Russian troops are pressing toward Ukraine’s capital, after a night of explosions and street fighting that sent Kyiv residents seeking shelter underground. Amid the violence, the country’s president refused an American offer to evacuate, insisting Saturday that he would stay. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday that the military struck a range of Ukrainian military installations with long-range Kalibr cruise missiles.He said that since the start of Russia’s attack Thursday, the military has hit 821 Ukrainian military facilities, including 14 air bases and 19 command facilities, and destroyed 24 air defense missile systems, 48 radars, seven warplanes, seven helicopters, nine drones, 87 tanks and eight military vessels.Here’s the latest on the Ukraine-Russia conflict: The Ukrainian health minister says that 198 people have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been wounded in the Russian offensive.The Russian military says it has launched a barrage of cruise missiles at Ukrainian military facilities. Ukrainian forces are fighting to hold back a Russian advance on the capital amid warnings the city could fall within days. The U.S. and Britain plan to introduce sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. All times referenced below are in Eastern Standard Time: 5 a.m.A rescue worker says at least six civilians were injured by a rocket that hit a high-rise apartment building on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital.Petro Prokopov, a firefighter who was taking part in rescue efforts, said the building on the southwestern edge of Kyiv near Zhuliany airport was hit between 16 and 21 floors on Saturday. He said at least six people were injured and apartments on two floors were gutted by fire. Emergency responders have evacuated 80 people.Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted an image showing a gaping hole on one side of the apartment building.Separately, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said a Russian missile was shot down before dawn Saturday as it headed for the dam of the sprawling water reservoir that serves Kyiv. “If the dam is destroyed, the flooding will cause catastrophic casualties and losses – including flooding of residential areas of Kyiv and its suburbs,” the ministry said.Russian troops were pressing their attack on the Ukrainian capital, trying to advance on the city from several directions. Russia has repeatedly claimed its assault on Ukraine is aimed only at military targets.“Let me stress once again that only infrastructure sites of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are being targeted, ruling out damage to residential and social infrastructure,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a briefing Saturday.4:30 a.m. The Ukrainian health minister says that 198 people have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been wounded in the Russian offensive.Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said Saturday that there were three children among those killed. His statement made it unclear whether the casualties included both military and civilians.He said another 1,115 people, including 33 children, were wounded in the Russian invasion that began Thursday with massive air and missile strikes and troops forging into Ukraine from the north, east and south.4 a.m.The U.N. refugee agency says that over 120,000 Ukrainian refugees have left the country since Russia began its attack on its neighboring country this week.Speaking as Russian troops were engaging in battle with Ukrainian forces in the capital Kyiv on Saturday, the U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Kelly Clements, said in an interview on CNN the situation was expected to get worse.“We now see over 120,000 people that have gone to all of the neighboring countries,” she said. “The reception that they are receiving from local communities, from local authorities, is tremendous. But it’s a dynamic situation. We are really quite devastated, obviously, with what’s to come.”Most are heading to Poland and Moldova, but also to Romania, Slovakia and Hungary. 2 a.m.An adviser to Ukraine’s president says that fighting is raging in the capital and in the country’s south, and that the Ukrainian military is successfully fending off Russian assaults.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Saturday that small groups of Russian forces tried to infiltrate Kyiv and engaged in fighting with Ukrainian troops.12:15 a.m.Kyiv officials are warning residents that street fighting is underway against Russian forces, and they are urging people to seek shelter.Russian troops stormed toward Ukraine’s capital early Saturday as explosions reverberated through the city and the president 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.”Hundreds of casualties were reported in the fighting, which included shelling that sliced through a Kyiv apartment building and pummeled bridges and schools. 11:05 p.m.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked to evacuate Kyiv at the behest of the U.S. government but turned down the offer.Zelenskyy said in response: “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation, who described Zelenskyy as upbeat.Invading Russian forces closed in on Ukraine’s capital on Saturday, in an apparent encircling movement after a barrage of airstrikes on cities and military bases around the country.11 p.m.A second Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane was shot down near Bila Tserkva, 50 miles south of Kyiv, according to two American officials with direct knowledge of conditions on the ground in Ukraine.On Friday, Ukraine’s military said it had shot down a Russian military transport plane with paratroopers on board.According to a statement from the military’s general staff, the first Il-76 heavy transport plane was shot down near Vasylkiv, a city 25 miles south of Kyiv. The Russian military has not commented on either incident so far, and the reports could not be immediately verified. 9 p.m.Explosions have been seen and heard in parts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.Videos from eyewitnesses showed explosions taking place in an area northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. There is a military base in the area.CNN teams in the capital also reported hearing loud explosions to the west and south of the city Saturday. Shortly afterward, Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications said clashes are underway in an eastern suburb as well – as Russian forces close in on the capital from multiple sides. 8:20 p.m.The fight by Ukrainian forces to hold back a Russian advance on the capital, Kyiv, stretched into early Saturday morning local time, amid warnings the city could fall within days and as officials handed out weapons to reservists.”This night will be very difficult, and the enemy will use all available forces to break the resistance of Ukrainians,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a late-night video message Friday. “This night we have to stand ground. The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now.”A CNN team reported hearing a series of explosions on the outskirts of Kyiv just after 2 a.m. local time, though the exact nature and location of those detonations were unclear, and reporters in Kyiv have heard loud booms to the west and south of the city. The sky lit up early Saturday with a series of flashes on the horizon.Meanwhile, the Ukrainian armed forces reported heavy fighting around the city of Vasylkiv, some 30 kilometers southwest of Kyiv.”Heavy fighting is currently underway in the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region, where the occupiers are trying to land a landing party,” the armed forces said.Russian forces are close to Kyiv, Zelenskyy confirmed in his message Friday, advancing on the capital from the north and east after seizing control Thursday of an airbase just north of the city. But “Ukrainians resist the Russian aggression heroically,” he said.6:40 p.m.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his video message Friday evening that Russian forces have attacked “civilian infrastructure,” including kindergartens.Addressing the people of Russia while speaking Russian, Zelenskyy said, “There is nothing that could possibly explain why the kindergartens and civilian infrastructure are being shelled. “He continued: “What kind of war is this against the Ukrainian children? Who are they? Are they also neo-Nazis? Or are they NATO soldiers that imposed a threat to Russia?”Zelenskyy’s remarks come after Russian President Vladimir Putin made baseless claims about Ukrainians to his security council on Friday. Putin frequently repeats the baseless and inaccurate claim that the democratically elected Ukrainian government is a “Nazi” or “fascist” regime. Zelenskyy went on to say that “many” cities are under attack and pleaded with Ukrainian citizens “to be very careful.””Please help each other, especially the elderly, the lonely, those who need your support,” he said. “In case of any danger, please go to the shelters.” 5:45 p.m.Russia has vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that Moscow stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops.Friday’s vote was 11-1, with China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. It showed significant but not total opposition to Russia’s invasion of its smaller, militarily weaker neighbor.The United States and other supporters knew the resolution wouldn’t pass but argued it would highlight Russia’s international isolation. The resolution’s failure paves the way for backers to call for a swift vote on a similar measure in the U.N. General Assembly. There are no vetoes in the 193-member assembly. There’s no timetable as yet for a potential Assembly vote. 5:20 p.m.Ukraine’s top diplomatic envoy in the U.S. is urging countries to sever diplomatic relations with Russia over its invasion of their country.Ambassador Oksana Markarova’s request came in an emergency meeting Friday at the Washington-based Organization of American States, whose members were debating a resolution condemning the military attack ordered by President Vladimir Putin.”It’s hard to imagine that something like this happens in the center of Europe in the 21st Century,” an emotional Markarova said during the meeting. She urged delegates to supply Ukraine with defensive weapons and follow the lead of the Federated States of Micronesia, a Pacific island nation that earlier Friday broke all ties with Russia.Alexander Kim, a senior diplomat at Russia’s embassy in Washington, towed closely to the Kremlin’s unsubstantiated claim that the military incursion was an attempt to “de-Nazify” a government that had committed scores of atrocities against civilians.”We are open to diplomacy,” Kim told representatives of more than 30 Latin American governments, many of whom have pursued closer relations with Moscow in recent years. “However, diplomacy presumes an ability to negotiate. It is not a tool for blackmailing and imposing the decision of Washington and its satellite states.”5:05 p.m.The State Department has been in touch with U.S. citizens still in Ukraine, the White House says, but the administration is standing by President Joe Biden’s comments that he would not send troops in to help evacuate them. