Ukraine’s president urged citizens to hold fast as Russian forces pushed into the suburbs of Kyiv but faced stiff resistance that has so far prevented them from seizing any of the country’s biggest cities.
Vladimir Putin, Russian president, had earlier called on the Ukrainian army to mutiny and spare the nation bloodshed as he expanded his assault, moving one-third of Russia’s assembled combat forces into the country, according to US estimates.
Nato member states, meanwhile, pledged to continue supplying military weapons to Ukraine, including air defence systems. “We are in this for the long haul,” said Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary-general, after the alliance held a crisis meeting.
The US, EU and UK also moved to impose sanctions directly on Putin and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, a rare instance of levelling such measures against a foreign leader.
With Ukraine’s citizens huddled in bomb shelters, fleeing, or arming themselves with makeshift weapons, President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared on television just before midnight local time on Friday and rallied them to fight.
“Tonight the enemy will use all the forces at their disposal to break our resistance,” Zelensky said, hours after warning that Russian saboteurs had entered the capital and were seeking to kill him. “We have to persevere tonight. The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now.”
There were loud explosions in Kyiv on Friday and reports of Russian armoured vehicles advancing into the city’s northern district of Obolon, bringing street fighting to the capital, which has a population of 3mn.
But western officials said tough Ukrainian opposition had slowed Russia’s attempt to encircle Kyiv and capture Kharkiv in the north-east, the country’s second-biggest city.
Battlefield setbacks highlighted the challenge still ahead for Putin after he pit Europe’s biggest invasion force in half a century against an outgunned but determined Ukrainian military, seemingly ready to hold its ground in urban warfare.
“In general, the Russians have lost a little bit of their momentum,” said a Pentagon official. “A good indication is that no population centres have been taken.”
As Russian armoured columns moved to encircle Kyiv, Putin urged Ukraine’s armed forces to “take power into their own hands” and overthrow their government so they could strike a peace deal with Russia.
In a social media post on Friday evening, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s president said discussions had begun with the Russians about a possible “negotiation process”. But it was not clear if the suggestion of talks was realistic, given Russia’s extreme demands.
Air raid sirens sounded in the capital and authorities warned people to seek cover in shelters or subway stations amid the Russian bombardment. The Pentagon said Russia had so far launched 200 ballistic and cruise missiles during the invasion.
The civilian exodus from Kyiv continued. Traffic was heavy on roads leading out of the capital, with some residents fleeing on foot from the centre with suitcases, hoping to hail rides from passing cars.
Ukraine’s military called on residents of Obolon to inform them about the movement of Russian equipment into the city. “Make Molotov cocktails, neutralise the occupier,” the defence ministry said.
Russia on Friday claimed it had captured Kyiv’s Hostomel airport, which is near the Obolon district, after it changed hands multiple times on Thursday in fighting involving special forces troops, assault helicopters and precision-guided missiles.
Control of the runway could allow Russia to rapidly transport large numbers of troops directly to the capital.
Russia ordered thousands more of the combat forces that it had amassed into Ukraine, including through amphibious assaults near Mariupol in the Sea of Azov, according to US officials.
Ukrainian forces overnight destroyed bridges north of the city in an attempt to impede the Russian advance. Western military officials warned that the arrival of tens of thousands of troops advancing south from Belarus and north from Crimea would bring “overwhelming” military superiority that could lead to the capital falling within days.
“They are putting up a fight and they are not doing horribly, but they are still overwhelmed,” said one senior western intelligence official. “I have no doubt they will continue to fight for as long as they possibly can.”
Early on Friday, Ukraine’s defence ministry claimed its forces had taken down more than a dozen Russian aircraft and helicopters, along with scores of tanks and armoured vehicles. Zelensky said 137 of his countrymen had died. Russia provided no figures on damage to its military assets or on casualties.
Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, said intelligence estimates suggested Russia lost more than 450 personnel on the first day of operations, where it did not take “any of its major objectives”.
While social media videos have shown both sides suffering battlefield losses since Thursday, precise Russian, Ukrainian and Nato military claims cannot be independently verified.
Shocked world leaders have condemned what they cast as the most momentous challenge to the postwar order in Europe for 80 years. “[Putin] has much larger ambitions than Ukraine,” said Joe Biden, US president, on Thursday. “He wants to, in fact, re-establish the former Soviet Union. That’s what this is about.”
Zelensky thanked western leaders for their support but questioned their willingness to go further. “Who is ready to fight with us? Honestly, I don’t see anyone . . . I’m asking them, are you with us?”
Nato held an emergency summit of its members’ 30 leaders on Friday to discuss the invasion.
On Friday, oil prices steadied after topping $100 per barrel on Thursday for the first time since 2014. Oil had risen as high as $106 before dropping back after the Biden administration announced a number of sanctions that focused on Russia’s financial sector rather than its energy industry.
European natural gas prices retreated after surging almost 70 per cent to €142 per megawatt hour on Thursday. Futures linked to TTF, Europe’s wholesale gas price, fell more than 30 per cent on Friday to €92.50.
European equities recovered their losses from the prior session. US stock markets also rose, with the benchmark S&P 500 ending the day more than 2 per cent higher.
Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova in Kyiv, John Paul Rathbone in London and Leo Lewis in Tokyo
from WordPress https://ift.tt/uxQDIL1
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment