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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Helen Davidson (now); Maanvi Singh, Gloria Oladipo, Léonie Chao-Fong, Jennifer Rankin, Rachel Hall and Samantha Lock (earlier)

UN resolution deploring invasion vetoed – as it happened

This blog is now closed. You can find our continuing coverage here.

Internet disruptions across Ukraine

Ukrainian internet is experiencing serious disruptions as the fighting continues, according to a network monitoring organisation.

The report said it had confirmed “significant disruptions” in Kharkiv on Thursday and further disruptions have been tracked across Ukraine, reaching Kyiv on Saturday morning with a “major disruption” registered to GigaTrans, Ukraine’s “backbone internet provider... which supplies connectivity to several other networks”.

“While connectivity does remain available through other routes, the incident is likely to have a significant impact on infrastructure, limiting citizens’ ability to communicate,” it said.

“Work is ongoing to assess the incidents and their contexts. Telecoms disruptions in Ukraine have so far been attributed to power outages, cyberattacks, sabotage, and kinetic impacts.”

So far there is still contact coming out of Kyiv, including social media posts, pictures and photos, and some of those posting from the city say they haven’t experienced any trouble, so the extend of the disruption still seems unclear.

Updated

Japan is considering imposing economic sanctions on Belarus for its support of Russia’s invasion, Reuters is reporting.

Citing two officials, the report said Tokyo will coordinate with other G7 governments, but there were no other details about the specifics. It said Japan’s foreign ministry declined to comment.

US sanctions already announced against Belarus include 24 Belarusian individuals and entities.

A short time ago, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he had spoken with Japan’s foreign minister about “how we are standing together with Allies and partners to hold Russia accountable for its illegal, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine”.

“Japan is helping to lead a coalition of partners and allies in response.”

Japan has already announced sanctions on Russia over the invasion, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida terming Moscow’s moves an unacceptable violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and international law.

Kira Rudik is a Ukrainian parliamentarian currently in Kyiv. She’s just spoken to CNN, saying it is strange to go from working as a member of parliament, under the threat of Russian attack, and then to have it suddenly start. “Then you know you have to do something,” she says.

“That’s when you get a gun and you learn how to shoot it. You understand you have to get a group of resistance, which we did, and now we are helping our army to fight Russian soldiers who are trying to take Kyiv right now as I am talking to you.”

Rudik says this is the “new reality”.

“We are not leaving. This is our town and this is our country, and no Putin soldiers will tell us how to live.”

A report from the Reuters news agency suggests it is looking more likely that Russia could be excluded from the Swift global bank payments system – a step that some countries had been reluctant to take:

Germany and Italy softened their opposition against kicking Russia out of the world’s main international payments network, US and European officials said. Doing so would hit Russian trade and make it harder for Russian companies to do business.

Italy, which had been reluctant to take that step, on Friday said it would not veto proposals to ban Russia and pledged to continue working in unison with its EU partners. Germany, which has the EU’s biggest trade flows with Russia, is also open to banning Russia from Swift, but must calculate the consequences for its economy, said its finance minister, Christian Lindner.

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s PM, and Boris Johnson in Britain want Russia removed from Swift immediately. It would mark be a significant escalation of sanctions already imposed against Russia and its leadership, including some aimed personally at Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

Fighting in east, west, south of Kyiv

Fighting is in the east, west and south of Kyiv, according to multiple reports.

“All of this is now happening within the city limits,” reports CNN’s Clarissa Ward, but it doesn’t appear to have reached the centre.

There are no signs of residential areas being targeted yet, she says, “but we’re hearing a lot of explosions from many different directions.”

Interfax Ukraine news agency reports Russian forces have tried to attack an electricity-generating station, while the Ukrainian military says it has repelled an attack on a Kyiv army base, according to Reuters.

The Ukrainian government also says it stopped a Russian advancement down Peremohy Avenue - which runs past the Beresteiska metro station, where heavy fighting has also been reported. The Guardian has not independently verified the reports.

The assault appears to line up with Zelenskiy’s warning that tonight could see Russia’s attempt to storm the city. Three million people call Kyiv home.

Earlier Zelensky posted a video from the streets in Kyiv. “Tonight, they will launch an assault. All of us must understand what awaits us. We must withstand this night,” he said. “The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now.”

Smoke and flames rise over during the shelling near Kyiv, as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine February 26, 2022.
Smoke and flames rise over during the shelling near Kyiv, as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine February 26, 2022. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Updated

Guatemala has recalled its ambassador from Russia. The central American country’s president Alejandro Giammattei said on Friday that he had ordered the return of Guisela Atalida Godinez Sazo, adding that his government rejected Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Giammattei had earlier expressed “full support for the sovereignty of Ukraine as like-minded countries and stand in solidarity with its people and government.”

Kazakhstan is denying a request for its troops to join the Russian offensive, NBC has reported.

The former Soviet Republic state has also refused to join Putin’s recognition of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states, his pretext for the hostility.

A significant and interesting move here, from one of Russia’s closest allies.

Blasts and shooting in Kyiv

There are mounting witness reports now of artillery and fire in Kyiv now.

One person told Reuters they could hear artillery blasts coming from an unspecified location somewhere near the city centre. A reporter for the Kyiv Independent is reporting “extremely hard combat” near the Kyiv Zoo - the Guardian has not verified this.

The Washington Post’s correspondent in Kyiv is reporting “dozens and dozens” of explosions heard.

BBC has also reported a large explosion heard in Maidan square, and multiple blasts in Troieshchyna, where that thermal power station is. Burning vehicles have also been seen on Kyiv’s Peremonhy Ave.

Nick Walsh, CNN’s reporter in Kherson, in the south of the country reports heavy fighting over a key bridge as Russian forces move through the area.

“Locals here we’ve spoken to are terrified,” he says.

Updated

Central Kyiv is deserted tonight:

A view of empty streets in in Kyiv
A view of empty streets in in Kyiv Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

There are sporadic reports of heavy fighting around Kyiv right now. A CNN reporter in the capital says there is heavy fighting in Obolon in the city’s north, while other reports note clashes in Vasylkiv, in the southwest outskirts. Just over the river to the East is Troieshchyna where there are several reports of Russian forces attacking a thermal power station. It’s the second time in 24 hours Russia has targeted the power plant, and Ukrainian forces are attempting to repel them, according to the Kyiv Independent.

The Guardian has not independently verified these reports, which have come through in just the last few minutes.

Australia plans to join allies in personally sanctioning Vladimir Putin and Russia’s foreign affairs minister, Sergei Lavrov. However it is not currently planning to expel Russian diplomats.

A few hours ago Australian foreign minister Marise Payne said she was taking advice from her department on expanding sanctions to include the Russian president, who would be “personally responsible for the deaths and the suffering of innocent Ukrainians”.

Payne said while sanctioning a country’s leader was an exceptional step, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was “an exceptional situation”.

“It is clear that the only way to exact a cost for those actions is to ensure that he, himself, shares some of that cost and some of the pain that he is inflicting on everyone else around him in Ukraine.”

Read more here.

Ukraine has asked Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, to cut Russia off from the App Store and Apple products.

Mykhailo Federov, the country’s vice prime minister and the minister of digital transformation, has published the letter he sent on Friday, appealing for Cook to bolster the impact of government-level sanctions.

The whole world is repelling the aggressor through the imposition of sanctions - the enemy must suffer significant losses. But we need your support - in 2022 modern technology is perhaps the best answer to the tanks, multiple rocket launchers (hrad) and missiles...

I appeal to you and I am sure that you will not only hear, but do everything possible to protect Ukrainem Europe, ad finally, the entire democratic world from bloody authoritarian aggression - to stop supplying Apple services and products to the Russian Federation, including blocking access to the App Store!

We are sure that such actions will motivate youth and active population of Russia to proactively stope the disgraceful military aggression.

Updated

Hello, this is Helen Davidson taking over the reins of the liveblog for the next few hours. Stay with us for the latest developments as Ukraine enters a night that its leader has predicted will be “harder than the day”, as Russian forces threaten Kyiv.

In Kyiv, a woman has reportedly given birth in an underground metro station, where she’d been sheltering with other residents. Trains and platforms have been staying open to assist people, with many people taking cover.

This post was amended to remove incorrect details, which had beentaken from an earlier and unrelated report.

Updated

Today so far

  • The day focused on the capital, Kyiv. Russian forces entered the city’s outskirts on Friday and were threatening the Ukrainian capital from the north-west and east in a lightning attack apparently aimed at seizing the city.
  • The Russian defence ministry claimed its forces had taken control of the strategic Hostomel airfield to the north-west, while Russian tanks were filmed by locals in the Obolonskyi district about six miles north of the city centre in the morning.
  • Vladimir Putin urged the Ukrainian army to overthrow its leadership, whom he labelled as a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who have has lodged itself in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people.”
  • The US department of defense has confirmed that a Russian “amphibious assault” has been launched in Mariupol, a coastal city in south-east Ukraine. “This night will be harder than the day. Many cities of our state are under attack: Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, our boys and girls in the Donbas, the cities of the south, special attention to Kyiv,”said the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy . “We can’t lose the capital.”

  • Zelenskiy pleaded for international help and for western powers to act faster to cut off Russia’s economy and provide Ukraine with military assistance. “When bombs fall on Kyiv, it happens in Europe, not just in Ukraine,” he said. “When missiles kill our people, they kill all Europeans.”
  • Nato will deploy significant extra troops to countries in eastern Europe who are part of the alliance, its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said. UK ministers warned there would be no forces going to Ukraine itself to avoid an “existential” war between Russia and the west.
  • The EU and the UK moved to freeze foreign-held assets of Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. The initiative is largely symbolic but the move by Brussels and Downing Street followed recognition that appeals for action from Volodymyr Zelenskiy had to be heard.
  • The UN security council voted on a resolution deploring Russian invasion of UkraineEleven member states voted for the resolution, three abstained (China, India, and UAE) and one voted against (Russia). As Russia holds a veto the resolution was not upheld.
  • The Council of Europe suspended Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The 47-nation council announced that Russia was suspended with “immediate effect” from the organisation’s committee of ministers and parliamentary assembly on Friday “as a result of the Russian Federation’s armed attack on Ukraine”.
  • Russia will no longer be allowed to compete in this year’s Eurovision song contest, with organisers saying its inclusion could “bring the competition into disrepute”.

The US treasury has imposed sanctions on Vladimir Putin and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov.

“The United States, in coordination with allies and partners, continued to forcefully respond to Russia’s unjustified, unprovoked, and premediated invasion of Ukraine,” the department said in a statement.

“If necessary, we are prepared to impose further costs on Russia for its appalling behavior on the world stage,” said secretary of the treasury Janet Yellen.

The UN security council voted on a resolution deploring Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Eleven member states voted for the resolution, three abstained (China, India, and UAE) and one voted against (Russia). As Russia holds a veto the resolution was not upheld.

But the US and its allies will see it as a victory to have Russia voting alone, and China abstaining. They were able to bring China on board by softening the resolution slightly, changing the word ‘condemning’ to ‘deploring’ for example and removing a reference to the Russian president. It is a loss however not to persuade India or UAE off the fence.

Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian permanent representative is chairing the Security Council meeting and is reading out all the countries sponsoring a resolution deploring Russia’s invasion. It is a very, very long list.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said that “Russia’s latest attack on our most fundamental principles is so bold, so brazen, that it threatens our international system as we know it.”