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. has “been in touch from the State Department with every American we can reach.””We continue to have the capacity to… help them in a range of ways, even as we don’t have a diplomatic presence in Ukraine,” Psaki said. “We don’t have people in the country right now, obviously, but they are in neighboring countries.”She directed reporters to the State Department for more specifics. Psaki also reiterated that the U.S. has been “warning for months now about the dire circumstances developing in Ukraine, and conveying very directly to American citizens they should leave.” 4:45 p.m.Canada’s largest province is pulling Russian products from shelves from government owned liquor stores.Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy says the province joins Canada’s allies in condemning the Russian government’s act of aggression against the Ukrainian people, and will direct the Liquor Control Board of Ontario to withdraw all products produced in Russia from store shelves.The French-speaking province of Quebec is also considering banning Russian liquor.4:30 p.m.The German government says it plans to deploy troops and the Patriot anti-missile system to Slovakia as part of NATO plans to strengthen the alliance’s eastern flank.The Defense Ministry said Friday that it plans to send an infantry company as part of a combat troop battalion. And it said that Germany also will contribute the Patriot system.The ministry stressed that the so-called “enhanced vigilance activity battlegroup” has a purely defensive function.Slovakia is a NATO and European Union member that borders Ukraine. Germany already is beefing up its troop contingent in Lithuania, another nation on NATO’s eastern flank. 3:45 p.m.The Biden administration announced Friday that it will move to freeze the assets of President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, following the European Union and Britain in directly sanctioning top Russian leadership.The Treasury Department announced the sanctions shortly after the EU said it had also approved an asset freeze against Putin and Lavrov as part of a broader package of sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also told NATO leaders during a call Friday that Britain would move to impose sanctions against Putin and Lavrov.It wasn’t immediately clear how impactful an asset freeze would be on Putin or Lavrov, but the direct action targeting the Russian president was meant to be seen as a warning to Putin that he could emerge as an international pariah if he doesn’t end the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian troops are pressing toward Ukraine’s capital, after a night of explosions and street fighting that sent Kyiv residents seeking shelter underground. Amid the violence, the country’s president refused an American offer to evacuate, insisting Saturday that he would stay.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday that the military struck a range of Ukrainian military installations with long-range Kalibr cruise missiles.
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He said that since the start of Russia’s attack Thursday, the military has hit 821 Ukrainian military facilities, including 14 air bases and 19 command facilities, and destroyed 24 air defense missile systems, 48 radars, seven warplanes, seven helicopters, nine drones, 87 tanks and eight military vessels.
Here’s the latest on the Ukraine-Russia conflict:
- The Ukrainian health minister says that 198 people have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been wounded in the Russian offensive.
- The Russian military says it has launched a barrage of cruise missiles at Ukrainian military facilities.
- Ukrainian forces are fighting to hold back a Russian advance on the capital amid warnings the city could fall within days.
- The U.S. and Britain plan to introduce sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
All times referenced below are in Eastern Standard Time:
5 a.m.
A rescue worker says at least six civilians were injured by a rocket that hit a high-rise apartment building on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital.
Petro Prokopov, a firefighter who was taking part in rescue efforts, said the building on the southwestern edge of Kyiv near Zhuliany airport was hit between 16 and 21 floors on Saturday. He said at least six people were injured and apartments on two floors were gutted by fire. Emergency responders have evacuated 80 people.
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted an image showing a gaping hole on one side of the apartment building.
Separately, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said a Russian missile was shot down before dawn Saturday as it headed for the dam of the sprawling water reservoir that serves Kyiv. “If the dam is destroyed, the flooding will cause catastrophic casualties and losses – including flooding of residential areas of Kyiv and its suburbs,” the ministry said.
Russian troops were pressing their attack on the Ukrainian capital, trying to advance on the city from several directions. Russia has repeatedly claimed its assault on Ukraine is aimed only at military targets.
“Let me stress once again that only infrastructure sites of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are being targeted, ruling out damage to residential and social infrastructure,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a briefing Saturday.
4:30 a.m.
The Ukrainian health minister says that 198 people have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been wounded in the Russian offensive.
Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said Saturday that there were three children among those killed. His statement made it unclear whether the casualties included both military and civilians.
He said another 1,115 people, including 33 children, were wounded in the Russian invasion that began Thursday with massive air and missile strikes and troops forging into Ukraine from the north, east and south.
4 a.m.
The U.N. refugee agency says that over 120,000 Ukrainian refugees have left the country since Russia began its attack on its neighboring country this week.
Speaking as Russian troops were engaging in battle with Ukrainian forces in the capital Kyiv on Saturday, the U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Kelly Clements, said in an interview on CNN the situation was expected to get worse.
“We now see over 120,000 people that have gone to all of the neighboring countries,” she said. “The reception that they are receiving from local communities, from local authorities, is tremendous. But it’s a dynamic situation. We are really quite devastated, obviously, with what’s to come.”
Most are heading to Poland and Moldova, but also to Romania, Slovakia and Hungary.
2 a.m.
An adviser to Ukraine’s president says that fighting is raging in the capital and in the country’s south, and that the Ukrainian military is successfully fending off Russian assaults.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Saturday that small groups of Russian forces tried to infiltrate Kyiv and engaged in fighting with Ukrainian troops.
12:15 a.m.
Kyiv officials are warning residents that street fighting is underway against Russian forces, and they are urging people to seek shelter.
Russian troops stormed toward Ukraine’s capital early Saturday as explosions reverberated through the city and the president 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.”
Hundreds of casualties were reported in the fighting, which included shelling that sliced through a Kyiv apartment building and pummeled bridges and schools.
11:05 p.m.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked to evacuate Kyiv at the behest of the U.S. government but turned down the offer.
Zelenskyy said in response: “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation, who described Zelenskyy as upbeat.
Invading Russian forces closed in on Ukraine’s capital on Saturday, in an apparent encircling movement after a barrage of airstrikes on cities and military bases around the country.
11 p.m.
A second Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane was shot down near Bila Tserkva, 50 miles south of Kyiv, according to two American officials with direct knowledge of conditions on the ground in Ukraine.
On Friday, Ukraine’s military said it had shot down a Russian military transport plane with paratroopers on board.
According to a statement from the military’s general staff, the first Il-76 heavy transport plane was shot down near Vasylkiv, a city 25 miles south of Kyiv. The Russian military has not commented on either incident so far, and the reports could not be immediately verified.
9 p.m.
Explosions have been seen and heard in parts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Videos from eyewitnesses showed explosions taking place in an area northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. There is a military base in the area.
CNN teams in the capital also reported hearing loud explosions to the west and south of the city Saturday. Shortly afterward, Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications said clashes are underway in an eastern suburb as well – as Russian forces close in on the capital from multiple sides.
8:20 p.m.
The fight by Ukrainian forces to hold back a Russian advance on the capital, Kyiv, stretched into early Saturday morning local time, amid warnings the city could fall within days and as officials handed out weapons to reservists.
“This night will be very difficult, and the enemy will use all available forces to break the resistance of Ukrainians,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a late-night video message Friday. “This night we have to stand ground. The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now.”
A CNN team reported hearing a series of explosions on the outskirts of Kyiv just after 2 a.m. local time, though the exact nature and location of those detonations were unclear, and reporters in Kyiv have heard loud booms to the west and south of the city. The sky lit up early Saturday with a series of flashes on the horizon.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian armed forces reported heavy fighting around the city of Vasylkiv, some 30 kilometers southwest of Kyiv.
“Heavy fighting is currently underway in the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region, where the occupiers are trying to land a landing party,” the armed forces said.
Russian forces are close to Kyiv, Zelenskyy confirmed in his message Friday, advancing on the capital from the north and east after seizing control Thursday of an airbase just north of the city. But “Ukrainians resist the Russian aggression heroically,” he said.
6:40 p.m.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his video message Friday evening that Russian forces have attacked “civilian infrastructure,” including kindergartens.
Addressing the people of Russia while speaking Russian, Zelenskyy said, “There is nothing that could possibly explain why the kindergartens and civilian infrastructure are being shelled. “
He continued: “What kind of war is this against the Ukrainian children? Who are they? Are they also neo-Nazis? Or are they NATO soldiers that imposed a threat to Russia?”
