The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was under bombardment on Friday morning, with missile strikes and a rocket crashing into a residential building as the second day of Russia’s military offensive pressed closer to the heart of the government.
Ukrainian forces were battling Russian troops on the outskirts of Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million people, where President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a television address that he was “target No. 1” of the Russian advance.
By midmorning, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said that Russian forces had entered the Obolon district, a few miles north of central Kyiv, and urged people in the capital to stay indoors. In a sign of the potentially chaotic fight that could unfold, the ministry said on Facebook that Kyiv residents should “prepare Molotov cocktails” to deter “the occupier.”
Mr. Zelensky said that 137 Ukrainians, military and civilian, had been killed in the Russian invasion that began on Thursday morning, and that Russian “sabotage groups” had entered the capital with the aim of decapitating Ukraine’s government “by destroying the head of the state.” Russian troops enter the outskirts of Kyiv. » | Shashank Bengali and Marc Santor | Published: Thursday, February 24, 2022; Updated: Friday, February 25, 2022
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