“One country is invading another. Russia is the aggressor here,” she added. “There is no middle ground.”

The Albanian permanent representative, Ferit Hoxha, said Russia “has stained the UN Charter with innocent blood.”

“This is a defining moment for the council...Future generations will know who stood up for the respect of human life, for international law,” he said.

And Mexico’s Juan Ramón de la Fuente noted, in support of the resolution: “Mexico has itself suffered four invasions over the course of its history as an independent state” twice by France, twice by the US.

Ukrainian media are reporting gunfire in Kyiv.

In the meantime, the defence ministry has advised Kyiv residents to make petrol bombs to repel invaders, Reuters is reporting.

Zelenskiy had a dire message for Ukrainians tonight :

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy makes a statement in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy makes a statement in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

“This night will be the hardest... We must withstand,” he said in an address. “This night the enemy will be using all available means to break our resistance. This night they will launch an assault.”

“This night will be harder than the day. Many cities of our state are under attack: Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, our boys and girls in the Donbas, the cities of the south, special attention to Kyiv,” he added. “We can’t lose the capital.”

Updated

The US department of defense has confirmed that a Russian “amphibious assault” has been launched in Mariupol, a coastal city in south-east Ukraine.

We do believe that such an assault is being conducted today but we dont have perfect visibility on the progress of that,” John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said.

“It certainly appears to us to be a piece of their designs in the south to further cut off the Donbas region and to – from a southern perspective – continue to try to take population centers.”

Speaking in a press briefing at the Pentagon on Friday afternoon, Kirby was also asked about a direct threat issued by Russia to Finland and Sweden, which have been considering joining Nato. A Russia foreign ministry spokeswoman said the countries’ “accession to Nato can have detrimental consequences … and face military and political consequences”.

Kirby said: “That would be extremely destabilizing”, but said there was no indication “that is necessarily in the offing”. Kirby said during the Ukraine conflict Nato has been prepared to “step up in ways that truly are historic and significant”.

“The secretary [of defense] said it best: Mr Putin is getting exactly what he says he didn’t want: a strong Nato on his western flank,” Kirby said.

“So without speaking to Finland specifically, we stand up for sovereignty and territorial integrity of independent nation states. That’s not going to change, and Mr Putin, should he want to violate that in new ways, will find new costs, I’m sure, imposed upon him.”

Regarding the threat Russia could pose to countries other than the Ukraine, Kirby said: “It’s not entirely clear if Mr Putin has designs beyond Ukraine, and it’s because that is not perfectly clear that we continue to look for ways to bolster our Nato capabilities and to reassure our allies.”

Updated

A spokesman for the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy suggested that a negotiated settlement was still possible, Reuters reported.

“Ukraine was and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace,” spokesman Sergii Nykyforov added.

Earlier today, the US State department cast doubts about whether Russia had legitimate plans for diplomacy, saying that Russia must stop bombing Ukraine first.

“Now we see Moscow suggesting that diplomacy take place at the barrel of a gun, or as Moscow’s rockets, mortars, artillery target the Ukrainian people,” said the US state department spokesperson Ned Price. “This is not real diplomacy. Those are not the conditions for real diplomacy.”

Updated

Those on the ground in Kyiv are reporting an air raid warning happening in the capital with multiple air strikes occurring.

From Buzzfeed News reporter Christopher Miller:

Air raid warning in Kyiv. And missiles being fired on the capital. I’ve counted three large strikes in past five minutes. Watching from my window and seeing the sky light up; roar of explosions reverberating across the city.

US President Joe Biden will directly sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, confirmed White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Biden’s decision to personally sanction Putin follows an announcement from the EU today that Putin and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, will be personally sanctioned following Russia’s attacks.

Psaki went on to say that sanctioning Putin personally has remained an option and that Biden came to that decision “over the last day or so” in coordination with European allies.

Psaki also said that she believes personal sanctions against Putin could prevent him from traveling to the US, reported CNN.

Updated

Anonymous announced on Twitter today that they had reportedly hacked the database of the Russian Ministry of Defence website, breaching and leaking the private data.

From the Anonymous Twitter account:

JUST IN: Hacktivist group #Anonymous has successfully breached and leaked the database of the Russian Ministry of Defence website | mil[.]ru |.

In the same tweet, the group also posted screenshots of the reported data and provided a link where users could access it.

Russia Today, the country’s state-sponsored media source, confirmed that they had experienced a cyberattack following a “cyber war” declaration from Anonymous after a request for cyber defense volunteers from the Ukrainian government: “After the statement by Anonymous, RT’s websites became the subject of massive DDoS attacks from some 100 million devices, mostly based in the US. Due to the attacks there might be temporary website access limitations for some users, yet RT is promptly resolving these issues.”

Ukrainian officials, in turn, said today that they have also experienced hacks, but from Belarus, targeting the private email addresses of Ukrainian military personnel “and related individuals,” reported Reuters.

Updated

Another glimpse of what life is like for Ukrainian residents from the Guardian’s Shaun Walker, who is currently near Kyiv:

I’ve just driven back across Ukraine from Lviv to close to Kyiv. A lonely drive in my direction but still packed roads going west as many escape from the Russian military action. At the border between Lviv and Rivne regions, a few hours’ drive from the western border with Poland, there was a queue stretching back several miles as soldiers checked documents.

Closer to Kyiv, many people are avoiding the main roads west out of the capital due to the fact that some Russians are expected to come in that way, and are taking the back roads to the south. Along these roads I’ve just seen locals building makeshift checkpoints and barricades of sandbags.

On the radio, one of the items on the news was instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails.

Updated

Video was posted on social media of Ukrainian TV anchors reporting live from bomb shelters due to ongoing fighting throughout the country.

From journalist and writer Maksym Eristavi:

Satellite images taken today showed several large deployments of troops and about 150 transport helicopters in the south of Belarus, said a private US company, reported Reuters:

The images showed one large helicopter deployment near the Belarusian town of Chojniki, which had over 90 helicopters parked on a road with the deployment extending for more than five miles. Images also showed a large deployment of ground forces with several hundred vehicles in convoy position in several fields.

The images released by Maxar Technologies, which has been tracking the buildup of Russian forces for weeks, could not be independently verified by Reuters.

Today so far

Here’s a summary of today’s events on the second day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine:

  • The day focused on the capital, Kyiv. Russian forces entered the city’s outskirts on Friday and were threatening the Ukrainian capital from the north-west and east in a lightning attack apparently aimed at seizing the city.
  • The Russian defence ministry claimed its forces had taken control of the strategic Hostomel airfield to the north-west, while Russian tanks were filmed by locals in the Obolonskyi district about six miles north of the city centre in the morning.
  • Vladimir Putin urged the Ukrainian army to overthrow its leadership, whom he labelled as a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who have has lodged itself in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people.”
  • A senior US defence source briefed Pentagon reporters that they believed Russia had launched an amphibious landing with thousands of naval infantry to the west of the key southern coastal city of Mariupol.
  • President Zelenskiy pleaded for international help and for western powers to act faster to cut off Russia’s economy and provide Ukraine with military assistance. “When bombs fall on Kyiv, it happens in Europe, not just in Ukraine,” he said. “When missiles kill our people, they kill all Europeans.”
  • Nato will deploy significant extra troops to countries in eastern Europe who are part of the alliance, its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said. UK ministers warned there would be no forces going to Ukraine itself to avoid an “existential” war between Russia and the west.
  • The EU and the UK moved to freeze foreign-held assets of Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. The initiative is largely symbolic but the move by Brussels and Downing Street followed recognition that appeals for action from Volodymyr Zelenskiy had to be heard.
  • The Council of Europe suspended Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The 47-nation council announced that Russia was suspended with “immediate effect” from the organisation’s committee of ministers and parliamentary assembly on Friday “as a result of the Russian Federation’s armed attack on Ukraine”.
  • Russia will no longer be allowed to compete in this year’s Eurovision song contest, with organisers saying its inclusion could “bring the competition into disrepute”.

Updated

The Ukrainian ambassador to the US said today that attacks from Russia on Ukraine have “been more brutal”, but that Russian forces did not advanced as planned.

“The enemy is clearly surprised by the result of the armed forces and volunteers to protect the integrity of our country,” said Oksana Markarova, who is currently speaking at the the embassy of Ukraine in Washington DC.

Markarova also said that Ukrainian authorities are gathering evidence of “crimes” by Russian authorities to submit to international tribunals.

On the Chernobyl power plant that Russian troops captured yesterday, Markarova said that responsibility for it now lies with Russia as strict regulations for the plant are not being observed, adding that 92 plant personnel were taken as hostages.

Markarova also confirmed that Russian troops hit an orphanage in Ukraine, but did not injure any of the 50 children that were inside.

Updated

The Russian army has reportedly destroyed the Kyiv thermal power plant, says Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, a sign that Russia’s army is targeting critical infrastructure in the capital city.

This announcement follows another report from Klitschko that five blasts were heard in three to five minutes near a power station located north of Kyiv, reported the Telegraph.

“The emergency services are under way. We’re finding out the details,” said Klitschko of the five blasts. “The situation now – without exaggeration – is threatening for Kyiv. The night, close to the morning, will be very difficult.”

Updated

Boris Johnson has recorded a video in which he aims to speak to both Ukrainians and Russians after a phone call with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy this morning, ITV News reports.

The video – in which he describes the invasion as a tragedy for Ukraine and Russia – was recorded after the PM held a phone call this morning with the Ukrainian leader.

Speaking in Russian, the prime minister says:

To my Russian friends I do not believe this war is in your name. It does not have to be this way.

In a recording that will be released this evening, Johnson also says in Ukrainian:

This crisis, this tragedy, can and must come to an end because the world needs a free and sovereign Ukraine.

Updated

There are reports of loud explosions in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

A Reuters witness said artillery rounds have been heard in the capital. Another witness told the news agency that there was intense gunfire in western part of Kyiv.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, writes that five blasts within three and five minutes were heard near a power station in the north of the city.

Updated

The UK will “imminently” level personal sanctions against Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, Boris Johnson has said.

Johnson’s announcement echoes measures announced by the EU to target the Russian leader.

According to a No 10 spokesperson, Johnson told allies the UK would introduce sanctions against President Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov imminently, on top of the sanctions package the UK announced yesterday.

The PM also used the meeting to urge “immediate action” over the banning of Russia from the Swift payment system to “inflict maximum pain” on the Kremlin, they said.

Updated

The missile left a crater two metres’ deep, twisted shards of metal beside a playground slide, and shattered glass below the windows of a nearby kindergarten, the Guardian’s correspondent in Kyiv, Emma Graham-Harrison, reports.

In one apartment block 10 floors of kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms sat open to the skies, their balconies, doors and windows broken off or shattered into pieces by the weapon that brought the Russian invasion to this corner of the city.

The missile hit soon after 4am on Friday, before Russian troops reached the city outskirts, or Ukrainian troops set up defensive positions in its historic centre.

“People are grieving. This is already a tragedy,” said Gorban Abasov, a 70-year-old singer. Most of the people who lived there were pensioners like him, he said, none had army links and nearby buildings were civilian as well.

There was no reason for such a lethal weapon to land here, but none of those gathered to inspect the damage seemed surprised that civilians were already in the line of fire, even before the battle for Kyiv had really begun. After all, there was no reason for Russian troops to be in their country, beyond the terrifying whim of an ageing autocrat.

As Abasov stared at the ruins of his home, Ukrainian soldiers were already taking up position in Kyiv’s historic centre and its strategic bridges across the Dnieper and fighting advance Russian forces on its outskirts.

Britain believes Russia’s goal is to encircle Kyiv in the coming hours and days and effect “regime change” which intelligence officials warned could be achieved by killing or capturing President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the country’s leadership, the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh writes.

Western officials cited Russian president Vladimir Putin’s aggressive rhetoric from earlier on Friday, in which he called on the Ukrainian army to revolt and rid the country of “this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis”.

The official added:

It’s clear the kind of vitriol coming from Russia about the Ukrainian leadership, so I think we can expect that they would be targets for Russian forces coming into the city.

Previously US and to a lesser extent British intelligence have warned that Russia’s spy agencies have drawn up “kill lists” of key figures, who would be targeted by Moscow if their forces take control of the key cities.

The western assessment is that “the bulk of Russia’s armoured forces” aiming for Kyiv from the north west and north east remain more than 50km away at present, although some advance forces have reached the north western suburbs, near the Hostomel airport.

Although the airfield was claimed to have been captured by Russia, it appears to have been too badly damaged in the fighting to be usable to fly in reinforcements, the officials indicated.

The timing of any Russian planned encirclement of Ukraine’s capital would depend on “the level of resistance” put up by the Ukrainian forces who have largely sought to halt the Russian advance in built up areas.

Updated

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and US president Joe Biden discussed the US providing “concrete defence assistance”, according to Zelenskiy.

Updated

Territorial defence fighters test weapons and ammunition in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Territorial defence fighters test weapons and ammunition in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Mikhail Palinchak/EPA
Members of the territorial defence forces of Ukraine receive weapons in Kyiv.
Members of the territorial defence forces of Ukraine receive weapons in Kyiv. Photograph: Reuters

The Kremlin’s objectives are not limited to Ukraine, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg says.

He describes Putin’s decision to pursue aggression against Ukraine as a “terrible strategic mistake” for which Russia would pay a “severe price for years to come”.

We are facing a new normal in European security.

Nato allies and the EU have already introduced significant sanctions and must stand ready “to do more”, he says.

Even if it means we have to pay a price because we are in this for the long haul.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg is holding a news conference after world leaders held a meeting to discuss the ongoing crisis.

Russia has “shattered the peace of Europe”, he says.

The people of Ukraine are fighting for their freedom in the face of Russia’s unprovoked invasion.

We deplore the tragic loss of life, enormous human suffering and destruction.

He called on Russia to stop the “senseless” war.

Nato members to deploy more troops to eastern Europe

Nato member countries will deploy more troops to eastern Europe, world leaders said.

In a joint statement after a virtual summit chaired by secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, the 30 Nato leaders described Russia’s attack on Ukraine as “brutal and wholly unprovoked and unjustified”.

We deplore the tragic loss of life, enormous human suffering and destruction caused by Russia’s actions.

Peace on the European continent has been fundamentally shattered.

The world will hold Russia, as well as Belarus, accountable for their actions, they continued, as they called on states to condemn this “unconscionable attack”.

No one should be fooled by the Russian government’s barrage of lies.

The statement continues:

We have deployed defensive land and air forces in the eastern part of the Alliance, and maritime assets across the Nato area.

We have activated Nato’s defence plans to prepare ourselves to respond to a range of contingencies and secure Alliance territory, including by drawing on our response forces.

We are now making significant additional defensive deployments of forces to the eastern part of the alliance.

Updated

Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor on Friday said it was partially restricting access to Meta Platforms (FB.O) Facebook in response to restrictions the US social media giant has imposed on Russian media, accusing Facebook of censorship, Pjotr Sauer writes.

“On February 25, the prosecutor general’s office, in agreement with the foreign ministry, decided that the social network Facebook is involved in the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens,” a statement of the Roskomnadzor website said, adding that starting from today, measures would be taken to “partially restrict access” to Facebook.

It was not immediately clear what the restrictions would involve.

Russia has recently turned up the pressure on western social media giants. Last year, the country slowed down the operations of Twitter, after it was accused of failing to remove illegal content.

Kremlin critics have previously warned that a potential invasion of Ukraine could have negative consequences for Russia’s civil society.

“Any potential military action of any scale puts Navalny’s life at greatest risk yet,” Maria Pevchuk, the ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, tweeted just two weeks ago.

Updated

Local Ukrainian staff at the US embassy in Kyiv say they feel abandoned by the American government with no support or means of escape as the Russian military continues its invasion of Ukraine, Foreign Policy reports.

In a letter sent to US state department officials, the locally employed staff pleaded for help, including evacuation from fighting zones, relocation, US visas, and clear lines of communication with the state department in Washington, as fighting intensifies across Ukraine.

The letter reads:

We have worked side by side with you for two decades, and always had strong faith in the work US government was doing.

We need your help now. This is not a time to wait and research. This is time to act. Your actions can save our lives.

FP writes that the letter mirrors concerns from thousands of local employees who worked for the US government in Afghanistan and were later abandoned as Taliban forces gained control of the country late last year.

Before, we were told, that Ukraine is not Afghanistan.

We don’t want it to be, but if the difference is in size of bombs flying over our heads, it is not fair.

Updated

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted a video of himself outside the presidential administration in Kyiv to dispel rumours that he has fled the capital.

Wearing olive green military-style clothing and standing with his prime minister, chief of staff and other senior aides, Zelenskiy vowed stay and defend the capital against the Russian invasion.

He said:

We’re all here. Our military is here. Citizens in society are here.

We’re all here defending our independence, our country, and it will stay this way.

Updated

Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has warned both Finland and Sweden that they will face “detrimental military and political consequences” if they attempt to join Nato.

Zakharova was speaking at a press conference in Moscow earlier this afternoon, where she warned that the Nato accession of either Finland or Sweden would spark a serious response from Moscow.

We regard the Finnish government’s commitment to a military non-alignment policy as an important factor in ensuring security and stability in northern Europe.

There are reports of a large fire and explosion in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.

Note: events are moving fast and the above footage has not been independently verified.

In the latest alarming development, a senior US defence source has briefed Pentagon reporters that they believed Russia has launched an amphibious landing with thousands of naval infantry to the west of the key southern coastal city of Mariupol, the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont reports.

While the claim had few details, video posted on social media earlier appeared to show a column of Russian armoured vehicles, including T-72B3 tanks and BMP-3 armoured vehicles, moving through the coastal town of Prymorsk which is located between Melitopol and Mauripol.

Describing the “amphibious assault” under way from the Sea of Azov a senior US defence official told reporters on Friday that Russians “putting potentially thousands of naval infantry ashore there.”

He added:

The general assumption is they are going to move towards the north-east, towards Mariupol and the Donbas region.

Several social media accounts in the region also show images and accounts of volleys of Russian Grad missiles hitting targets near Mariupol late on Friday afternoon.

If the account of the landing is confirmed as true, the aim would appear to be to allow Russian marines to link up with forces further east in the Donbas region.

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Russian troops move towards Ukraine on the road near Armiansk, Crimea.
Russian troops move towards Ukraine on the road near Armiansk, Crimea. Photograph: EPA

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More than 50,000 Ukrainians have fled the country in the past 48 hours, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

He said the majority of those who have fled have gone to Poland and Moldova.

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Russia will “partly limit” access to Facebook, Russia’s censorship agency has announced.

Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor said the move was in response to restrictions Facebook has imposed on Russian media, accusing it of “censorship”.

It was not immediately clear what the restrictions would involve.

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Russia kicked out of Eurovision Song Contest

Russia has been banned from entering the Eurovision Song Contest, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said.

A statement from the body, which produces the competition, said the decision “reflects concern that, in light of the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine, the inclusion of a Russian entry in this year’s Contest would bring the competition into disrepute”.

Greece’s foreign ministry has said it is taking the emergency step of closing its embassy in Kyiv, our Greece correspondent Helena Smith writes.

In an urgent statement it said it had instructed the entire diplomatic mission to be dismantled with immediate effect because of the radically deteriorating security situation in the Ukrainian capital.

Staff, including the Greek ambassador, would be leaving the country by car, it said.

With a large ethnic Greek community in Ukraine, Athens in contrast to other EU capitals has been reluctant to close any of its diplomatic representations in the crisis-torn nation. Missions in the east have instead been reinforced.

The ministry said Greece’s general consulates in Mariupol - the frontline city that is home to a 120,000 strong Greek diaspora - and Odessa would remain open.

Plans are also afoot to evacuate ethnic Greeks via Rumania and Bulgaria if need be, diplomats say.

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Within minutes of the first explosions, Ukraine’s great exodus began, our correspondent Luke Harding writes.

Some had been planning for a Russian invasion for months. They had carefully filled the car with petrol, bought food supplies, and packed a getaway bag, just in case. And, in many cases, a carrier for much loved family pets.

Others had done nothing whatsoever. Until Russia’s blitzkrieg invasion began early on Thursday, many people in Kyiv believed the prospect fanciful. And yet the nightmare was real enough: air raid sirens, Russian helicopters flying low against a grey sky in attack formation, the roar of enemy war planes.

By Friday, as Russian forces approached Kyiv from the north-west, Ukraine responded in two ways. One was by fighting. Its protagonists were soldiers, military veterans, volunteers. Ukrainian servicemen tried to hold back a powerful enemy advancing on multiple fronts: from the east and Russia; the south and Crimea; the north and Belarus.

The other, bigger group were civilians fleeing the surging conflict. They left by any means possible. This meant cars – a great, wheeled caravan which filled the road west out of the city, and continued for dozens of miles. For hours this procession scarcely moved. Drivers emerged to stretch their legs. It was unprecedented, Ukraine’s biggest ever jam.

Those without vehicles had to find other options. There were long queues at Kyiv-Pasazhyrsky railway station. Some trains were cancelled but a few, remarkably, were running, albeit delayed by five or six hours. Military transport took priority, railway staff explained. Buying a ticket was almost impossible in a panicked city of three million people.

Some set off on foot, walking along the verge of the E40 road in the early hours of Friday morning, pulling carry-on cases. One departed on a mountain bike. On the day of invasion the Ukrainian government introduced a 10pm-7am curfew. Trains on the Soviet-built Kyiv metro stopped promptly. The underground stations remained open all night, now serving as bomb shelters.

We left at 5.30am when we heard the first explosions

Vera Ivanovna said, wiping away tears. She said she had been driving for 28 hours, after setting off from her home in Sumy, in north-eastern Ukraine, close to the city of Kharkiv and the Russian border.

I didn’t bring any clothes. I took my mother, nine-year-old daughter, and sister.

A woman carries a child on arrival to the border of Ukraine-Slovakia, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia.
A woman carries a child on arrival to the border of Ukraine-Slovakia, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia. Photograph: Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters
A view of the Polish-Ukrainian border in Dorohusk, eastern Poland.
A view of the Polish-Ukrainian border in Dorohusk, eastern Poland. Photograph: Wojtek Jargiło/EPA

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Council of Europe suspends Russia

The Council of Europe has suspended Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, AFP reports.

The 47-nation council announced that Russia was suspended with “immediate effect” from the organisation’s Committee of Ministers and parliamentary assembly on Friday “as a result of the Russian Federation’s armed attack on Ukraine.”

