, aspirations that infuriate Moscow.

Russia faces sweeping sanctions, trade limits

Western countries unveiled financial sanctions on Moscow billed as far stronger than earlier measures, including blacklisting its banks and banning technology imports. However, they stopped short of forcing Russia out of the SWIFT system for international bank payments, drawing strong words from Kyiv, which says the most serious steps should be taken now.

The UN Security Council will vote on Friday on a draft resolution that would condemn the invasion and require Russia's immediate withdrawal, though Russia is certain to veto it.

China, which signed a friendship treaty with Russia three weeks ago, has refused to describe Moscow's actions as an invasion.

Russia has prepared a package of retaliatory sanctions, the TASS news agency reported.

Russia is one of the world's biggest energy producers, and both it and Ukraine are among the top exporters of grain. War and sanctions will disrupt economies. Oil and grain prices have soared. Share markets around the world, many of which plunged on Thursday at news of the outbreak of war, were mainly rebounding on Friday.

What's happening on the ground?