The first Russian military units have entered Kyiv, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry says, as the second day of Moscow’s invasion brought with it renewed airstrikes and fighting along various battle lines across Ukraine.
Russian “saboteurs” were in the Obolon district in the north of the capital, the ministry announced via Facebook on Friday.
The ministry called on locals to prepare petrol bombs for use in combat and to report sightings of Russian military equipment.
Residents should not leave their homes, the ministry said.
Earlier in the day, the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces reported that the nation’s troops were putting up strong resistance to “Russian occupiers” in Dymer and Ivankiv, settlements northwest of the city.
Airborne assault troops had reportedly stopped “overwhelming enemy forces” on the border of the Teteriv River. The bridge across the river was destroyed, according to a statement.
A dpa reporter said sirens were wailing again in Kyiv as the city’s 2.8 million residents were told to take shelter. Thousands of people were hunkering down in metro stations.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Friday that Kyiv had suffered “horrific” Russian strikes overnight.
“Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941, when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one,” Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.
News agency UNIAN reported that several explosions shook Kyiv in the early hours of Friday, with fires breaking out at a multi-storey residential building on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river after it was hit.
Debris from a missile hit the area, the city administration said on Telegram. Three people were injured, one of them critically, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a video shared on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainian forces there managed to shoot down a Russian aircraft, an advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister wrote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian forces of targeting the civilian population.
Earlier, he denied reports that he had left Kiev, vowing to stay in the capital with his fellow citizens.
According to Zelensky, 137 Ukrainian soldiers were killed on the first day and 316 injured. Information on civilian casualties remains scarce.
Zelensky has earlier declared martial law throughout the country for an initial period of 30 days and cut diplomatic ties with Russia, and signed a general military mobilisation order.
Both Kyiv and Washington have said that Russia’s objective is to overthrow the Ukrainian government.
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