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Summary

If you’ve just joined us, here are the key events from today so far:

  • Fighting has reached the suburbs and historic centre of Kyiv after a night of Russian missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital. Russian forces advanced to the outskirts of the city from three sides while Ukrainian soldiers established defensive positions at key bridges and patrolled in armoured vehicles down the city’s streets.
  • Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had cut Kyiv off from the west and seized the strategic Hostomel airfield to the north-west, on the city’s outskirts, allowing it to airlift troops to the front. The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said the city had entered “a defensive phase”.
  • The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia was ready to send a delegation, including foreign and defence ministry officials, to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, for talks with Ukraine, providing the country agreed to demilitarise. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier in the day urged Russia to start negotiations, although it is unclear under which terms he would be ready to talk.
  • President Zelenskiy, pleaded for international help and for western powers to act faster to cut off Russia’s economy and provide Ukraine with military assistance. “When bombs fall on Kyiv, it happens in Europe, not just in Ukraine,” he said. “When missiles kill our people, they kill all Europeans.”
  • The west scrambled to respond to Vladimir Putin’s aggression with a range of fresh sanctions against Moscow, with the US also announcing it would send a further 7,000 troops to Germany to shore up Nato’s eastern borders. There were divisions, however, on the strength of the response.
  • EU foreign ministers announced they will seek to freeze the foreign-held assets of Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, under a new sanctions package due to be finalised on Friday. The move is largely symbolic and does not include a travel ban, as ministers wish to maintain a diplomatic way through the crisis.
  • But the EU is holding back from blocking Russia from an international payments system through which it receives foreign currency or from personally targeting Putin with sanctions. The UK has said it will work “all day” to persuade fellow European states to cut Russia off from the international Swift payment system.
  • The Council of Europe has launched a process to suspend Russia’s membership, Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said. A member of the 47-nation human rights body since 1996, Russia was kicked out of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly over the annexation of Crimea in 2014, but reinstated in 2019 with full rights.
  • Formula One has cancelled the Russian Grand Prix after a meeting between F1’s CEO Stefano Domenicali, team principals and the FIA, concluded with the clear, widespread opinion that the sport could not go to Russia while it engaged in an invasion of Ukraine.
  • All 13 Ukrainian soldiers defending an island in the Black Sea from an air and sea bombardment died after refusing to surrender to Russian troops on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said.

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Vladimir Putin’s extraordinary appeal to Ukraine’s army to overthrow the country’s democratic government is the first time the Russian president has openly spoken about regime change in Kyiv, writes the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth.

In the video, Putin claimed that Ukrainian fighters were firing rocket artillery from large cities like Kyiv in order to provoke a Russian response and civilian casualties. He did not provide any evidence for that claim. He also praised the activities of the Russian military, who he said were bravely protecting “our people and our fatherland.”

Military analysts have suggested that regime change is a goal of the campaign, based on the scale of the Russian invasion and the Kremlin’s political goals. But by calling for soldiers to overthrow Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Putin may be looking for a political pretext to explain what US intelligence have said may be the plan in Ukraine: to overthrow Ukraine’s president and replace him with a puppet leader

Barely 24 hours before Russia launched all-out war on its neighbour, Chinese pundits had predicted that conflict in Ukraine was not inevitable. Now Beijing finds itself walking a tightrope, writes the Guardian’s China Affairs correspondent Vincent Ni.

On Thursday, as she refused to use the word “invasion” to describe Russia’s action, the foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, also indicated that China would not provide arms to Russia. “I believe that as a strong country, Russia doesn’t need China or other countries to provide weapons to it,” she said.

Bonny Lin, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, said “Besides China’s effort to balance its various goals, all indications point to the fact that China prioritises its relationship with Russia at the moment,” adding that Moscow’s action also posed a problem for Beijing.

In public, Beijing advocates the position that sovereignty is sacrosanct. This is a discourse it often deploys when it talks about Taiwan, which it regards as a breakaway province.

On the other hand, the Ukraine crisis offers Beijing the opportunity to express grievances against its common adversaries with Russia: the US and Nato. So far, the latter appears to be weighing heavier in Beijing’s messaging.

Read Vincent’s piece here: China ponders how Russia’s actions in Ukraine could reshape world order

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled Russian businessman and Putin opponent, has said he believes the Russian President is “capable of anything”, even, he said potentially “pressing the red button” to launch a nuclear war, the Guardian’s Kate Connolly reports.

He said if he was not stopped Putin could set his sights on threatening other countries, citing the corridor between Lithuania and the Russian province Kaliningrad as a likely next target. The most important contribution the west could make to help bring the Russian invasion of Ukraine to an end was to show unity against Putin’s aggression and provide training, weaponry and voluntary fighters to Ukraine.

Media on the ground in Ukraine and Russia also had a vital role to play. But he said he feared that a weak leadership in the west made Putin “feel safe” and would be exploited by him. If more was not done to help Ukraine he would feel emboldened to go further, he said.

Speaking from the London office of his pro-democracy NGO, The Dossier Centre, on Friday via Zoom with European journalists, Khodorkovsky, who spent ten years in a Russian prison on fraud and embezzlement charges that were widely believed to have been politically motivated, said sanctions against Russia were important “from an ethical viewpoint” but otherwise largely tokenistic. Whilst they might have an impact in the medium term, they would take around three years to properly kick in and Putin would have “taken all of that into account” before launching his attack, he said.

The world was such a global village an oligarch could easily offset the effect of many of the sanctions, he said.

They can do their shopping in Dubai rather than in Milan. They can get supplies of microprocessors from China instead of from the United States and so on.

Asked if there was evidence that Putin was suffering from an illness, or was simply playing on the “crazy man strategy”, Khodorkovsky responded:

“He has found himself in an information bubble which forms a very distorted picture of the world in his eyes.... what does that mean for the rest of us? It means he’s very dangerous. Does it mean that he’s capable of pressing the red button? The nuclear button? I hope that he hasn’t gone that far yet in his understanding of the world, but one could never be confident about this.”

Khodorkovsky said that it was time for Britain to decide whether it should continue to tolerate the extent to which Russian influence and investment in Britain, in everything from business and banking to sport and the arts, played an integral part in British life.

I would be very intolerant and uncompromising of that part of Putin’s establishment who use the UK... to try to influence the political system of the UK... Is it acceptable, ethically and morally? British society has to decide that for itself.

He said he was particularly disturbed at the extent to which “the Kremlin uses US and British legal companies in order to reduce the impact of the sanctions on it by lobbying its interests and bribing representatives of both US and British societies.” He said he might choose to share specific examples at a later date.

Khodorkovsky said that opposition to Russia was in a far worse state than when he was behind bars as a Putin opponent in 2003, citing the case of the imprisoned opposition activist Alexei Navalny. “I was at least tried in the Moscow City Court, whilst Navalny is being tried in his penal colony.”

Referring to his military attack on Ukraine, Khodorkovsky said he believed the biggest challenge facing Putin would be the “psychological task” of keeping the army on board because Ukrainians had long formed a significant part of the Soviet forces up to the highest ranks and many would therefore question what they were doing attacking Ukraine or would face the questioning and doubts of their families..

He fought back tears as he described being overwhelmed as he had watched the invasion unfold.

It is just impossible, unimaginable.

Except the day before it was impossible and today it’s reality.

Russian forces have renewed their assault on the eastern city of Kharkiv hitting it with air strikes and shelling, the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont reports.

Residents in the city close to the Russian border had earlier reported air raid sirens and the sounds of bombers over head.

Now Roland Oliphant of the Telegraph, who has been reporting from around Kharkiv, is tweeting that it sounds as if a multiple launch rocket system is hitting the city.

Angry Putin calls on Ukrainian army to overthrow government

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the Ukrainian army to overthrow its leadership whom he labelled as a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who have has lodged itself in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people.”

Addressing the Ukrainian military in a televised address, a visibly angry Putin urged the military to “take power in your own hands”.

It seems like it will be easier for us to agree with you than this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis.

Putin further repeated his claim that the Ukrainian leadership had been engaged in “genocide” in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

We are fighting with nationalist groups that are directly responsible for the genocide of the Donbas and the bloodshed of peaceful civilians in the two republics.

In the address, Putin further accused the Ukrainian “neo-Nazi” leadership of acting like terrorists, by ‘cowering behind civilians’.

The Council of Europe has launched a process to suspend Russia’s membership, Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said, Reuters reports.

Russia has been a member of the 47-nation human rights body since 1996. It was kicked out of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly over the annexation of Crimea in 2014, but reinstated in 2019 with full rights.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has urged the US to use its influence on “hesitant European countries” that oppose banning Russia from the Swift payments system.

Kuleba did not name those “hesitant” countries, but we know they include France, Germany and Italy.

Earlier, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was withering about Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi, in a tweet about apparent attempts to set up a phone call.

Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov are expected to be put on an EU list of individuals facing asset freezes, the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, has confirmed.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers, where a second tranche of sanctions against Russia will be approved, Borrell said:

If there are no surprises and no one objects as we require unanimity then, yes, Putin and Lavrov will be on the list.

As the Guardian’s Daniel Boffey reports, the move is largely symbolic, as the Russian president is unlikely to have identifiable personal assets abroad, but it will be part of an attempt to highlight the EU’s resolve.

“I think we agree that Putin and Lavrov, as far as the freezing of assets is concerned, that we will find a consensus here,” said Luxembourg’s foreign minister, Jean Asselborn.

Putin and Lavrov, who has been foreign minister since 2004, would not face travel bans as the EU wishes to maintain a diplomatic way through the crisis, ministers said.

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Hacker group Anonymous 'declares cyber-war' on Russia

The hacker group Anonymous has said it is “officially in cyber war against the Russian government” reports the Guardian’s global technology editor Dan Milmo.

The statement in a tweet thread came as several Russian government websites such as the Kremlin and the Duma, as well as the state-backed RT news site (formerly Russia Today), were hit by so-called distributed denial of service attacks.

Anonymous, whose targets in the past have included the CIA and IS, added in another tweet that private sector entities would be affected too.

In a DDoS, a website is deluged with spurious requests for information – akin to stuffing a thousand envelopes through a letterbox every second – that render the site unreachable.

According to Craig Terron, a senior analyst at Recorded Future, which monitors cyber-threats, the RT site remained “intermittently available” today, having gone down at 5pm (2pm GMT) Moscow time on Thursday.

The website is intermittently available, with continued reports of users unable to access the website, as of 1330 Moscow time on 25 February.

RT said it had been “able to repel” the hit on its servers.

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Ukraine reports higher but 'not critical' radiation levels at Chernobyl

Ukrainian officials have said that higher than usual radiation levels have been detected in the area near the old Chernobyl nuclear plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

After Russia said it had taken control of the plant, Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate reported on Friday higher gamma radiation levels had been detected in the Chernobyl zone. It said the levels were “not critical”, but didn’t provide details of the increase, Associated Press and Reuters reported.

The inspectorate attributed the rise to a “disturbance of the topsoil due to the movement of a large amount of heavy military equipment through the exclusion zone and the release of contaminated radioactive dust into the air”.

Nuclear experts said on Friday that radiation levels had risen at the Chernobyl plant, based on automated monitoring data, but cast doubt about attributing that to disturbed soil, reports the Guardian’s science correspondent Hannah Devlin.

Prof Tom Scott, a nuclear expert at Bristol University, who was in touch with the Ukrainian team responsible for managing Chernobyl earlier this week, said:

Radiation levels have gone up, which in normal times would be very unusual, but not to levels where I’d be really concerned or panic.

