Defiant Ukraine’s citizen army rose up today and took up arms against Russia’s brutal invasion - as Putin’s troops closed in on Kyiv.
In stirring scenes one man stood in the way of tanks and tens of thousands of assault rifles were handed out to Ukraine’s brave civilians.
All over Ukraine people prepared to rise up against Vladimir Putin’s invaders, even studying government advice on making petrol bombs.
Ukraine’s civilian struggle started as its people prepared to back the country's courageous troops who have fought ferociously to defend its cities.
The Mirror can reveal Russia has deployed over 10,000 battle-hardened Chechen fighters to Ukraine - some of them crack Spetsnaz troops - to bolster the battle for Kyiv.
More Chechens are setting off for war from their hometown Grozny, escalating fears the battle for Ukraine will be a bloodbath.
Ukraine’s forces are putting up a tough defence as 80 of Moscow’s tanks are thought to have been wiped out, ten warplanes, seven helicopters and more than 500 Russian vehicles.
As many as 2,800 Russian troops have been taken out of the battle, among them 1,000 dead and the rest either captured or injured.
It is believed Russia is calling up the Chechens to help seize Kyiv as the Russian advance appeared to falter throughout Ukraine.
Among the Chechen battalions are special forces kill squads deployed to focus on key members of the Ukrainian government with President Volodymyr Zelensky target number one.
He said today: “We are not afraid. We are not afraid of anything. We are not afraid of Russia.”
Russian special forces were closing in on Kyiv’s centre tonight as an eerie silence fell on Independence Square, scene of the 2014 riots that sparked war in the east.
A staggering 18,000 machine guns have been handed out to Kyiv’s citizens as they prepare to join troops in defending their city.
Information on how to make a molotov cocktail petrol bomb, provided by Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, was put out on social media.
Ukraine’s citizens are now being encouraged to start the bloody insurgency they had always planned if Russia came for them.
Gunfire and explosions could be heard today towards the city centre as Russian forces bore down on the government offices.
Tonight Zelensky and his aides were sheltering in an underground bunker after he announced he believed his wife and children are target number two.
He said his family, architect wife Oleana, 44, and two children Aleksandra, 17 and son Kiril, nine, were also sheltering but did not reveal their location.
Zelensky added: “My family is not a traitor but a citizen of Ukraine. According to our information the enemy marked me as the number one target. My family is the number two goal.
“They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the Head of State.”
One British military source told the Daily Mirror: “These Chechen forces are tough, battle-hardened and utterly ruthless.
“They are not above beheadings and they are likely to have little regard for civilian lives as they focus on their mission.”
There are now believed to be more than 200,000 Russian troops in Ukraine as waves of Moscow’s tanks poured into the region as reinforcements.
Evidence of the Russian ferocity was seen in a horrific video of an armoured vehicle running over a moving civilian vehicle, then reversing over it.
The driver, a man, survived after being dug out of the wreckage.
In other horror imagery, a man’s body was collected by troops after he was shot dead randomly by a passing Russian vehicle.
Ukraine’s resistance has been far more robust than Vladimir Putin appears to have predicted but Moscow’s special forces are already inside the capital.
Local civilian men were seen brandishing AK47s and walking off to war to defend the city, having been called to arms by the authorities.
As many as 80 Russian tanks have been destroyed, seven helicopters and a staggering 516 Russian military vehicles have been disabled.
The death toll of Ukrainian forces reached 337, although the toll of civilians is not known.
More than 100,000 Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes, officials revealed tonight.
The battle for Ukraine’s cities is about to become a bloody insurgency as men and women civilians are being handed firearms to defend their homeland.
Men aged between 18 and 60 years of age are being called up to resist the Russian onslaught as Kyiv’s airport fell to Moscow’s forces.
Ukraine’s military was fighting bitterly to defend their cities, such as Kharkiv, to the east and just 20 miles from Russia.
But experts fear Kyiv could fall within two days unless Ukraine’s troops can hold the line and protect the government from being toppled by the attackers.
Chaotic scenes were seen at Kyiv train station as thousands tried to flee the capital and the Russian forces advancing on them.
A battalion of Chechen forces were spotted hiding within dense forests outside Kyiv but are now believed to have started to close in on embattled Kyiv city.
These tough fighters were recruited by Putin’s commanders to form militia units and enforce Moscow’s will in Chechnya after troops became bogged down in conflict.
Russia has pressed its invasion of Ukraine to the outskirts of the capital after unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases, particularly in the eastern city of Kharkiv.
It has sent troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that could rewrite the global post-Cold War security order.
Explosions sounded before dawn on Friday in Kyiv and gunfire was later heard near the government quarter.
Ukraine’s military used armoured vehicles and snowploughs to defend Kyiv and limit movement, and said Russian spies were infiltrating the city.
Russia’s military said it had seized a strategic airport outside Kyiv that would allow it to quickly build up forces to take the capital.
It claimed to have already cut the city off from the west - the direction most of those escaping the invasion are heading in, with lines of cars snaking towards the Polish border.
An intense fire broke out on a bridge across the Dnipro River dividing the eastern and western sides of Kyiv, with about 200 Ukrainian forces establishing defensive positions and taking shelter behind their armoured vehicles and later under the bridge.
Ukraine’s president pleaded for international help to fend off an attack that could topple his government and cause massive casualties.
Zelensky pleaded with Moscow to hold talks, and with western powers to act faster to cut off Russia’s economy and provide military help.
He warned Russian President Vladimir Putin would not stop at Ukraine and now represents a major threat to the rest of Europe.
He said: “When bombs fall on Kyiv, it happens in Europe, not just in Ukraine.
“When missiles kill our people, they kill all Europeans.”
The Russian military said it had seized a strategic airport just outside Kyiv and cut the city off from the west.
The Ukrainian military said a group of Russian spies and saboteurs had been seen in a district of Kyiv about three miles north of the centre.
Elsewhere in the capital, soldiers established defensive positions at bridges, and armoured vehicles rolled down the streets.
Earlier, the military said that Russian forces had seized two Ukrainian military vehicles and some were heading towards the city to try to infiltrate under the guise of being locals.
President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to global leaders for even more severe sanctions than those imposed by Western allies and for defence assistance.
He said: “If you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door.”
Mr Zelensky said he is the number one target for the invading Russians but that he planned to remain in Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials said they lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Today Ukraine said it had recorded increased radiation levels from the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a day after the site was captured by Russian forces, due to military activity causing radioactive dust to rise into the air.
The still-radioactive site of the 1986 nuclear disaster lies some 100 km (62 miles) from Kyiv.
Experts at Ukraine’s state nuclear agency said the change was due to the movement of heavy military equipment in the area lifting radioactive dust into the air.
Mr Zelensky said in a video address that 137 “heroes”, including 10 military officers, had been killed and 316 people wounded.
He concluded an emotional speech by saying that “the fate of the country depends fully on our army, security forces, all of our defenders.”
Around 200 Ukrainian special forces were killed later by Russian forces as they took Hostomel airport outside Kyiv.
The invasion began early on Thursday with a series of missile strikes on cities and military bases, and quickly followed with a multi-pronged ground assault.
Troops rolled in from several areas in the east, from the southern region of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and from Belarus to the north.
After Ukrainian officials said they lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, Russia said it was working with the Ukrainians to secure the plant.
