Ukrainian military personnel battled Feb. 26 to repel Russian forces from the capital of Kyiv as talks stalled between leaders of the warring countries.
Ukrainian interior ministry warned residents of “active fighting” in the streets of Kyiv, urging them to stay home or take cover elsewhere.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces said it destroyed a Russian military convoy, including two tanks, during the fighting.
The exact locations of many of the skirmishes were unclear as the war that started on Feb. 24 raged.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russian forces were advancing on Kyiv and the bulk of them were about 19 miles from the city center. But in an update around 3:30 p.m. GMT, the ministry said the Russian advance was “temporarily slowed,” which it attributed to likely being from “acute logistical difficulties and strong Ukrainian resistance.”
The battles in Kyiv, British officials said, likely involved pre-positioned Russian forces.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters on a call Saturday that Russian troops have met with “stiff resistance” as they advance towards Kyiv.
To help protect the capital and in a bid to keep residents safe, a curfew was imposed with no breaks from Saturday evening through Monday morning, Kyiv’s mayor announced. Any residents outside during the curfew will be considered an enemy, officials said.
“The military, the police, the National Guard, the territorial defense, volunteer battalions are defending our city,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a video posted to Instagram, urging residents who spotted suspected Russian saboteurs to report them to law enforcement.
Ukrainians were urged to help by damaging road signs, using their bodies to block the movement of Russian military vehicles, and ripping down any Russian symbols put up by Russian forces.
Klitschko said 35 people were wounded, including two children, as of 6 a.m. Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko reportedly pegged the casualties nationwide at 198 people, including 3 children, while over 1,100 others have been wounded.
Russian forces have repeatedly tried to surround Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian military.
“In our streets, in Kyiv, in Vasylkiv, in Vyshhorod, even in rural fields the real fighting for Kyiv is ongoing. The enemy has used everything against us: missiles, fighter jets, drones, artillery, armored vehicles, sabotage groups, airborne troops,” Zelensky said in a separate message.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian forces were ordered to halt their advance because of expected negotiations but Ukrainian officials“ ”essentially refused the talks“ so ”the main Russian contingent resumed this afternoon according to the plan of conducting the operation.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, told Reuters that Ukraine was open to negotiating a ceasefire but would not accept an unreasonable deal.
“It was yesterday that the aggressive actions of the armed forces of the Russian Federation escalated, up to evening and night mass air and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities,” Podolyak said. “We consider such actions only an attempt to break Ukraine and force it to accept categorically unacceptable conditions.”