Scott said reports of the spike being caused by disturbed radioactive topsoil did not entirely fit with automated monitoring data he had seen, which showed highest levels of radioactivity immediately around the power plant, which doesn’t have any soil.

The most toxic nuclear waste is encased in a concrete sarcophagus inside Reactor No 4, covered by a large metal arch-shaped structure. Scott said that the metal exterior could be damaged by artillery fire, but that “it would take something deliberate and substantial” to damage the internal concrete sarcophagus and cause a major radioactive leak.

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Moldova says ship in 'neutral' Black Sea hit by unknown missile

Moldova’s national naval agency has said a ship in “neutral waters” of the Black Sea has been hit by a missile, leaving two crew members seriously injured, Associated Press reports.

The Naval Agency said in a statement that the source of the missile that hit the Moldova-flagged Millennial Spirit on Friday was unknown.

A fire broke out onboard the ship; the equipment and lifeboats were destroyed. The ship’s crew left the ship equipped only with life jackets.

The agency said that the company that operates the tanker is a Ukrainian legal entity and the crew members are Russian citizens. Rescue operations were carried out by Ukrainian authorities, the Moldovan agency said.

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Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has hit back, after Russia cited Ireland as part of an attempted justification for invading Ukraine.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov referred to Ireland and the status of the English language, as he accused the west of double standards over Ukraine.

The response from Dublin was swift:

While most global powers have been roundly damning of Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine, India’s response has been somewhat muted – a reflection of the diplomatic dilemma that the country now finds itself in: torn between Russia and the west.

As the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen writes, hours after Putin’s invasion began, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, was among the first to call the Russian president, calling for a “cessation” of violence, but steering clear of directly condemning his actions. India’s top diplomat at the UN was equally evasive, expressing “regret” at the invasion, and calling for “urgent de-escalation of tensions”.

India currently relies on Russia for around 60%-70% of their arms and military hardware, which are crucial at a time when they are engaged in a frosty stand-off with China along their border. India recently purchased a missile defence system from Russia and relies on it for essential spare parts for defence machinery.

Putin made a visit to India as recently as December 2021, one of the only countries the Russian President has travelled to during the pandemic, a sign of the close ties between the two countries. India also relies on Russia for vital supplies of fertiliser, and the severe sanctions on Russia could severely impact Indian farming and industry.

On Friday, the Russian chargé d’affaires in Delhi, Roman Babushkin, said that they “expect our Indian partners to support Russia” at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) when a resolution opposing the military Russian operation against Ukraine will come up for a vote. India is expected to abstain.

India’s relatively neutral position is likely to anger the US, another ally of the Indian government. In a call to the Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar on Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken urged a “strong collective response”.

But the request was met with derision by a ministry of information spokesperson, Kanchan Gupta, who in a mocking tweet questioned why India should back the US position when they had taken “consistently anti-India positions at the UN...yet you want India’s help”.

The Ukrainian ambassador to India, Igor Polikha, pleaded with Modi to use his influence with Russia to restrain Putin’s actions, calling it a “moment of destiny”.

Talking to India media, Polikha said:

I don’t know how many world leaders Putin may listen to, but the stature of Modi makes me hopeful. We are waiting, asking, pleading for the assistance of India.

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Russia is ready to send diplomats to Minsk for talks with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

According to the Interfax news agency, Peskov said Vladimir Putin was ready to send officials from the Kremlin, defence and foreign affairs ministries for talks in the Belarusian capital to discuss “the neutral status of Ukraine”, adding that Ukraine’s “demilitarisation and denazification” were an essential part of this neutral status.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier in the day urged Russia to start negotiations, although it is unclear under which terms he would be ready to talk.

Putin’s entirely unfounded claim that Ukraine is under Nazi rule is a key part of the Kremlin’s justification for war.

As Russia has just sent a massive invading army into Ukraine, the latest announcement is been treated with scepticism by Moscow reporters.

The Kremlin statement came not long after foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was only prepared to talk once Ukrainians “put down their arms”, suggesting, perhaps, some confusion over the Russian government’s intentions.

Updated

From an Associated Press reporter in the north of Kyiv:

Updated

Kyiv in defensive phase, says city mayor

Kyiv “has entered into a defensive phase”, its mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has said, as Russian forces closed in on Ukraine’s capital.

Speaking to journalists, he said:

The city has gone into a defensive phase. Shots and explosions are ringing out in some neighbourhoods. Saboteurs have already entered Kyiv. The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us.

Quote from Reuters.

Trucks, normally used as snow ploughs to clear the city’s streets, are stationed as a check point to slow vehicles down, along a main road leading into Kyiv.
Trucks, normally used as snow ploughs to clear the city’s streets, are stationed as a check point to slow vehicles down, along a main road leading into Kyiv. Photograph: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images

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Russia claims it has captured airport outside Kyiv

Russia’s military has said it has blocked Kyiv from the western side and captured the strategic Hostomel airport outside the capital, news agency Interfax reports.

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov also said more than 200 people from Ukrainian special units had been killed.

The Russian claims have not been independently verified.

As Associated Press reports, the airport has a long runway allowing the landing of heavy-lift transport planes, which means Russia could airlift troops directly to Kyiv’s outskirts. Hostomel is just 7 km (4 miles) northwest of the city.

Ukrainian military vehicles were reported to be entering Kyiv to defend the capital, according to TV news cited by Reuters.

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EU preparing to freeze Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrov's assets, reports say

The EU is preparing to freeze the assets of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as part of a third round of sanctions against Russia, the Financial Times reports.

Foreign ministers are planning to approve the sanctions package this afternoon, along with a number of measures against Russian banks and industry, the paper quotes three people familiar with the matter.

Putin and Lavrov will not be subject to a ban on travelling under the measures, the FT writes, underlining the EU’s willingness to keep symbolic diplomatic possibilities open.

An EU official, speaking under condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “We are moving as quickly as we can,” adding the bloc could also target “many more” oligarchs.

Updated

Russian forces have taken control of Hostomel airfield near Kyiv and landed paratroopers in the area, Russia’s Interfax news agency is reporting.

Russia’s defence ministry said the Russian military “eliminated” more than 200 people from Ukraine’s special units during the capture of the strategic aerodrome.

It said forces had blocked access to Kyiv from the west, and separatist forces in eastern Ukraine had attacked Ukrainian army positions with Russian army support.

A Russian Ka-52 helicopter gunship in the field after a forced landing near Hostomel airfield outside Kyiv, 24 February
A Russian Ka-52 helicopter gunship in the field after a forced landing near Hostomel airfield outside Kyiv, 24 February Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Updated

Kyiv has entered into “a defensive phase”, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko, says.

Speaking at a news briefing, Klitschko said:

The city has gone into a defensive phase. Shots and explosions are ringing out in some neighbourhoods. Saboteurs have already entered Kyiv.

The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us.

The Russian news agency Tass reports that the Russian defence ministry says forces will not strike residential areas of Kyiv.

Updated

Formula One has cancelled the Russian Grand Prix after the state’s invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian’s Giles Richards reports.

The sport did not issue any condemnation of Russia but cited the “impossibility” of holding the race under the current circumstances.

The meeting, set to take place in September, is expected to be provisionally replaced on the calendar by Turkey, with the Istanbul Park circuit already on standby as a replacement for potential Covid-related cancellations.

On Thursday evening F1’s CEO Stefano Domenicali held a meeting with the team principals and the FIA to discuss the Russian GP, with clear, widespread opinion that the sport could not go to Russia while it engaged in an invasion of Ukraine.

Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner had described the idea of going to Russia as simply untenable and the world champion Max Verstappen had decried the idea of going racing in a country that had declared war on a neighbouring state. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was the first driver to declare he would boycott the race if it went ahead.

A statement from F1 read: the FIA Formula 1 World Championship visits countries all over the world with a positive vision to unite people, bringing nations together. We are watching the developments in Ukraine with sadness and shock and hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to the present situation. On Thursday evening Formula One, the FIA, and the teams discussed the position of our sport, and the conclusion is, including the view of all relevant stakeholders, that it is impossible to hold the Russian Grand Prix in the current circumstances.

Updated

China’s president, Xi Jinping, told Vladimir Putin that China supports Russia in efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis via dialogue, Chinese state media is reporting.

In a readout of the call on state broadcaster CCTV, Xi pointed out that the “situation in eastern Ukraine has undergone rapid changes... (and) China supports Russia and Ukraine to resolve the issue through negotiation”.

According to the Chinese media readout, Putin outlined the reasons for Russia launching the “special military operation”, and told Xi that Nato and the United States had “long ignored Russia’s reasonable security concerns”.

He also told Xi on the call that Russia was ready to hold “high-level” talks with Ukraine.

According to the CCTV readout, Xi said China was “willing to work with all parties in the international community to advocate a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security concept, and firmly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at the core”.

Updated

Here’s more on Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s recent comments as he called on Vladimir Putin to sit return to the negotiation table.

In a televised statement today, Zelenskiy said he is calling on the Russian leader to negotiate to put an end to the fighting.

I would like to address the president of Russia once again: fighting is happening all over Ukraine, let’s sit down for talks to stop deaths.

The Ukrainian leader urged Europe to act more quickly and forcefully in imposing sanctions on Moscow for invading Ukraine, accusing western allies of politicking as Moscow’s forces advanced on Kyiv.

“Europe has enough strength to stop this aggression,” Zelenskiy said, adding that everything from banning Russians from entering the European Union to cutting Moscow off from Swift to an oil embargo should be on the table.

You still can stop this aggression. You have to act swiftly.

Updated

New EU sanctions to hit all Duma members and Russian security council, leaked draft suggests

According to a leaked draft of the new sanctions agreed by EU leaders, all members of the Duma, the Russian security council and any Belarusian officials in the military and ministry of defence who “facilitated” the invasion of Ukraine will be subject to travel bans and asset freezes, the Guardian’s Daniel Boffey reports.

The previous sanctions hit the 351 Duma members who had supported recognition by Russia of the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk.

There is a proposal to enlarge the listing criteria for sanctioning individuals as well to “better capture other forms of support to the regime, including oligarchs”.

Two additional banks will be subject to sanctions: Alfa bank and Otkritie, and there will be a prohibition on EU financial service providers lending to eight companies, ranging from the owners of seaports to automobile manufacturers.

There is also a proposal to prohibit new deposits of over €100,000 in EU banks by Russian nationals.

Foreign ministers will meet later this afternoon to approve the draft text.

Updated

“Those pictures, that footage that everybody saw, that’s literally my home... Thanks god my family is safe.” This was the moment on a live broadcast when a BBC journalist from Ukraine saw footage of her family home, partially destroyed overnight in Kyiv.

Taliban "concerned" about civilian casualties in Ukraine

Afghanistan’s Taliban have said they are “concerned” about the possibility of civilian casualties in Ukraine, reports the Guardian’s Akhtar Makoii

The Taliban foreign ministry said in a statement they will remain neutral in line with their foreign policy.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls for restraint by both parties. All sides need to desist from taking positions that could intensify violence. We are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine and express concerns about the real possibility of civilian casualties.

Afghanistan’s new rulers, who have not been recognised by any country, have asked Ukraine and Russia to resolve the problem through “dialogue and peaceful means.”

