The Ukrainian capital was targeted by Russian missiles on February 25 as the invading force advanced onto the outskirts of Kyiv and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded with the West to do more to help his country, saying sanctions announced so far were not enough.
In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was ready for talks if Ukraine’s military surrendered, as he insisted that invading forces were looking to free the country from “oppression.”
Gunfire was reported close to the government district in Kyiv, and Zelenskiy said Russian forces were targeting civilian areas as they advanced with troops and tanks from three sides.
There were reports of ongoing clashes between Ukrainian forces and Russian troops in the northern Obolon district of the capital.
Kyiv authorities told residents of the Obolon area to stay off the streets given “active hostilities” were approaching.
“In connection with the approach of active hostilities, residents of Obolon district are asked not to go outside,” the city council said in an alert on February 25.
Russian forces are approaching Kyiv from the north and northeast, Ukraine’s army said on February 25 amid rising fears over the fate of the capital.
The Russians are trying to “bypass” the northern city of Chernihiv — where they were “rebuffed” — to attack Kyiv, the Ukrainian Army said on Facebook.
They were also advancing on Kyiv from the eastern city of Konotop, which is under Russian control, Kyiv’s army said.
“They say that civilian objects are not a target for them. But this is another lie of theirs. In reality, they do not distinguish between areas in which they operate,” Zelenskiy said in a video address early on February 25.
“Ukrainians are demonstrating heroism,” he said, adding that “all our forces are doing everything possible” to protect people.
The Ukrainian leader said that his country was facing Russia’s attacks “alone.”
“This morning we are defending our state alone. Like yesterday, the world’s most powerful forces are watching from afar. Did yesterday’s sanctions convince Russia? We hear in our sky and see on our earth that this was not enough,” he said.
The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv called an air raid alert after Russian missile strikes early on February 25, Ukrainian television said, as municipal authorities urged people to go to the nearest shelters.
Zelenskiy said 137 civilians and military personnel had been killed in the Russian attacks so far.
He called them “heroes” in a video address released early on February 25 in which he also says more than 300 people were injured in less than 24 hours of fighting.
Explosions resounded in Kyiv early on February 25 as air sirens went off over the city of 3 million people, where some were sheltering in underground subway stations.
An RFE/RL correspondent said he saw armed men in civilian clothes carrying AK-47s and, in one case, an RPG, on Kyiv’s street corners.
The military said that a group of Russian spies and saboteurs was seen in a district of Kyiv about 5 kilometers north of the city center. Police told people not to exit a subway station in the city center because there was gunfire in the area.
The Ukrainian military reported significant fighting in the area of Ivankiv, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Kyiv.
“The hardest day will be today. The enemy’s plan is to break through with tank columns from the side of Ivankiv and Chernihiv to Kyiv,” Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said on Telegram.
Zelenskiy said he understood Russian troops were coming for him but vowed to stay in Kyiv.
“[The] enemy has marked me down as the number one target,” Zelenskiy said in a video message. “My family is the number two target. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state.”
“I will stay in the capital. My family is also in Ukraine,” he said.
“They’re killing people and turning peaceful cities into military targets. It’s foul and will never be forgiven,” Zelenskiy said.
The president said all border guards on the Ukrainian Black Sea island of Zmiinyi (Snake) in the Odesa region were killed. All of them will be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, he said.
Ukraine’s border guard service earlier in the day reported that the island was taken by Russian forces.
Russia began its invasion before dawn on February 24, unleashing air strikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from multiple directions. The deputy defense minister reported heavy Russian shelling in the eastern Donetsk region.
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Ukrainian officials said that during the first days of hostilities they had lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Heavy fighting also took place in the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson and Odesa, Ukraine’s most important seaport, in the south.
Russian troops entered the city of Sumy near the border with Russia that sits on a highway leading to Kyiv from the east. The regional governor, Dmytro Zhivitsky, said Ukrainian forces fought Russian troops in the city overnight, but other Russian convoys kept rolling west toward the Ukrainian capital.
“Military vehicles from Sumy are moving toward Kyiv,” Zhivitsky said. “Much equipment has passed through and is heading directly to the west.”
Ukraine requested an urgent debate at the UN Human Rights Council, the United Nations said.
The request is in response “to the extremely grave deterioration in the human rights situation in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s hostilities on Ukrainian territory,” Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said in a letter sent to the president’s forum.
The council president will meet and discuss the request with the 47-member body, a UN statement said. A simple majority is needed to hold an urgent debate during its main annual session opening on February 28.
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, saying Putin “chose this war” and that his country would bear the consequences of his action.
Biden was to meet on February 25 with fellow leaders of NATO governments in what the White House described as an “extraordinary virtual summit” to discuss Ukraine.
Speaking on February 25, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Russia intends to take the whole of Ukraine but the Russian Army failed to deliver on the first day of its invasion.
For his part, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused Russia’s President Vladimir Putin of trying to destroy Ukraine’s statehood, warning that the “security” of its president was at risk.
“This is total war. Putin has decided… to take Ukraine off the map of nations,” Le Drian told France Inter radio on February 25.
Zelenskiy urged the United States and the West to impose even harsher sanctions and cut the Russians from the SWIFT system, a key financial network that connects thousands of banks around the world. Biden said the U.S. and its partners were withholding that move for now but could impose more sanctions later.
