Russian forces have entered the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, warned of a hard night ahead
The past day has focused on the capital, Kyiv. Russian forces entered the outskirts on Friday and were threatening from the north-west and east in an attack aimed at seizing the city.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned of a difficult night ahead for the capital: “This night will be the hardest,” the Ukrainian president said in an address. “This night the enemy will be using all available means to break our resistance. This night they will launch an assault.”
Many Ukrainians are preparing to fight. City authorities have urged residents to stay home but prepare molotov cocktails for a citizen uprising against Russian fighters if they break through defensive lines. In one district they handed out rifles to any citizen who wanted to fight, and the defence ministry has opened the army to any Ukrainian citizen.
Explosions have rocked Kyiv, with residents taking cover in shelters and underground stations. A woman has reportedly given birth in one station where she had been sheltering with other residents.
The Russian defence ministry claimed its forces had taken control of the strategic Hostomel airfield to the north-west of Kyiv, while Russian tanks were filmed by people in the Obolonskyi district about six miles north of the city centre in the morning.
“More than 50,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled their country in less than 48 hours – a majority to Poland and Moldova,” said the UN refugee agency head Filippo Grandi, adding that “many more are moving towards its borders”. Photos have shown enormous queues of cars heading for Ukraine’s western borders. On Friday, guards fired warning shots to prevent a stampede at Kyiv’s central station as thousands of people tried to force their way on to evacuation trains.