The statement called on parties to pay attention to safeguarding the lives of Afghan students and migrants in Ukraine. Hundreds of Afghans were evacuated to Ukraine after the country fell to the Taliban last August.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on Vladimir Putin to join him at the negotiating table, according to Russian newswire Ria Novosti.

Zelenskiy also said Europe can still stop Russia’s aggression if it acts swiftly.

Here are some of his other comments, via Reuters.

  • UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ACCUSES EUROPE OF INSUFFICIENT REACTION, SLOW HELP TO UKRAINE WHILE RUSSIAN
  • UKRAINE’S ZELENSKIY SAYS RUSSIAN ASSAULT LIKE REPEAT OF WORLD WAR TWO
  • UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT TELLS ARMED FORCES “YOU ARE ALL WE HAVE”
  • UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT CALLS ON EUROPEAN CITIZENS TO PROTEST TO FORCE THEIR GOVERNMENTS TO MORE DECISIVELY

The mayor of Milan has told Valery Gergiev, a conductor close to the Russian president Vladimir Putin, that he will not be allowed to lead an orchestra at the prestigious La Scala opera house in March unless he condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reports the Guardian’s Angela Giuffrida from Rome.

Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who is also president of La Scala, said.

We are asking him to take a clear position against this invasion, and in the event he doesn’t do so, we will have to renounce the collaboration.

Gergiev, a music director of St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre who was awarded a Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation prize by Putin, is due to return to La Scala on 5 March to finish a programme of Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Queen of Spades’.

People are too scared to go out, one resident of the Black Sea port city of Odesa, told the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont.

Maryna who lives in Odesa who described the situation in the Black Sea port city.

I live in Odesa in Kotovsky settlement on the northern edge of the city. There are not many explosions where I am. It’s a narrow, long town along the coast and I’m in the north whereas most of the military units are in the south.

The only thing near me is a training area which I can usually hear and it is quiet. One of strikes yesterday hit a residential area called 411 Battery. It’s a historic area named after the gun battery that defended Odessa in World War II but now it is residential.

People in Odessa are mainly staying indoors. The shops are open but people are too scared to go out and yesterday people bought all the bread because they were worried it would run out.

Asked what she thought Vladimir Putin intended for Ukraine, she answered:

It doesn’t matter what I think. I don’t think anyone really knows what will happen. But what I want is for the Ukrainian armed forces to stop the invaders. I am scared and I am unhappy but I hope they can protect us.

Updated

More reports of gunfire that can be heard in Kyiv’s historic city centre.

Earlier on Thursday the Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison met Kyiv residents in an area of the city that had been hit.

A selection of the most powerful images from the conflict this morning. See more in our live gallery here which will be updated through the day.

Natali Sevriukova stands outside her apartment block in Kyiv following a rocket attack on Friday.
Natali Sevriukova stands outside her apartment block in Kyiv following a rocket attack on Friday. Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP
Destroyed Russian army rocket launchers with the letter “Z” painted on their sides in Kharkiv.
Destroyed Russian army rocket launchers with the letter “Z” painted on their sides in Kharkiv. Photograph: Maksim Levin/Reuters
People take shelter in the basement of a building while sirens sound warning of new attacks in Kyiv.
People take shelter in the basement of a building while sirens sound warning of new attacks in Kyiv. Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP
A family travelling with their dog near the Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi railway station in Kyiv
A family travelling with their dog near the Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi railway station. Photograph: Oleksandr Khomenko/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
People queue to donate blood for the army in Lviv.
People queue to donate blood for the army in Lviv. Photograph: Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images
Servicemen of the Ukrainian National Guard take positions in central Kyiv
Ukrainian National Guard servicemen take positions in central Kyiv. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

India is exploring ways to set up a rupee payment mechanism for trade with Russia to soften the blow on New Delhi of Western sanctions imposed on Russia.

Reuters reports that government and banking sources said Indian officials aere concerned that vital supplies of fertilizer from Russia could be disrupted as sanctions intensify, threatening India’s vast farm sector.

India has called for an end to violence in Ukraine but refrained from outright condemnation of Russia, with which it has long-standing political and security ties.

Fuel, cash and medical supplies are running low in parts of Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, which could drive up to five million people to flee abroad, UN aid agencies said.

Reuters reports:

At least 100,000 people are uprooted in Ukraine after fleeing their homes, while several thousand have already crossed into neighbouring countries including Moldova, Romania and Poland, UN refugee agency spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told a U.N. briefing in Geneva.

“We are still trying to see which civilian infrastructure in Ukraine has been hit where,” Afshan Khan, Unicef’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia, told the briefing.

UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that it had reports of at least 127 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 25 killed and 102 injured, “caused by shelling and air strikes”. This was likely a significant under-estimate, she said.

Turkey cannot stop Russian warships accessing the Black Sea via its straits, as Ukraine has requested, due to a clause in an international pact that allows vessels to return to their home base, the Turkish foreign minister said.

Reuters reports:

Ukraine has appealed to Turkey to block Russian warships from passing through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits which lead to the Black Sea, after Moscow on Thursday launched a full-blown assault on Ukraine from land, air and sea.

Russian forces landed at Ukraine’s Black and Azov Sea ports as part of the invasion.

Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, Turkey has control over the straits and can limit the passage of warships during wartime or if threatened, but the request has put the Nato member in a difficult position as it tries to manage its Western commitments and close ties with Russia.

Speaking in Kazakhstan, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey was studying Kyiv’s request but said Russia had the right under the Convention to return ships to their home base, in this case the Black Sea.

So even if Turkey decided after a legal process to accept Ukraine’s request and close the straits to Russian warships, he said, they would only be prevented from travelling in the other direction, away from their home base into the Mediterranean.

Residents in Kharkiv urged to seek shelter

The mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has urged residents to head to subway stations, bomb shelters and basements.

Loud blasts were heard in the city earlier, a witness told Reuters, as missile strikes and air raid alerts were reported in a number of cities in Ukraine.

There are several lines from the Kremlin coming in on Reuters:

  • Putin will meet the UN Security Council today and hold several international phone calls
  • Russia will impose retaliatory sanctions on western countries
  • Russia recognises Volodymyr Zelenskiy as president of Ukraine
  • Sanctions will cause problems but are solvable since the country has reduced its dependence on foreign imports
  • Russia expects relations with the west to normalise once people understand it was forced to act to protect its security
  • No comment on the duration of the military operations

The Kremlin has declined to comment on possible talks between Russia’s President Vladmir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but acknowledged the latter’s willingness to discuss a possible neutrality pledge by Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would analyse the offer and added that Moscow’s expectations of Kyiv remained unchanged, Reuters reports.

Moscow has long demanded guarantees that Ukraine would never join Nato or allow the bloc to deploy troops and weapons on its territory.

The Ski Association of Japan said on Friday it will pull out its team from a ski cross World Cup event in Russia after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, according to news agency Kyodo.

The team also plans to ensure the safety of its athletes and bring them home from Russia, the report said.

Japan joins several other nations, including Australia and Canada, in abandoning the event.

Kyiv residents told to remain home

The authorities in Kyiv have told citizens to stay home to avoid “active military operations” in the Obolonskyi district, just north of the city centre, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile Unicef’s regional director has said the agency is still trying to see which civilian infrastructure has been hit and where.

Updated

Russia denies plans to occupy Ukraine

Russian independent news agency Interfax reports Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov as saying “no one is planning to occupy Ukraine”.

He added that Russia still does not recognise the current government in Ukraine as democratic and that president Zelenskiy is lying when he says he is ready to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine.

Lavrov said the Russian government wants the Ukrainian people to be independent and that it would ensure the demilitarisation of the country.

Separately Reuters reports that Lavrov said Russia is ready for talks once Ukraine’s army stops fighting, and that no one plans to attack the Ukrainian people. “We do not want Neo-Nazis to rule Ukraine,” he said.

Updated

4 million people expected to flee Ukraine

The UN Refugee Agency has predicted that 4 million people may flee Ukraine to other countries “if the situation escalates further”, Reuters reports.

Unicef, which has projected 5 million refugees, said it is strengthening its capacity to help Ukrainian refugees in Moldova, Romania and Poland as a “first call”, and “obviously Hungary and Slovakia as well”.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights denounced the arrests of some 1,800 anti-war protesters in Russia and called for the release of those unlawfully held for voicing opinions.

Updated

Virgin Atlantic has announced it will avoid Russian airspace, meaning flights between Britain, India and Pakistan will take between 15 and 60 minutes longer.

A spokesperson said:

We apologise for any inconvenience caused to customers by slightly longer flight times.

The safety and security of our customers and people always comes first and we’re monitoring the situation in Ukraine and Russia extremely carefully following the escalation of conflict, continuing to operate in full compliance with relevant safety regulators, authorities and governments.

Updated

Russia will expand trade with Asia to minimise economic effect of sanctions

Russia’s ministry for the economy said it is working on measures to minimise the impact of the sanctions imposed by western countries following the invasion of Ukraine.

The ministry said this will include plans to expand trade and economic ties with Asia, Reuters reports.

The ministry said:

We understand that the sanctions pressure we have faced since 2014 will now intensify.

The rhetoric of some of our foreign colleagues was such that we have been ready for potential new sanctions for a long time.

Updated

Thousands of people fleeing war in Ukraine are pouring into Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia as Russian missiles pound the capital Kyiv, with many waiting for hours at congested border crossings in freezing temperatures.

Reuters reports:

A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion, it was mostly women and children crossing, after Ukraine restricted passage for men between 18 and 60 years old.

Local media in Poland said some had waited 16-18 hours to cross into Medyka in southern Poland in freezing temperatures.

Border authorities said 29,000 people had entered Poland from Ukraine on Thursday, though it was unclear how many were war refugees and not foreigners going home.

Poland’s deputy interior minister Pawe* Szefernaker said Ukrainian bus drivers were unable to drive across the border as conscription-age men were being held back in Ukraine.

Micha* Mielniczuk, a spokesman for the southern Polish region of Podkarpackie said temporary accommodation was being offered to people arriving.

“The vast majority continue on to other places throughout Poland after receiving a warm meal,” he told the PAP news agency.

On the border with northern Romania, women were crying as they bid goodbye to male loved ones, setting off to cross into Sighetu Marmatiei, a Reuters witness said.

Long queues had formed as cars waited to board a ferry over the Danube river into Isaccea, a town between Moldova and the Black Sea, local media in Romania showed.

Slovak authorities urged people to donate blood and set up hospitals with 5,380 beds assigned for the army or NATO use.

Across central Europe, on NATO’s eastern flank, volunteers were putting up messages on social media to organise housing and transport for people arriving from the borders. Activists were setting up food and hot drink distribution points and vets were offering to take care of pets.

Bulgaria started issuing passports to its citizens in Kyiv who needed travel documents and had sent four buses to the Ukrainian capital to evacuate people.

The city of Sumy in northeaster Ukraine has been taken by Russian forces, a resident told the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont.

He has been speaking to people across the country, as the all-out Russian attack continues.

Sasha, 33, is a vet who lives in Sumy, the main city in the Sumy region, about 200km west of the Russian border, which was taken yesterday by Russian forces.

She said:

I live not far from the artillery training school which is where there was fighting yesterday when the Russians came.

I have elderly parents and a small child, so we think it’s best to stay. A friend is also with us with her child. We have some food and from what I know from friends who tried to leave people are queuing at borders out of Ukraine and men not being allowed leave.

