Kyiv (Ukraine): Russian troops are closing in on Ukraine's capital after a night of explosions and street fighting sent Kyiv residents seeking shelter underground.
According to New York Times, Ukraine’s forces, outmanned and outgunned, were waging a ferocious resistance, battling to keep control of the capital, Kyiv, and other cities. The newspaper said Russia is advancing into three cities: Kyiv in the north, Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson in the south.
But a belligerent President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused an American offer to evacuate, insisting he would stay. “The fight is here,” he declared, adding that he needed anti-tank ammunition but “not a ride.’’
In a video message to the besieged nation, Zelensky accused Moscow of attempting to seize Kyiv, topple his government and install a 'puppet' regime.
Declaring that 'we broke their idea', he added: 'The fights are going on in many cities and areas of our state. But we know that we are protecting the country, the land, the future of our children. Kyiv and key cities around the capital are controlled by our army.’’
It was not immediately clear how far Russian troops had advanced and Ukrainian officials reported some success in fending off assaults. Skirmishes reported on the edge of the city suggested that small Russian units were trying to clear a path for the main forces, reports The Mail.
Russia claims its assault on Ukraine is aimed only at military targets, but civilians have been killed and injured during Europe's largest ground war since World War II.
A missile struck a high-rise apartment building in the city's outskirts near one of Kyiv's two passenger airports, leaving a gaping hole of ravaged apartments over several floors. A rescue worker said six civilians were injured.
The conflict has already driven hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from their homes. UN officials said more than 120,000 Ukrainians have left the country for Poland, Moldova and other neighbouring nations.
The assault has pulverised bridges, schools and residential neighbourhoods. But it was unclear in the fog of war how much of Ukraine was still under Ukrainian control and how much Russian forces have seized. Ukrainian and Western officials, however, say Ukrainian forces have managed to slow the Russian advance.
Western officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to overthrow Ukraine's government and replace it with a regime of his own. The invasion represented Putin's boldest gambit yet to redraw the map of Europe and revive Moscow's Cold War-era influence. It has triggered new international efforts to end the invasion, including direct sanctions on Putin.
The Ukrainian president's whereabouts were being kept a secret after he told European leaders in a call Thursday that he was Russia's No. 1 target — and that they might not see him again alive.
The Biden administration is convinced that Russia was never serious about finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis over Ukraine, and the offer on Friday for talks in Belarus amounted to a sham. “Moscow engaged in the pretense of diplomacy,” the State Department spokesman, Ned Price, told reporters at a daily news conference. “It now appears quite clear that Russia was not, and has not been, interested in genuine diplomacy.”
According to sources, Putin's plan is relying on spooking the country, firing missiles at residential buildings 'at random' to 'intimidate' the Ukrainians, trigger mass army desertions, national surrender, and Zelensky's flight from the country.
