Russia invades Ukraine: Latest updates as Kyiv battle rages and Putin tells army to overthrow government

25 Feb 2022

iNews

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Russia invades Ukraine Latest updates as Kyiv battle rages and Putin tells army to overthrow government

In a televised address, Putin described the Ukrainian government as "drug addicts and neo-Nazis”

Blasts caused by artillery rounds and intense gunfire have been heard in western districts of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.

The city’s mayor Vitali Klitchko said five blasts were heard in a close intervals of three to five minutes near a power station in the north of the city.

He said: “The emergency services are underway. We’re finding out the details.”

He added that bridges in the city had been taken under protection and special control, as Russian troops are nearing, while checkpoints are being installed near strategic city objects.

“The situation now – without exaggeration – is threatening for Kyiv. The night, close to the morning, will be very difficult.”

Nearly 200 Ukrainians including 57 civilians have been killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Putin urged the country’s military to “take power in your hands”.

It comes as Russia claimed to have captured Hostomel Airport and “eliminated” more than 200 Ukrainian military personnel, although the Ukrainian army has not yet commented on this.

Russian tanks have reportedly entered the capital and gunfire has been reported near the Government quarter.

Russian president Vladimir Putin this afternoon issued another rambling television address in which he called on the Ukrainian army to overthrow its leadership, describing them as a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis”.

But the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared a video of himself and his team stood outside of the presidential administration in Kyiv, insisting he was “defending Ukraine” and had not fled.

Ukrainian President in hiding as Russian troops enter the capital.
At least 194 Ukrainians, including 57 civilians, and 450 Russian soldiers dead, UK Armed Forces Minister said.
Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 banned from leaving the country and public told to make Molotov cocktails.

Nato reiterated its support for Ukraine, announcing this evening that its member countries would provide further weapons and air defence systems to support Mr Zelensky’s army.

In a joint statement, the 30 Nato leaders said: “No one should be fooled by the Russian Government’s barrage of lies,” adding that it would make “significant additional defensive deployments of forces” to the alliance’s eastern flank.

Missile strikes ‘on nurseries and orphanages’

Russian aircraft have bombed kindergartens and orphanages in Ukraine this morning, according to Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs.

The Kyiv Independent reported that a shelter and kindergarten in Okhtyrka, a town in the north east of Ukraine, had been attacked causing casualties including children.

Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said that “the enemy” had this morning entered the district of Obolon, around 5 miles north of Kyiv’s parliament, while videos shared on social media appeared to show tanks rolling into Ukraine’s capital.

Gunfire has been heard near the Government quarter of the Ukrainian capital this morning, according to PA news agency.

Ukrainian armed forces are reported to have blown up bridges near Ivankiv, just north of Kyiv, in a bid to stop Russian tanks from advancing on the capital. Ukraine’s Air Defence Forces also shot down a Russian aircraft in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv.

Videos showed Ukrainian soldiers defending Kharkiv as missiles protruded from tarmac after hitting the city.

The Mayor of Kyiv has said the capital “has entered a defensive phase” and “several [Russian] command groups have already entered Kyiv”.

According to Ukrainskaia Pravda, Mayor Vitalii Klichko said that “the enemy wants to bring the city to its knees and annihilate us”.

“The Ukrainian army is holding defence around Kyiv. The situation is difficult. But we believe in our armed forces, we are supporting them, we are helping,” he said.

Ukraine’s military claimed that Russian forces had retreated after suffering large losses in the Bilovodsk region. But Russia has now claimed to have surrounded the city of Chernihiv, around 150km north of Kyiv.

“The blocking of the city of Chernihiv has been completed,” spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, in comments reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.

Meanwhile, the Moldova Naval Agency has announced that a Moldovan flagged tanker was hit by a missile near the Ukrainian port of Odessa, with two crew members seriously injured.

Russian tanks have now taken major sites across the country, including the Chernobyl nuclear plant north of Kyiv and the ports of Odessa and Mariupol.

Shelling remains persistent in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where fighting was concentrated in the days leading up to yesterday’s invasion.

Mr Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian Government adviser, said on Friday: “The hardest day will be today. The enemy’s plan is to break through with tank columns from the side of Ivankiv and Chernihiv to Kyiv.”

Shots fired at crowds trying to flee Kyiv

The military have been filmed firing warning shots into the air in a bid to disperse panicked crowds attempting to flee the Ukrainian capital.

People were filmed scrambling to squeeze on trains out of Kyiv, as Russian troops make further advancements on city.

It comes after motorways were gridlocked by cars attempting to leave the capital.

Ukraine President in hiding as men banned from leaving

President Zelensky is currently in hiding after Russian special forces stormed Kyiv in the middle of the night.