All the traffic in the city has stopped and there is Russian armour in the streets. If the citizens don’t shoot at the Russians, they don’t shoot back. They arrived before lunchtime yesterday which is when we heard the shooting. It’s quiet now. So far it is only Russian soldiers and they are not making any proclamations.

Everything is closed down and people are staying inside. People spent yesterday in cellars and shelters hiding. I can’t see the Russians... but the artillery school is near us, so we heard the fighting. I don’t know what is going to happen and I’m really scared. I think the Russians want a new Soviet Union and they want us as part of that but no one wants that.

We’ve also heard that the Russians have taken Okhtyrka which is 70 kilometres from here and further west. They have put up the Russian flag.

Yulia, aged 33, is a translator for an IT programme who normally lives in the centre of Kyiv but has evacuated to a village on the capital’s western outskirts.

We’ve been hearing lots of explosions and shelling, mainly in the early morning and late at night. Pretty much, villages around here are now ghost villages. I’m with my mother in law. We have some supplies but my mother in law is a school director and she’s been in the bomb shelter with the children with the children since the invasion and that’s not nice.

We’re close to the outskirts of Kyiv. From what I’ve heard some Russian troops have got hold of Ukrainian armed forces and uniforms and are trying to enter Kyiv [a reference to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s comments about “infiltrators” and other Ukrainian government statements.] I think it’s safer to stay where we are. A lot of people trying to leave, but there are attacks across the country.

Asked what she thought Vladimir Putin wanted she replied:

I’ve been following the Russian social media. I think honestly that their president is a sick person. He wants to restore the USSR. Their people are just following that idea. They are not living in a modern society. They are just following that idea that it is Russia against the US us and the west. It’s just showing the world. Ukraine is just a war fighting platform. I don’t even think it’s personal.”

Olena Serdiuk is a 43 year old economist who lives in Dnipro, a city on the river Dnieper just over 200 km from the Black Sea coast.

It’s relatively calm here. There’s no shooting and last night there were few people in the streets.

There were air strikes on Thursday morning aimed at a radio tower and airfield but I don’t think this city is seen as a valuable target.

I’m scared and stressed. I can’t say I feel physically threatened by invasion but I’m, worried about the future and the economy. My husband’s company is in Mariupol. I think I was more

[She said she was ] more shocked and shaken by the attack in western regions because no one expected that to happen. While I say I don’t believe the Russians will come into Dnipro maybe that’s just me protecting myself because I don’t want to believe it.

I do hope we can manage fight back and that we’ll get help from other countries, because the Kremlin needs to fall.

Updated

Gunfire has been heard near the government quarter of Kyiv, Associated Press reports.

Updated

France says cutting Russia out of Swift "very last resort"

France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire has said cutting Russia off from the Swift global interbank payments system was “a very last resort”, Reuters reports.

The European Union and US chose not to cut Russia off from interbank messaging system, as part of toughened sanctions announced on Thursday in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers, Le Maire said:

This is the very last resort, Swift, but this is one of the options that remains on the table.

His German counterpart, Christian Lindner, said “all options are on the table” in addition to those already agreed.

Lithuania’s prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė has said the discussion about excluding Russia from Swift is not closed: “we know who disagrees and we continue to negotiate with them.”

The debate continues to rage, after Ukraine’s government said western allies would have “blood on their hands” if they did not cut Russia out of Swift.

The head of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, Norbert Röttgen, is urging Germany to think again on Swift. Along with France and Italy, Germany favours what more hawkish EU diplomats call an “incrementalist” approach to sanctions.

Updated

A few dozen Ukraine supporters gathered outside Moscow’s de facto diplomatic presence in Taipei, Taiwan on Friday, the Guardian’s Helen Davidson reports from the city.

There is a small eastern European community in Taipei, but Taiwanese people have also expressed solidarity with Ukraine as both are self governing democracies threatened by a much larger authoritarian neighbour.

Anu Hesselbaek is an Estonian woman who has lived in Taiwan for two years (pictured on the right in red). She told Helen:

It’s so important we stand with Ukraine. If this continues it’s like there will be no end to what superpowers can do. Also I think about what happens next. There is a line of Baltic countries which are very afraid right now.

Asked about the parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan, she said:

I feel sad. If it can happen in Ukraine, why not here? Estonia and Taiwan have exactly the same area. They could both be afternoon snacks.

UK flights to be banned from Russian airspace in response to British sanctions

Russia is restricting the use of its airspace for all British flights, including transit, reports news wire Ria Novosti.

The report comes after the UK government announced that Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot would be banned from British airspace in a sweeping package of sanctions announced on Thursday.

Updated

Ukraine urges tougher sanctions against Russia

As Russian forces advance on Kyiv, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been working the phones, urging western countries to toughen up sanctions on Russia and increase military support.

Updated

Ukraine urges citizens to resist as Russian forces enter Kyiv

Explosions and gunfire have been heard in a northern district of Kyiv, as invading Russian forces closed in, AFP reports from the ground.

Pedestrians ran for safety and small arms fire and explosions were heard in the Obolonskyi area. The larger blasts could be heard as far away as the city centre.

Russian forces first arrived on the outskirts of Kyiv on Thursday when helicopter-borne troops assaulted an airfield just outside the city, close to Obolonskyi, AFP reports.

As they arrived in Obolonskyi within the city, the Ministry of Defence’s Facebook page urged civilians to resist:

We urge citizens to inform us of troop movements, to make Molotov cocktails, and neutralise the enemy.

Updated

Queues of cars at the borders to leave Ukraine for Hungary and Poland now involve a wait of up to 15 hours, reports the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont in Lviv.

However one of the consequences of yesterday’s general mobilisation order issued by the Ukrainian president, Voldomyr Zelenskiy, is that most men are not allowed to leave, with many dropping their families off at borders. That call-up of reservists has seen men up to the age of 60 summoned for duty. I heard of the case of one 52-year-old and his friends of similar age here in Lviv being called up yesterday to go to help with the defence of Mariupol.

Also complicating the issue for those wanting to leave the country is that with internal flights suspended, and fuel in short supply, there is a 20- litre fuel restriction at six petrol stations and inevitable queues.

Updated

People have been protesting against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine around the world. Here are some images from demonstrations in Madrid, Sydney and New York.

Protest in front of the Russian embassy against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Madrid on Thursday.
Protest in front of the Russian embassy against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Madrid on Thursday. Photograph: Álvaro Laguna/Pacific Press/Rex/Shutterstock
Protesters in Sydney against the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Friday.
Protesters in Sydney against the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Friday. Photograph: Richard Milnes/Rex/Shutterstock
Protesters against Russia’s invasion Of Ukraine gather outside a Russian diplomatic building in New York City on Thursday.
Protesters against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gather outside a Russian diplomatic building in New York City on Thursday.
 Photograph: John Nacion/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Summary

Welcome to rolling updates on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I’m Jennifer Rankin and here are the main developments of the past few hours.

As dawn broke in Kyiv, air raid sirens were sounding across the Ukrainian capital amid warnings of an imminent Russian attack on the city.

Ukraine expects a Russian tank attack later on Friday which could become the hardest day in the war, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister said.

Anton Herashchenko said the defenders of Kyiv were ready with anti-tank missiles supplied by foreign allies.

Earlier, Kyiv residents reported waking to the sound of explosions as reports circulated that Russia had launched a series of missile strikes on the city of just under 3 million people.

Many civilians sought safety in bomb shelters and metro stations as reports of Russian tanks were moving closer to the city from all sides.

  • The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said it is the view of British intelligence that Russia intends to invade the whole of Ukraine but its army failed to deliver on the first day of its invasion. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said “all evidence suggests that Russia intends to encircle and threaten” the Ukrainian capital.
  • The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has confirmed multiple reports of Russian missile strikes in a national address early on Friday morning. Multiple explosions were heard in Kyiv on Friday morning as the Russian offensive entered its second day. Two buildings were on fire in the south east of the capital after a Russian plane was shot down and a border post in the south east was hit by a missile, causing casualties.
  • Zelenskiy said 137 people have died and 316 had been wounded so far. In a video address late on Thursday, he lamented that Ukraine had been “left alone to defend our state”, but said he would stay on in the capital despite being Russia’s “target number one”.
  • Ukraine has decreed a full military mobilisation and all men aged 18-60 have been forbidden from leaving Ukraine.

Updated

I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be handing over this live blog to my colleagues in London.

You can also reach me on Twitter to share your feedback and updates on the unfolding crisis in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s deputy minister of defence, Hanna Malyar, said the Russian military seized two cars of the Ukrainian armed forces before changing into the uniform of the Ukrainian military and then driving to the centre of Kyiv from Obolonskyi.

Ukrainian lieutenant general Valerii Zaluzhniy appeared to confirm reports in a statement on the website of Ukraine’s armed forces.

Updated

The charred remains of a residential building in Kyiv has been shared by Ukrainian media today.

Early on Friday morning, two residential buildings were seen on fire in south-east Kyiv after they were hit by falling debris from an aircraft that was shot down.

The fire comes after reports emerged from a Ukrainian interior ministry official who earlier said Russian aircraft had been shot down in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv.

Myanmar has said it backs Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Brig. Gen Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the junta in Myanmar, told The New York Times by telephone:

In the case of Russia and Ukraine, Russia has done its part to maintain its sovereignty, and I think it is the right thing to do.

Russia is also a big country among world powers and is showing that it also plays a main role in the balance sheet of maintaining world peace.”

Russia intends to invade the whole of Ukraine, UK defence minister says

UK defence secretary has said it is the view of British intelligence that Russia intends to invade the whole of Ukraine but its army failed to deliver on the first day of its invasion.

Ben Wallace said he estimated Russia has lost more than 450 personnel and the Russian army failed to deliver its major objectives on day one of its invasion.

The UK’s ministry of defence earlier released an intelligence update on the developments in Ukraine.

Russian forces have likely captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Workers have reportedly been detained by Russian troops.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have reportedly halted Russia’s advance towards Chernihiv. Fighting probably continues on the outskirts of the city.

It is unlikely that Russia has achieved its planned day one military objectives.

Ukrainian forces have presented fierce resistance across all axes of Russia’s advance.”

Updated

Overnight, banking officials were also seeking to calm Russians about the effects of sanctions.

Russian banks that landed on US, EU and UK sanctions lists have spent the night reassuring depositors that their money is safe, in efforts to maintain calm and prevent bank runs.

VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, said that the sanctions would not affect the ability of clients to withdraw money at any cash machine in Russia, and that the bank had not restricted foreign currency exchanges.

Gazprombank, the country’s third-largest, assured customers that the sanctions against it were “not blocking (SDN) and do not affect the bank’s regular operations.”

A Guardian correspondent on Monday observed tellers at Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, telling customers they had already exchanged all their reserves of foreign currency and that they would need to come back the next day.

Sberbank gave similar assurances to customers, while saying it needed to review the conditions of the new restrictions under the US Treasury sanctions.

US banks have until May 25 to finalise their dealings with Sberbank, VTB, Otkritie, Sovcombank, and VEB equities, the body said.

The head office of VTB Bank in Moscow.
The head office of VTB Bank in Moscow. Photograph: Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

Updated

Here is a report from the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth on the Kremlin’s messaging to Russians.

Russian lawmakers have been busy trying to justify the country’s invasion of Ukraine, despite growing evidence of missile and rocket strikes on population centres.

