Russian troops assaulted Kyiv on Friday but met stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces on the outskirts of the capital city, as Ukrainian leaders pleaded with the West for help to keep their government afloat in the face of a full-scale invasion.
The two sides traded control of a key airport outside Kyiv, a city of nearly 3 million people, many of whom sheltered in place Friday as fighting intensified and the death count rose. Ukrainian officials even reportedly told citizens to begin preparing Molotov cocktails in a bid to ward off the much larger, better-equipped Russian army.
Russian troops have begun closing in from all sides around Kyiv, and there was pessimism early Friday about the Ukrainian military’s chances of holding the city through the weekend. But the Russian advance has reportedly slowed, with one U.S. defense official telling The New York Times that the invasion is now moving at a slower pace than expected when it began Wednesday evening.
Russian troops remained about 30 miles outside the city as of Friday afternoon, British defense officials told Reuters, with the Russian force looking for a new route into the capital after failing to break through and capture the city of Chernihiv, which is north of Kyiv.
But the resistance has come with a cost. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Thursday that more than 130 Ukrainians, including both troops and civilians, have so far been killed in the conflict, though the true number is likely much higher. Ukraine estimated that as many as 1,000 Russians have been killed, but the Kremlin did not release any official figures.
The Russian advance on Kyiv is the most significant development in the rapidly unfolding war, as it could topple the government of Mr. Zelenskyy, who has become a personal target of the Kremlin largely due to his pro-Western stance and his policy of moving his country closer to NATO.
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Even as the main Russian advance toward Kyiv hit resistance, Ukrainian officials said that Russian “saboteurs” had already entered the city and that sporadic fighting had sprung up in city neighborhoods.
“The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us,” Kyiv’s mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, said Friday, according to NBC News. “The city has gone into a defensive phase. Shots and explosions are ringing out in some neighborhoods. Saboteurs have already entered Kyiv.”
Fighting raged elsewhere across the country. Loud explosions were reported across Kharkiv, the nation’s second-largest city, while Reuters reported that air raid sirens could be heard in the western city of Lviv. There were clashes in eastern and southern regions as well, as Russian troops and armored columns moved through the disputed Donbas region and forces landed via sea near the strategically vital city of Mariupol.
The all-out assault erases any doubt about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions. Despite massive economic sanctions from the U.S. and Europe, and broad condemnation from across the globe, the erratic Russian leader has decided to press on with the largest ground war Europe has seen since World War II.
In the face of overwhelming odds and with his government hanging on, Mr. Zelenskyy took to social media Friday morning to again appeal to the West for assistance.
“Today [Ukraine] needs the support of partners more than ever. We demand effective counteraction to the Russian Federation. Sanctions must be further strengthened,” Mr. Zelenskyy said on Twitter. “We need to increase sanctions and [Ukrainian] defense support.”
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President Biden on Thursday announced another round of unprecedented sanctions targeting major Russian banks and oligarchs in Mr. Putin’s inner circle. But so far those financial penalties don’t seem to have affected the Kremlin’s decision-making process.
Top officials in Moscow stuck to their demands Friday morning that the Ukrainian military lay down its arms and pave the way for peace talks — though such talks would almost certainly result in the effective end of Ukraine as a truly sovereign nation with a democratically elected government.
“We are ready to hold talks at any moment, once the Ukrainian Armed Forces respond to our president’s call, end their resistance and lay down their arms. No one plans to attack and oppress them, let them return to their families, and let us give the Ukrainian people a chance to decide their future,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday, according to the Russian state-run TASS News Agency.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian and Russian forces engaged in vicious fighting at a key airport in Hostomel, just northwest of Kyiv. The facility is vital for Russian forces looking to bring in fresh troops, weapons and supplies in the battle for the capital.
Ukrainian forces reportedly retook control of the airport overnight Thursday, but Russian officials on Friday morning claimed to now be in control of the facility and to have inflicted major casualties on the Ukrainian military at the scene. Ukrainian officials also claimed to have taken out Russian vehicles and aircraft as well, though few of those reports were independently confirmed.
The Russian advance through Ukraine has been swift. It began late Wednesday after Mr. Putin announced a military operation purportedly to defend the eastern Ukraine breakaway enclaves of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Moscow recognized as independent states earlier this week. But it quickly became clear Mr. Putin’s true goal was to put virtually all of Ukraine under his control.
Western leaders have struggled to contain the Russian leader’s aggression. A months-long diplomatic push — including multiple phone calls and video meetings between Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin — didn’t stop the invasion.
“He rejected every good-faith effort the United States and our allies and partners made to address our mutual security concerns through dialogue to avoid needless conflict and avert human suffering,” Mr. Biden said Thursday at the White House. “Putin declared his war. … He has much larger ambitions than Ukraine. He wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union. That’s what this is about.”
Mr. Biden announced another round of such sanctions on Thursday, but his administration has insisted that U.S. troops will not be coming to the aid of the Ukrainians.
At the same time, U.S. and NATO forces have been positioned further to the east amid fears that Russian troops won’t stop with Ukraine and that Mr. Putin may seek to reclaim other pieces of Europe as well, perhaps including the NATO member Baltic states.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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