KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a defiant message early on February 26 from Kyiv as residents braced for what appeared to be an imminent all-out attack by Russian forces on the capital.
Zelenskiy on February 26 told the nation that he and his government were not considering capitulation under the threat of Russian encirclement of Kyiv.
“Do not believe fake news … I am here, we are not laying down our arms, we will defend our state, our truth, our land, our children, all of this we will defend, this is what I wanted to tell you,”Zelenskiy said as he stood near the presidential office in downtown Kyiv in the video uploaded to his Twitter account.
Authorities in Kyiv on February 26 announced they were imposing a full-day curfew until the morning of February 28.
“The curfew in Kyiv will start on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. and end at 8 a.m. on Monday,” city authorities said on Telegram.
The announcement said that “all civilians that are on the streets during the period of the curfew will be considered members of sabotage groups of the enemy.”
Earlier, Zelenskiy urged the country to “stand firm” against the siege that could determine its future. He refused American help to evacuate, saying: “The fight is here.”
A U.S. Defense Department official said its experts had observed more than 250 missile launches by Russia against Ukraine, mostly of the short-range variety.
Meanwhile, the British Defense Ministry said Russia’s advance had slowed, likely hurt by logistics issues and “strong Ukrainian resistance.”
“Russian forces are bypassing major Ukrainian population centers while leaving forces to encircle and isolate them. Overnight clashes in Kyiv are likely to have involved limited numbers of pre-positioned Russian groups. The capture of Kyiv remains Russia’s primary military objective,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
U.S. defense officials also said they believe the Russian offensive has encountered considerable resistance and is proceeding slower than Moscow had envisioned, though they said that could change quickly.
Invading Russian forces were reported to be moving in on the capital on February 26, in an apparent encircling movement after a barrage of air strikes on cities and military bases around the country. Artillery shells exploded in Kyiv, a Reuters witness said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted a photo on Twitter showing damage to an apartment bloc in Kyiv by a Russian missile strike.
“Kyiv, our splendid, peaceful city, survived another night under attacks by Russian ground forces, missiles. One of them has hit a residential apartment in Kyiv. I demand the world: fully isolate Russia, expel ambassadors, oil embargo, ruin its economy. Stop Russian war criminals!”
Video later emerged showing what appeared to be the Russian missile strike on the apartment bloc.
No one was killed in the missile strike, but six were injured, a rescue worker said.
An adviser to the interior minister said Russia was lying about not shelling civilian infrastructure.
Anton Herashchenko said at least 40 such sites had been hit and Russian troops were shelling civilian sites.
Residents of Kyiv described to Current Time, a Russian-language network operated by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, what they had experienced.
“I was asleep when there was a huge explosion,” Kyiv resident Oksana Gulenko told Current Time. “I was thrown about 3 meters from the room into the corridor. There was glass everywhere and noise from the street.”
“After a while, I began rushing around the apartment, gathering my things and my documents, which I’d pepared earlier, and I ran out into the street,” she said. “When I came back after two or three hours, the door had been broken in. Apparently, firefighters or police were opening the apartments and looking for victims.”
By the afternoon on February 26, an RFE/RL correspondent said barricades had been erected on some roads south of Kyiv, using sandbags, lumber and wood from nearby trees.
More than two dozen men, some carrying decades-old hunting rifles and antique weapons, stopped passing cars and checked documents. Some had more sophisticated sniper rifles. Several appeared to be in their 60s.
Off to the side were dozens of plastic jugs and bottles—many with rags sticking out of them – indicating they were homemade gasoline bombs: “Molotov cocktails.”
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces fired cruise missiles from the Black Sea at the cities of Sumy, Poltava and Mariupol and there was heavy fighting near the southern city of Mariupol.
The Ukrainian military early on February 26 reporting one of its jet fighters had shot down a second Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane. Two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of conditions on the ground in Ukraine said the Russian military plane was shot down near Bila Tserkva, 85 kilometers south of Kyiv.
On February 25, Ukraine’s military said it had shot down a Ilyushin Il-76 with paratroopers on board, near Vasylkiv, a city some 50 kilometers south of Kyiv.
The Russian military has not commented on either incident so far, and the reports could not be immediately verified.
During the three-day Russian invasion, the Ukrainian military said it has destroyed so far 14 aircraft, 8 helicopters, 102 tanks, 536 armored vehicles, as well as killing 3,000 military personnel, according to a social media posting early on February 26 by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Russia has not released casualty figures.
Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said on February 26 that 198 people have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been wounded in the Russian offensive.
His statement made it unclear whether the casualties included both military and civilians.
The UN refugee agency said on February 26 that over 120,000 Ukrainian refugees have left the country since Russia began its attack this week.
Western countries have announced a barrage of sanctions on Russia, including blacklisting its banks and banning technology exports. But they have stopped short of forcing it out of the SWIFT system for international bank payments.
The United States imposed sanctions on Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov. The European Union and Britain earlier froze any assets Putin and Lavrov held in their territory. Canada took similar steps.
At the UN, Russia vetoed a draft Security Council resolution that would have deplored its invasion, while China abstained, which Western countries took as proof of Russia’s isolation. The United Arab Emirates and India also abstained while the remaining 11 members voted in favor.