Valentina Matviyenko, the chairwoman of Russia’s Federation Council, said that the government had “no other choice” but to launch an attack that appears to be aimed at capturing major Ukrainian cities like Kyiv.

“Russia has announced a special military operation to force Ukraine to peace, to stop its militarisation going on in the most active way,” she said in public remarks on Friday morning.

Matviyenko, who was born in western Ukraine, added: “We were left with no other choice. Yes, it is not an easy choice, but it is the only way to stop the fratricidal war.”

Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, repeated earlier remarks that the massive attack on their country was being carried out in the interests of Ukrainians.

“Ukrainian citizens shouldn’t be afraid of the peacekeeping operation. It is solely aimed at demilitarization,” Volodin said during a visit to Nicaragua.

He also repeated claims that the operation was aimed at de-Nazification: an indication that if the operation is successful, Russia may seek to carry out reprisals against Ukrainains.

“Ukraine must become a free, independent, democratic and peaceful nation once it is free from the anti-popular regime with a Nazi ideology, and begin developing in the interests of its own citizens,” he said.

Russian Rosgvardia troops with prisoner vans have been pictured entering Ukraine and US intelligence have warned that Russia has drawn up lists with the names of activists and others who it is planning to target. While that intelligence has not been confirmed, the US has correctly predicted the broader Russian invasion into Ukraine. And Putin has warned that he has planned to punish those guilty of violence against Russians.

Photos of devastation across Ukraine have emerged from the nation’s state emergency service.

A series of photos uploaded to the agency’s official Twitter account early on Friday say they show the aftermath of the shelling in Starobilsk, Luhansk, eastern Ukraine.

Others show firefighting and rescue teams battling blazes from buildings.

Some more powerful words from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Addressing his country in a national address this morning, he aid:

They say that civilian objects are not a target for them.

It is a lie, they do not distinguish in which areas to operate.”

Russian forces that entered Ukraine through Belarus are within kilometres of reaching Kyiv, according to US officials.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on a phone call that Russian mechanised forces that entered from Belarus were about 20 miles (32km) from Kyiv, according to a person familiar with the call, the Associated Press reports.

The call was said to have taken place about 6.30pm ET.

The officials described another Russian element that entered Ukraine from Russia being a bit further away, but that both were headed toward Kyiv with the goal of encircling the city and potentially toppling the Ukrainian government, according to the lawmaker on the call.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier said the government had information that “subversive groups” were encroaching on the city, and US secretary of state Antony Blinken said Kyiv “could well be under siege”.

Updated

Zelenskiy says Ukraine ‘left alone’ to fight Russia

Ukraine’s president has said his country has been left on its own to fight Russia after the Kremlin launched a large-scale invasion that killed more than 130 Ukrainians in the first day.

In a video address to the nation just after midnight, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:

We have been left alone to defend our state.

Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of Nato membership? Everyone is afraid.

Zelenskiy said that 137 Ukrainians, both military personnel and civilians, had been killed since the start of the attack early Thursday. Another 316 had been wounded, he said.

The president added that he and his family remained in Ukraine, despite Russia identifying him as “target number one”.

They want to destroy Ukraine politically by taking down the head of state.

I am staying in the government quarter together with others.

The enemy has designated me as the target number one, and my family as the target number two”.

Smoke rises from an air defence base in the aftermath of an apparent Russian strike in Mariupol, Ukraine, on 24 February.
Smoke rises from an air defence base in the aftermath of an apparent Russian strike in Mariupol, Ukraine, on 24 February. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

Updated

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked eastern European Nato members for defence assistance.

Zelenskiy spoke with Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda on Friday to seek defence assistance from eastern European members of Nato and help in bringing Russia to the negotiating table.

We need effective international assistance. Discussed this with Andrzej Duda. Appealed to the Bucharest Nine for defence aid, sanctions, pressure on the aggressor. Together we have to put Russia at the negotiating table. We need anti-war coalition.”

Updated

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba earlier described the attack on Kyiv this morning as “horrific” likening the assault as akin to an attack from Nazi Germany.

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. Stop Putin. Isolate Russia. Severe all ties. Kick Russia out of everywhere.”

Ukraine officials expect Russian attack on Kyiv later today

Ukraine expects a Russian tank attack on its capital, Kyiv, later on Friday which could become the hardest day in the war, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister said.

Anton Herashchenko said the defenders of Kyiv were ready with anti-tank missiles supplied by foreign allies.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister also agreed with the assessment that Russian forces may enter areas just outside Kyiv today.

The minister added that Ukrainian army units are defending positions on four fronts despite being outnumbered.

A Ukrainian military official also said Ukrainian forces managed to repel Russian troops near Chernihiv.

This coincides with a report from Ukraine’s defence ministry which earlier said airborne assault troops have blown up a bridge over the Teteriv River at Ivankiv, located about 50km (31 miles) north of Kyiv, in an effort to prevent a Russian column of forces from advancing toward the capital.

The ministry said the Russian advance was stopped.

Updated

The international criminal court says it is following developments in Ukraine with increasing concern, according to a statement seen by Reuters.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan on Friday expressed his concern over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said his court may investigate possible war crimes in the country.

I remind all sides conducting hostilities on the territory of Ukraine that my office may exercise its jurisdiction and investigate any act of genocide, crime against humanity or war crime committed within Ukraine.”

The ICC prosecutors office will continue to closely monitor situation in Ukraine and may investigate any crime against humanity or war crime committed in Ukraine.

Updated

Images of damaged buildings, residential towers and even classrooms are beginning to filter in after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed multiple reports of Russian missile strikes across Ukraine in a national address early on Friday morning.

Zelenskiy said the strikes began at 4am local time on Friday, adding that Russian troops were stopped by Ukrainian forces from advancing in most directions.

Buildings damaged from Russian strikes in Starobilsk, Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine.
Buildings damaged from Russian strikes in Starobilsk, Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine. Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine

The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv has given his report on the current crisis unfolding around Kyiv.

On the second day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has become increasingly clear what the Kremlin’s military tactics are: which is very quickly to put pressure on the capital Kyiv. Kyiv is facing threats both from its eastern edges, from the west more generally since the capture of the Chernobyl nuclear plant site, and now, according to Ukrainian officials, from the threat of infiltration into the city.

While it’s unclear whether the Russian military intends to capture the Ukrainian capital or force it’s capitulation, a combination of missile attacks, a rapid airborne advance using helicopters to the outskirts, and the continuing advance by Russian armour is putting Kyiv in an increasingly difficult position.

The latest update from Ukraine’s General Staff claims that the key Hostomel air base, just outside Kyiv is controlled by Kyiv forces again, however heavy fighting is going on north west of the capital.

There are also reports that the Ukrainian military has destroyed at least one bridge to slow the Russian advance, although we know that Russian forces have bridge laying companies.

This morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the government had information that “subversive groups” were encroaching on the city, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Kyiv “could well be under siege” in what U.S. officials believe is a brazen attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to dismantle the government and replace it with his own regime.

While Zelinskiy said this morning that Russian troops had been halted in most places but even if that is the case, which seems to contradict his comments on encroachment, the situation is serious.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on a phone call Thursday evening that Russian mechanised forces that entered from Belarus were about 20 miles from Kyiv.

While there has been some focus on Russian losses inflicted by Ukrainian defenders – including helicopters, soldiers and armoured vehicles – it’s worth pointing out these are so far at the level the Russian military would have priced in for such a quick and aggressive advance and not evidence necessarily any sign so far that the Russian operation is struggling.

Updated

Zelenskiy says world is watching 'from afar'

We have more from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s national address this morning.

Speaking to his citizens in a video address in both Ukrainian and Russian, Zelenskiy continued to make appeals to his neighbour for a ceasefire.

Russia will have to talk to us sooner or later about how to end hostilities and stop this invasion.

The sooner the conversation begins, the smaller Russia’s losses will be.”

Zelenskiy added that world is continuing to observe what is going on in Ukraine from afar while new sanctions have not convinced Russia to withdraw from an attack.

This morning we are defending our state alone. Like yesterday, the world’s most powerful forces are watching from afar.

Was Russia convinced by yesterday’s sanctions? We hear in our sky and see on our earth that this was not enough.”

He added that until the attacks stop, “we will be defending our country until then”.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy during his national address.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy during his national address. Photograph: Ukrainian President’s Office/ZUMA Press Wire Service/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

We are receiving multiple reports from journalists on the ground in Ukraine that air raid sirens are sounding in Kyiv this morning.

Guardian reporter Emma Graham-Harrison is currently in Kyiv and tells us the sirens began sounding about three hours after loud explosions first woke the city around 4.30am.

Updated

Zelenskiy confirms reports of Russian missile strikes in national address

Composite image of debris in the sky over Kyiv and a damaged building in the city.
Composite image of debris in the sky over Kyiv and a damaged building in the city. Composite: Twitter @OSINT_Ukraine | Reuters

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has confirmed multiple reports of Russian missile strikes in a national address early on Friday morning,

Zelenskiy said the strikes began at 4am local time on Friday, adding that Russian troops were stopped by Ukrainian forces from advancing in most directions.

The president added that Russian strikes aimed at both military and civilian targets, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, sirens rang out in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early on Friday, a Reuters witness said.

Updated

Welcome to rolling updates on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and here are the main developments of the past few hours.

As dawn breaks in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, air raid sirens are sounding across the capital.

Earlier, residents reported waking to the sound of explosions as reports circulated that Russia had launched a series of missile strikes on the city of just under 3 million.

Many civilians sought safety in bomb shelters and metro stations as reports of Russian tanks were moving closer to the city from all sides.

Here’s what we know so far:

  • Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has confirmed multiple reports of Russian missile strikes in a national address early on Friday morning.
  • Multiple explosions have been heard in Kyiv on Friday morning as the Russian offensive entered its second day. Two buildings were on fire in the south-east of the capital after a Russian plane was shot down and a border post in the south-east was hit by a missile, causing casualties.
  • US secretary of state Antony Blinken said “all evidence suggests that Russia intends to encircle and threaten” the Ukrainian capital.
  • Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 137 people have died and 316 had been wounded so far. In a video address late on Thursday, he lamented that Ukraine had been “left alone to defend our state”, but said he would stay on in the capital despite being Russia’s “target number one”.
  • The UK said Ukrainian forces had provided “fierce resistance across all axes of Russia’s advance” and that is was unlikely Russia had achieved all its objectives for the first day of the invasion.
  • Ukraine has decreed a full military mobilisation and all men aged 18-60 have been forbidden from leaving Ukraine.
  • Thousands attempted to flee Kyiv, leading to large traffic queues. Meanwhile, pictures have emerged of Kyiv residents crowding into underground metro stations where they are taking shelter from further Russian attacks.
  • Hundreds of people have been arrested in Russian cities after protests against the invasion. Police have held at least 1,702 people, according to the OVD-Info monitor, with most of the arrests made in Moscow and St Petersburg.
  • Global leaders have decried Russia’s actions, with many announcing fresh sanctions. US president Joe Biden ordered broad new sanctions, and the UK’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, announced its “largest ever” curbs. However, there was concern that the EU was holding back from excluding Russia from the Swift international banking payments system.
  • Officials in western capitals have expressed bewilderment about Vladimir Putin’s mindset and choice in going to war. One described him as “despotic” while Emmanuel Macron said that the Russian leader had been “duplicitous” in talks before the invasion.
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