Harrowing images from inside Kyiv have emerged showing terrified citizens gathering in underground shelters after residential buildings were bombed out in shelling as Russian forces pressed their advance and authorities said they were girding for an assault aimed at overthrowing the government.
Ukrainian forces were pictured taking up defensive positions across key streets in Kyiv as they prepared to to battle Russian troops for control of the capital of three million people even as air raid sirens wailed over the city.
A senior official troops were defending positions on four fronts despite being outnumbered after residents scrambled to take cover in basements, metro stations and bomb shelters across the capital following a televised warning of air strikes.
Residents were seen looking at the destruction to their house, located near Kyiv’s main airport. After the windows of the 10-storey block were destroyed, a two-metre rubble crater was formed. This marks the spot where the shell struck just before dawn.
After being shot dead in combat with Kyiv’s forces, two Russian military servicemen dressed in military fatigues were seen in their corpses next to an unmarked vehicle.
According to Ukrainian officials, a Russian airplane crashed into a Kyiv structure overnight. This set the building ablaze and left eight people injured.
The Kyiv city council warned residents of the city’s Obolon district, near Gostomel, to stay indoors because of ‘the approach of active hostilities’ after gunfire was heard in the suburb, as well as the districts of Vorzel, Bucha and Irpen, this morning as Putin’s men advanced from Chernobyl, less than 60 miles outside the capital.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence today took to social media to urge residents in Kyiv to make Molotov cocktails to ‘repel the occupiers’ and for citizens in Obolon to share information with Ukrainian military about the movement of Russian vehicles and troops.
After fighting broke out in suburbs, a Russian car with what appears to be the bodies of Russian soldiers was seen on the streets Kyiv’s Friday.
There is widespread damage to apartments in Kyiv Ukraine. The Russian invasion of the capital is likely to occur today.
As Russian forces invaded Kyiv early Friday morning, terrified residents hid in underground shelters.
After an attack by the Russians on Friday, residents gathered their belongings from an apartment in Kyiv.
On Friday morning Russian troops approached Kyiv and a man was seen crossing a road that has been abandoned in Kyiv. Russian troops appear to have arrived via the north-west after having been pushed down from Chernobyl, which was taken late yesterday.
The President Zelensky also gave rifles to civils and volunteers. He urged anyone willing to defend Ukraine that they travel to Ukraine in order to be part of the defence.
Residents fled Central Kyiv as Russian troops advanced from Chernobyl to take over the capital. After evading the city of Chernihiv, more Russian soldiers and armour have commenced an assault on the capital.
Pictures from Kyiv that show residents enjoying their time on a swing outside their home in a 10-storey block after its windows were torched and an area of two metres filled with rubble after Friday’s missile attack have been released.
Natali Sevriukova is overcome with emotion as she stares at her Kyiv apartment ruins after the rocket attack in the wee hours of Friday.
A bomb shelter was built in the basement school to house hundreds of people living in an apartment block that was hit by a missile attack early Friday morning.
A Ukrainian military medic approaches Russian servicemen in uniforms wearing Ukrainian Army Uniforms as they lie beside and within a vehicle. They were killed during an attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian soldiers take positions in Kyiv’s downtown to protect the capital against Russian attacks
Uninjured, a Ukrainian soldier lies in the capital, having been subject to fire from Russian soldiers. This is as the troops are preparing for battle against the Russian men moving from Chernobyl, which is less than 60 minutes north of Kyiv.
Ukrainian soldiers can be seen forming across Kyiv’s highway as they prepare for Russian attacks. Gunfire and explosions were heard around the centre.
Russian armor is making an advance on Kyiv now from the east and north. US intelligence has indicated that the US plans to capture the airport and besiege Kyiv, before flying in paratroopers which would attack the capital. It would aim to seize the government, force them into signing a peace agreement and hand over control to Russia.
A child sits on a swing in front of a damaged residential building in the Ukrainian capital hours after it was hit in a Russian missile strike early on Friday as Putin’s men advanced on Kyiv from the north
After a Russian missile attack on her residential building on Friday morning, the resident checked on the damaged rooms in her room. This was just a day after Putin declared war on Ukraine and ordered that his troops be sent to Ukraine.
A bomb shelter was built in the basement school to house hundreds of people living in an apartment block that was hit by a missile attack early Friday morning.
Ukrainian soldiers position themselves next to the bridge and highway during a firefight in Kyiv
Capital soldiers established defense positions at bridges and armoured trucks rolled down streets while residents stood unassisted in front of the doors to their buildings.
After a television warning about air strikes, hundreds of people crowded into an underground bomb shelter in central Kyiv on Friday morning.
“We don’t know how many more days we will be here,” she said. Viktoria, 35 years old, said “Good we have chairs,” while Viktoria’s children, 5 and 7, slept with their winter coats on. “We are shocked…” How could you make a war on peaceful peoples?
Alla (40) said that the children were afraid and were asking for help.
After a rocket strike on Friday, firefighters extinguish the flames in a Kyiv residence.
Ukrainian police officers are seen outside the residential building damaged by a Russian rocket strike on Friday morning
On Friday, Ukrainian troops occupied defence positions in Kiev’s capital. The country’s defense ministry urged Kyiv residents to prepare Molotov cocktails in order to “repel the occupiers”. Obolon citizens were asked to provide information to the Ukrainian military regarding the movements of Russian troops and vehicles.
Ukrainian soldiers take up positions on a bridge within the city Kyiv as Russian forces move into the capital
The soldiers charged with protecting Kyiv against the advancing Russian troops are positioned under a road into the cit.
A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his troops in an invasion, there was an aftermath to an overnight shelling of a Kyiv residential area.
As President Zelensky stated that the Russian military has now begun to target civilian areas, firemen work their way through rubble from a Kyiv apartment.
Un camouflaged soldier takes photos of the site where the Russian rocket hit, which destroyed part of an apartment building in Kyiv.
An elderly woman walks with her backpack in front of Koshytsa Street’s damaged residence. This is a neighborhood of Kyiv, Ukraine.
US intelligence suspects that Russia will surround Kyiv and use special forces to take over an airport. It is likely to be Sikorsky, Boryspil. Then the force would fly in larger numbers of paratroopers in attack on the capital.
The paratroopers’ task would be to find Zelensky, his ministers and parliamentarians in the city before forcing them into a deal to hand over the country to Russia.
On the second day of their invasion, 20 attack helicopters flew over a group of troops to Antonov Airport. This airport is 15 miles from Kyiv. After heavy fighting and scattering of the Russian attackers, the Ukrainian national guard managed to seize the landing strip over night.
According to officials, a Russian strike on the capital would probably be coordinated with troops from Crimea or Donbass on the southern and eastern fronts. These forces are aimed at consolidating the city and forcing the Ukrainian military out of the area.
You may also see bombing raids on power grids, infrastructure or other sabotage actions to cause panic and to force people out. This will clog roads and make it more difficult for Kyiv forces to move.
As the alarm sounded at dawn, the plan was already in motion. The city was under attack by what defense minister described as ‘horrific missile strikes’ that were not witnessed since 1941.
Unidentified debris from an aircraft can be seen near Kyiv. It was shot down, and then crashed into a home.
Woman walks among the debris of an unknown aircraft which crashed into a home in residential areas.
Ukraine claimed that it had shot down the Russian aircraft over Kyiv’s suburbs overnight. There was wreckage on one house, and several injured.
Natali Sevriukova, who is standing in front of the destruction of her Kyiv flat in the wee hours of Friday, breaks down.
To slow down the Russian advance in Ukraine, Ukrainian defense forces have demolished several bridges connecting the capital.