Ukraine's presidential adviser said on Friday the country had kept control of territory attacked by Russian forces as authorities told people to prepare petrol bombs to defend Ukraine's capital when Russia's troops reach the city.
"Russia's idea is to create chaos and form a temporary administration," Mykhailo Podolyak said. The most severe situation was in the cities of Kharkiv, Sumy and Yug, he added.
After weeks of warnings from Western leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed a three-pronged invasion of Ukraine from the north, east and south before dawn on Thursday, in the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.
Russian missiles pounded Kyiv throughout Friday, while families cowered in shelters and fighting was reported in the outskirts of the city.
Moscow said it had captured the Hostomel airfield northwest of the capital - a vital staging post for an assault on Kyiv that has been fought over since Russian paratroopers landed there in the first hours of the war. This could not be confirmed and the Ukrainian authorities reported heavy fighting there.
"Shots and explosions are ringing out in some neighborhoods. Saboteurs have already entered Kyiv," said the city's mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitchko. "The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us."
President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that there had been heavy fighting with people killed at the entrance to the eastern cities of Chernihiv and Melitopol, as well as at Hostomel.
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Ukrainian civilians seek shelter from Russian bombardments in a metro station
(Photo: Gil Yohanan)
Witnesses said loud explosions and gunfire could also be heard near the airport in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, close to Russia's border, and air raid sirens sounded over Lviv in the west. Authorities reported heavy fighting in the eastern city of Sumy.
Britain's defense ministry said in an intelligence update that Russian armored forces had opened a new route of advance towards the capital after failing to take Chernihiv, and most troops remained more than 50 km (30 miles) from Kyiv's city center.
Ukraine said more than 1,000 Russian soldiers had been killed so far. Russia did not release casualty figures. The United Nations said 25 civilians had been killed and 102 wounded, figures that were likely to be a "significant under-estimate". None of the tolls could be independently verified.
SIRENS WAIL, AGAIN
Air raid sirens wailed over Kyiv for a second day, and some residents sheltered in underground metro stations.
Windows were blasted out of a 10-storey apartment block near the main airport. A two-metre crater showed where a shell had struck before dawn.
"How can we be living through this in our time? Putin should burn in hell along with his whole family," said Oxana Gulenko, sweeping broken glass from her room.
Hundreds of people were crowded into a cramped bomb shelter beneath a building after a televised warning of air strikes.
"How can you wage a war against peaceful people?" said Viktoria, 35, as her children aged 5 and 7 slept in their winter coats.
Alla, 40 said: "The kids were scared, they were crying and asking 'Mom, will we all die?'"
Number of targets
The European Union has agreed to place Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on its list of sanctioned individuals following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday.
"Let me flag that the only leaders in the world that are sanctioned by the European Union are Assad from Syria, Lukashenko from Belarus and now Putin from Russia," Borrell told a news conference after a meeting of EU foreign ministers to settle details of the bloc's sanctions.
U.S. officials believe Russia's initial aim is to "decapitate" Zelensky's government. Zelensky said he knew he was "the number one target" but would stay in Kyiv.
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Ukrainian civilians arm themselves to fend off the Russian invasion in Kyiv on Friday
(Photo: EPA)
An adviser to Zelenskiy said Ukraine was prepared for talks with Russia, including on staying neutral, one of Moscow's pre-war demands. The Kremlin said it had offered talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk, but that Ukraine had proposed Warsaw instead and there was now a "pause" in contacts.
Putin says Ukraine is an illegitimate state carved out of Russia, a view Ukrainians see as aimed at erasing their more than thousand-year history.
Putin says he does not plan a military occupation, only to disarm Ukraine and remove its leaders. But it is not clear how a pro-Russian leader could be installed unless troops control much of the country.
After Moscow denied for months it was planning an invasion, news that Putin had ordered one shocked Russians accustomed to viewing their ruler of 22 years as a cautious strategist. Many Russians have friends and family in Ukraine.
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Russian police arrest a demonstrator protesting the invasion of Ukraine in Moscow on Thursday
(Photo: AP)
Russian state media have relentlessly characterized Ukraine as a threat, but dozens of anti war protests were held in Russian cities on Thursday and more than 1,600 people were arrested.
One pop star posted a video on Instagram opposing the war, and the head of a Moscow state-run theatre quit, saying she would not take her salary from a murderer.
'Russian warship, Go fuck yourself'
Ukrainians were circulating an unverified recording on Friday of a Russian warship ordering a Ukrainian Black Sea outpost to surrender. The Ukrainians reply: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself." Zelensky said the 13 guards were killed by a Russian strike and would receive posthumous honors.
Thousands of people crowded Kyiv's railway station trying to force their way onto packed evacuation trains to Lviv. When a train arrived people rushed the doors, some screamed and guards fired blank shots to scare the crowd away.
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Serpent Island in the Black Sea reportedly taken by Russian navy after 13 guards told the Russians to F-ck off
(Photo: Google Earth )
Maria, 30, had been there since the morning with her child, husband and dog, trying and failing to board the trains.
"It's dangerous to break through the crowd with a kid. The dog is scared. Honestly, we're exhausted," she said.
When a squad of soldiers marched through the station, people clapped hands and shouted the national military cry of "Glory to Ukraine!". The soldiers shouted back the traditional response: "Glory to the heroes!"
U.N. agencies said as many as 5 million people could try to flee abroad. Kyiv has banned fighting-aged men from leaving the country, and at borders with Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, those crossing were mostly women and children.
Reuters journalists saw women crying as they bade goodbye to male loved ones and crossed into Romania.
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Ukrainian women and children wait to cross the Slovakian border fleeing the Russian invasion on Friday
(Photo: AFP)
A democratic nation of 44 million people, Ukraine voted for independence at the fall of the Soviet Union and hopes to join NATO and the EU, aspirations that infuriate Moscow.
Western countries have announced new sanctions on Russia, including blacklisting its banks and banning technology imports.
But they stopped short of forcing Russia out of the SWIFT system for international bank payments, drawing criticism from Kyiv which says the most serious steps should be taken now. Germany and others use SWIFT to pay for Russian gas.
Russia is one of the world's biggest energy producers, and both it and Ukraine are among the top exporters of grain. War and sanctions will disrupt economies around the world.
Oil and grain prices have soared. Share markets around the world, many of which plunged on Thursday at news of the outbreak of war, were mainly rebounding on Friday.