Zelenskyy’s remarks come after Russian President Vladimir Putin made baseless claims about Ukrainians to his security council on Friday. Putin frequently repeats the baseless and inaccurate claim that the democratically elected Ukrainian government is a “Nazi” or “fascist” regime.
Zelenskyy went on to say that “many” cities are under attack and pleaded with Ukrainian citizens “to be very careful.”
“Please help each other, especially the elderly, the lonely, those who need your support,” he said. “In case of any danger, please go to the shelters.”
5:45 p.m.
Russia has vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that Moscow stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops.
Friday’s vote was 11-1, with China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. It showed significant but not total opposition to Russia’s invasion of its smaller, militarily weaker neighbor.
The United States and other supporters knew the resolution wouldn’t pass but argued it would highlight Russia’s international isolation. The resolution’s failure paves the way for backers to call for a swift vote on a similar measure in the U.N. General Assembly. There are no vetoes in the 193-member assembly. There’s no timetable as yet for a potential Assembly vote.
5:20 p.m.
Ukraine’s top diplomatic envoy in the U.S. is urging countries to sever diplomatic relations with Russia over its invasion of their country.
Ambassador Oksana Markarova’s request came in an emergency meeting Friday at the Washington-based Organization of American States, whose members were debating a resolution condemning the military attack ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
“It’s hard to imagine that something like this happens in the center of Europe in the 21st Century,” an emotional Markarova said during the meeting. She urged delegates to supply Ukraine with defensive weapons and follow the lead of the Federated States of Micronesia, a Pacific island nation that earlier Friday broke all ties with Russia.
Alexander Kim, a senior diplomat at Russia’s embassy in Washington, towed closely to the Kremlin’s unsubstantiated claim that the military incursion was an attempt to “de-Nazify” a government that had committed scores of atrocities against civilians.
“We are open to diplomacy,” Kim told representatives of more than 30 Latin American governments, many of whom have pursued closer relations with Moscow in recent years. “However, diplomacy presumes an ability to negotiate. It is not a tool for blackmailing and imposing the decision of Washington and its satellite states.”
5:05 p.m.
The State Department has been in touch with U.S. citizens still in Ukraine, the White House says, but the administration is standing by President Joe Biden’s comments that he would not send troops in to help evacuate them.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. has “been in touch from the State Department with every American we can reach.”
“We continue to have the capacity to… help them in a range of ways, even as we don’t have a diplomatic presence in Ukraine,” Psaki said. “We don’t have people in the country right now, obviously, but they are in neighboring countries.”
She directed reporters to the State Department for more specifics.
Psaki also reiterated that the U.S. has been “warning for months now about the dire circumstances developing in Ukraine, and conveying very directly to American citizens they should leave.”
4:45 p.m.
Canada’s largest province is pulling Russian products from shelves from government owned liquor stores.
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy says the province joins Canada’s allies in condemning the Russian government’s act of aggression against the Ukrainian people, and will direct the Liquor Control Board of Ontario to withdraw all products produced in Russia from store shelves.
The French-speaking province of Quebec is also considering banning Russian liquor.
4:30 p.m.
The German government says it plans to deploy troops and the Patriot anti-missile system to Slovakia as part of NATO plans to strengthen the alliance’s eastern flank.
The Defense Ministry said Friday that it plans to send an infantry company as part of a combat troop battalion. And it said that Germany also will contribute the Patriot system.
The ministry stressed that the so-called “enhanced vigilance activity battlegroup” has a purely defensive function.
Slovakia is a NATO and European Union member that borders Ukraine. Germany already is beefing up its troop contingent in Lithuania, another nation on NATO’s eastern flank.
3:45 p.m.
The Biden administration announced Friday that it will move to freeze the assets of President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, following the European Union and Britain in directly sanctioning top Russian leadership.
The Treasury Department announced the sanctions shortly after the EU said it had also approved an asset freeze against Putin and Lavrov as part of a broader package of sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also told NATO leaders during a call Friday that Britain would move to impose sanctions against Putin and Lavrov.
It wasn’t immediately clear how impactful an asset freeze would be on Putin or Lavrov, but the direct action targeting the Russian president was meant to be seen as a warning to Putin that he could emerge as an international pariah if he doesn’t end the invasion of Ukraine.
