MOSCOW: Russian and Ukrainian forces clashed on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital on Saturday as authorities urged citizens to help defend the city from advancing Russian forces.
Heavy, frequent artillery fire and intense gunfire, apparently some distance from the city center, could be heard in Kyiv in the early hours, a Reuters witness said. The Ukrainian military claimed Russian troops attacked an army base on the main Kyiv avenue but the assault was repelled.
But even as the fighting grew more intense, the Russian and Ukrainian governments signaled an openness to negotiations, offering the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the attack on Thursday.
Reportedly video of MLRS strikes in Kharkiv from earlier today. https://t.co/bXQxlBQScD pic.twitter.com/Pr7fEOOZI4
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) February 26, 2022
“The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday in a video address posted to his Telegram channel. “Tonight, they will launch an assault. All of us must understand what awaits us. We must withstand this night.”
The air force command reported heavy fighting near the airbase at Vasylkiv southwest of the capital, which it said was under attack from Russian paratroopers.
It also claimed one of its fighters had shot down a Russian transport plane. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Kyiv residents were told by the defense ministry to make petrol bombs to repel the attackers, as witnesses reported hearing artillery rounds and intense gunfire from the western part of the city.
Another video from Kharkiv. https://t.co/UKGYvnuQWj pic.twitter.com/jesvV6RUFC
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) February 26, 2022
Some families cowered in shelters after Kyiv was pounded on Thursday night by Russian missiles. Others tried desperately to get on packed trains headed west, some of the hundreds of thousands who have left their homes to find safety, according to the United Nations’ aid chief.
After weeks of warnings from Western leaders, Putin unleashed a three-pronged attack on Ukraine from the north, east and south on Thursday, in an attack that threatened to upend Europe’s post-Cold War order.
“I once again appeal to the military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine: do not allow neo-Nazis and (Ukrainian radical nationalists) to use your children, wives and elders as human shields,” Putin said at a televised meeting with Russia’s Security Council on Friday. “Take power into your own hands.”
Putin has cited the need to “denazify” Ukraine’s leadership as one of his main reasons for the attack, accusing it of genocide against Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies dismiss the accusations as baseless propaganda.
Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence at the fall of the Soviet Union and Kyiv hopes to join NATO and the EU – aspirations that infuriate Moscow.