In a video statement issued before dawn on Friday, Mr Zelensky said he and his family were in mortal danger with Russian “sabotage groups” intent on hunting them down and seizing power.

“According to our information, the enemy marked me as target number one, my family as target number two,” the President said in a video statement issued from hiding.

“They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state. We have information that enemy sabotage groups have entered Kyiv.”

Mr Zelensky issued a decree last night preventing all Ukrainian men of fighting age, from 18 to 60, from leaving the country, as Ukraine prepares to take up arms against Russian troops.

The ministry of defence instructed Kyiv residents to make Molotov cocktails and “neutralise the occupier”.

Military analysts have suggested that the sabotage groups will try to take out Kyiv’s power grids and substations to disconnect electricity in the capital and cause panic among residents.

President Zelensky said that “in most directions the enemy was stopped, the fighting continues. The purpose of this attack is pressure, not only on the Government, but on all Ukrainians.”

One US official said Mr Putin’s target was “decapitating the Government” in Kyiv while causing disruption across the country.

Military and civilian death toll soars

British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey reported that 194 Ukrainians had been killed along with 450 Russian soldiers.

It comes after Mr Zelensky disputed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims that he was only striking military targets and said that 137 Ukrainians, both military and civilian, had been killed so far in the Russian invasion that began on Thursday morning. He also announced that 316 had been injured.

“They say that civilian objects are not a target for them,” he said in a televised address. “It is a lie — they do not distinguish in which areas to operate.”

It comes as the defiant last words of 13 border guards killed on Snake Island in the early hours of Friday reportedly emerged in an audio recording.

A Russian navy official is reported to have said: “This is a Russian military ship. I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary victims. Otherwise we will open fire on you.”

A Ukrainian soldier replied: “Russian military ship, go fuck yourself.” All 13 onboard were killed.

Residential buildings hit during overnight raids

Today’s developments come after a night of “horrific” rocket strikes across Kyiv which struck residential buildings and forced thousands to seek shelter in the city’s subway stations, with fighting not seen since World War II.

According to Kyiv’s mayor, a missile landed on a residential building on the outskirts of the city during the raid.

As multiple explosions rattled Ukraine’s main city in the early hours of Friday morning, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted: “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.”

Photos and videos shared on social media appeared to show massive explosions and great columns of smoke filling the sky in Kyiv on Friday morning, as air raid sirens rang across the city.

Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said that “strikes on Kyiv with cruise or ballistic missiles continued” on day two of war.

US defence officials believe that more than 160 missiles were launched against Kyiv as Russian forces seized control of the skies over the capital last night, Reuters reported.

World’s response ‘not enough’

Mr Zelensky called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other world leaders to go further with sanctions on Friday morning amid warnings that current penalties will do little to prevent Mr Putin’s bloodthirsty rampage on Ukraine.

“The most powerful forces of the world are watching from afar. Did yesterday’s sanctions convince Russia? We hear in our skies and see on our earth that this is not enough,” he said.

Britain unveiled its toughest ever sanctions on Thursday including limits on Russian banks, the defence industry, more than 100 businesses and individuals, and the country’s ability to raise debt in London.

Five further oligarchs, including Mr Putin’s former son-in-law, were among those hit by sanctions, as the UK said the measures would make the Russian President’s cronies “persona non grata” across the West.

Boris Johnson told a virtual of Nato leaders today that the UK sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov over their “revanchist mission” to overturn the post-Cold War order.

Russia this morning banned British airlines from landing at its airports or crossing its airspace, thought to be in retaliation for the UK’s ban on Russian airline Aeroflot using British airspace and airports.

Further UK troops are being sent into neighbouring Estonia, a Nato ally, earlier than planned to help support refugees arriving from Ukraine, with a total of 1,000 soldiers on standby.

A Royal Navy destroyer has also set sail to be on standby in the Mediterranean to support Nato countries in eastern Europe.

The Type 45 destroyer will join offshore patrol vessel HMS Trent in the eastern Mediterranean with four additional RAF Typhoon jets also being deployed to Cyprus to take part in Nato patrols in eastern Europe.

Related StoriesEU and US launch new sanctions

European Union leaders announced this morning that they had approved a new, significant package of sanctions against Russia following an emergency meeting.

The fresh package will include bans on large bank deposits in the EU, visa limitations for diplomatic and other privileged passport holders, and halts in exports to Russia of numerous technological goods including semiconductors.

Italy also said it was ready to supply an extra 3,400 military personnel to Nato efforts.

It came after US President Joe Biden unveiled fresh sanctions last night, but warned that they could take as long as a month to start being felt across the Russian economy.

It raises the very real threat that Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will go largely uncontested by air, sea and land attacks other than the resistance put up by Mr Zelensky’s army.