Street fighting broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city and Russian troops are squeezing strategic ports in the country’s south following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere in the country.
The capital, Kyiv, was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict curfew kept people off the streets.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on February 27 that the night had been brutal, with shelling of civilian infrastructure and attacks on many targets.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said the city can’t be evacuated because the routes out are blocked, telling the AP in an interview, “Right now, we are encircled.” A curfew he ordered will be extended until at least 8 a.m. on February 28.
Klitschko confirmed to the AP that nine civilians in Kyiv had been killed so far, including one child. He said six Russian soldiers had been killed on the night of February 26.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed for the first time that there had been casualties among Russia’s forces.
“Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded of our comrades,” the Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
WATCH: Mobile-phone footage showed a column of Russian troops with military vehicles opening fire as they advanced through the streets of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on February 27.
The situation in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, was dramatically different. Russian forces have entered the city, and the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, Oleh Sinehubov, said that Ukrainian forces were fighting them. He asked civilians not to leave their homes.
“Control over Kharkiv is completely ours! The armed forces, the police, and the defense forces are working, and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy,” Sinehubov wrote on Telegram.
Videos posted online by Ukrainian officials showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv and a light vehicle burning on the street.
Reuters quoted a witness in Kharkiv as saying Russian soldiers and armored vehicles could be seen in different parts of the city and firing could be heard.
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Strategic ports in the country’s south came under pressure following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere in the country.
In the port city of Odesa, Russian forces wounded the head of the regional defense forces, who has been hospitalized in critical condition. RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service said the information was confirmed by the press service of the Odesa regional military administration.
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine announced on February 27 that all checkpoints on Ukraine’s borders with Russia, Belarus, and Moldova’s Transdniester region would be temporarily closed beginning on February 28.
The decision also applies to checkpoints in Zhulyany and Boryspil airports in Kyiv and checkpoints at the airports in Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv among others. Ukrainian citizens will still be able to enter the country, the border guard service said.
The developments came as Zelenskiy’s office announced that Ukrainian and Russian officials will meet for talks at a venue on the Belarusian border with Ukraine.
Zelenskiy’s office said the two sides would meet at an unspecified location and did not give a date or time for the meeting.
The talks are to be held without preconditions and are the result of a phone call between Zelenskiy and the authoritarian leader of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Zelenskiy’s office said in a statement.
“We agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River,” the statement said.
Zelenskiy expressed skepticism about the talks, saying, “As always: I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try.”
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a Russian delegation had arrived in Belarus for negotiations. The delegation consists of officials from the Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, and other Russian entities, including the presidential staff, TASS reported.
Meanwhile, an explosion hit the southeastern part of Kyiv just after midnight on February 27 and left a glowing red light over a military fuel depot in Vasylkiv, a city just south of Kyiv. There were no immediate reports on damage or injuries in what could be the start of the final battle for Kyiv and the Ukrainian nation.
WATCH: An explosion and fire tore through a fuel depot of the Ukrainian air base at Vasylkiv, south of Kyiv, on February 26. RFE/RL correspondent Maryan Kushnir was on the scene but could not immediately confirm the cause.
Russian forces used artillery, and reportedly ballistic missiles, to hit the fuel depot at the Ukrainian air base. The explosion shook windows for kilometers and the reflection of the flames was seen as far north as Kyiv’s center
The air base has been the site of major fighting for days now, as Russian forces have tried to take control. As of February 27, the base reportedly remained under Ukrainian government control.
There were also reports of a blast heard to the west of Kyiv city center and air-raid sirens.
Amid reports of clashes near Kharkiv, Zelenskiy’s office said Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline in the city, prompting the government to warn people to protect themselves from the smoke by covering their windows with damp cloth or gauze.
Ukraine’s army said it held the line against an assault on the capital but was fighting Russian “sabotage groups” that had infiltrated the city, where people hunkered down in homes, underground garages, and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale assault by Russian forces.
“We will fight until we have liberated our country,” Zelenskiy said in a video message on February 27.
He said Moscow was bombarding residential areas in Ukraine.
“The past night in Ukraine was brutal, again shooting, again bombardments of residential areas, civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskiy said.
As Russian Attacks On Ukraine Intensify, Thousands Flee And Thousands Fight Back
On the third day of Russian military attacks on Ukraine, Russian forces have besieged the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. After a barrage of air strikes on cities and military bases around the country and a huge influx of troops, many people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries. Many have stayed behind to fight.
Zelenskiy also said his country has filed a complaint against Russia at the UN’s highest court that settles legal disputes between states. It was unclear on precisely what grounds the case was being brought to The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting on February 27 to discuss the crisis.
For her part, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on February 27 that there could be no talks with Russia over Ukraine while Moscow has troops in the country.
“Now, if the Russians are serious about negotiations, they need to remove their troops from Ukraine. They cannot negotiate with a gun to the head of the Ukrainians…. So frankly, I don’t trust these so-called efforts of negotiation,” she told Sky News.
She said the conflict could last a “number of years” and the world needs to be prepared for Moscow “to seek to use even worse weapons.”
“I fear this will be a long haul. This could be a number of years,” Truss said.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Canada, and the United States agreed to block access for a number of Russian banks to the SWIFT banking system, as well as imposing “restrictive measures” against Russia’s central bank for Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
In a joint statement on February 26, the leaders said the measures — which will restrict the Russian central bank’s international reserves and thus hinder its ability to support the ruble — will be implemented in the coming days.
Experts have said blocking access to SWIFT would be a major step up in the intensity of Western sanctions against Moscow.
The latest moves came as Western experts were saying that Ukrainian forces had put up tougher-than-expected resistance in three days of pitched battles across the country.
In a Facebook post, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Resnikov encouraged his soldiers after what he described as “three days that have changed our country and the world forever.”
He said that Russia had not succeeded in capturing Kyiv as they had planned and added that Ukraine was now expecting help from other countries that seemed impossible three days ago. He said Europe needs Ukraine to fight.
Protests Erupt Around The Globe Against Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine
Thousands have taken to the streets in countries around the world in support of Ukraine, which is facing the fourth day of an all-out invasion by Russia forces.
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.
Russia has not released casualty figures.
The United Nations says it has confirmed at least 240 civilian casualties, including at least 64 people killed, in the fighting in Ukraine — though it believes the “real figures are considerably higher.”
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says more than 368,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, while over 160,000 are estimated to be displaced within Ukraine.
Pope Francis called for the “urgent” opening of humanitarian corridors to allow even more to leave and said those who make war should not be deluded into thinking that God is on their side.
“Those who make war forget humanity. It does not come from the people,” the pope said.
He said he was moved by images of elderly people seeking refuge and mothers escaping with their children. “They are brothers and sisters, for whom we must urgently open humanitarian corridors. They must be welcomed,” he said.
Poland’s border guards on February 27 said that more than 156,000 people had crossed into the EU member from Ukraine in the days since Russia invaded.
The Russian state prosecutor’s office warned on February 27 that anyone providing financial or other assistance to a foreign state or international organization directed against Russia’s security could be convicted of treason, facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
“Each fact of providing financial or other assistance…will be legally evaluated,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
