Heavy fighting is raging on the streets of Kyiv with gunfire close to the government area as Russian troops close in - but the Ukraine president said "we will not put down weapons" as residents fight every inch of ground.
Russian paratroopers have landed in large numbers on the outskirts of Kyiv and troops are attacking the city on all sides with Ukraine fighters battling to repel them leading to large numbers of casualties on both sides.
Gunfire was heard close to the government quarters Kyiv on Saturday morning, according to a witness, while people have been told to take shelter with buildings alight amid streets battles and heavy shelling from missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appeared in a new video on Facebook this morning from outside his Kyiv office appearing calm and saying he was not leaving the city.
"We will not put down weapons, we will defend our state," he said.
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And he wrote: "Don't believe the fake (news)."
Buildings and vehicles are ablaze and lighting up the night sky while regular bursts of artillery fire can be heard.
On Peremohy (Pobeda) Avenue, a bridge near the Beresteyskaya metro station was blown up and a Twitter video shows a vehicle on fire.
It is where a Ukraine brigade is based but it is not clear whether it was blown up by their troops or Russians.
The Ukrainian military said Russian troops have also attacked an army base on a main Kyiv avenue but the assault was repelled.
At the same time there was fighting near Beresteiska metro station, according to the Ukraine government, just five miles from Maidan Square in the centre of Kyiv.
Ukraine's Ministry of Defence has claimed that Russia "did not take a single city" over night - although it says the fight for Kyiv and the city of Vasylkiv continues.
In a tweet at around 4.15am UK time, an official Ukraine defence ministry account tweeted: "During the night, the Russian invaders did not take a single city!"
But later the Russia's Interfax agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying it had captured the city of Melitopol in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhya region.
The ministry also said Russia has used air- and ship-based cruise missiles to carry out overnight strikes on military targets in Ukraine.
The fighting is now reportedly in the “inner-circle” of the city in all directions including at a military base on the west which was repelled the Ukrainian military said in a Facebook posting early this morning.
Government authorities are warning Kyiv residents that there is street fighting with the Russian army and people are being told to seek shelter and avoid being close to windows or balconies.
Separately, the Interfax Ukraine agency said Russian soldiers were trying to capture one of the city's electricity generating stations.
Kyiv residents were told by the defence ministry to make petrol bombs to repel the invaders while the authorities are handing out rifles to anyone ready to use them.
"The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now," 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 air base at Vasylkiv southwest of the capital, which it said was under attack from Russian paratroopers.
It also said one of its fighters had shot down a Russian transport plane.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, authorities have said that the cities of Sumy, Poltava and Mariupol were hit by air strikes by Russian Kalibr cruise missiles launches from the Black Sea.
Fierce fighting was also raging near the southern Ukrainian cities of Mariupol, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa, an adviser to the Ukrainian president's office said.
"Heavy fighting is taking place near Mariupol," Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser, told a briefing. "But there is no chance that Mariupol will surrender or be captured."
Meanwhile, opposition was growing in Russia to the carnage in Ukraine.
Communist MP Mikhail Matveev said: “I think that the war should be stopped immediately.
“When I voted for the recognition of the DPR / LPR, I voted for peace, not for war.
“For Russia to become a shield, so that the Donbas was not bombed, but not for Kyiv to be bombed.”
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is ready to discuss with Russia, neutral status and security guarantees for the country, said Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian leader’s chief of staff.
"It will be, first of all, a detailed conversation about peace and ceasefire," he said.
"A neutral status with a clear package of security guarantees is an option that will probably also be on the table.”
After weeks of warnings from Western leaders, Putin unleashed a three-pronged invasion of 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 invasion, accusing it of genocide against Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies dismiss the accusations as baseless propaganda.
Meanwhile US President Joe Biden has instructed the U.S. State Department to release $350 million in military aid to Ukraine.
In a memorandum to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Biden directed that $350 million allocated through the Foreign Assistance Act be designated for Ukraine's defense.
