Timeline: Russia enters Kyiv; Putin urges Ukrainian army to take over - today's main developments
People look at a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Picture: Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images
Yesterday marked the first day of “full-scale” conflict in Ukraine.
Today, Russia expanded and intensified its attacks. From early this morning, reports suggested that Russian troops had pushed all the way into the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Thousands of Ukrainians have continued to flee their homes amid widespread fighting across their country.
Images circulating on social media show major traffic build-up along the main thoroughfares of Ukraine’s larger population centres.
There are reports of cars being backed up at border crossings as authorities in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova mobilised to receive them, with offers of food, shelter and legal assistance.
UN officials have said they are preparing for millions of people to flee Ukraine.
In the early hours of this morning, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered a full military mobilisation of Ukrainians to counter the Russian invasion.
In a decree, Mr Zelenskiy said the measure would last 90 days.
Both Mr Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian military urged those wishing to join the fight to come forward. They said anyone who wished to receive a weapon would be given one.
One Ukrainian army officials even encouraged residents of Kyiv to prepare Molotov cocktails in advance of a Russian assault on the capital.
Later in the morning, Mr Zelenskiy pleaded for international help and for western powers to act faster to weaken the Russian economy and to provide Ukraine with military assistance.
“When bombs fall on Kyiv, it happens in Europe, not just in Ukraine. When missiles kill our people, they kill all Europeans," he said.
Following a night of missile attacks last night, Russian forces advanced to the outskirts of the city from three sides while Ukrainian soldiers established defensive positions at key positions.
Kyiv “has entered into a defensive phase” its mayor, prominent boxer Vitali Klitschko said.
In a statement, the Russian military said it had seized a Hostomel airport just outside Kyiv and cut the city off from the west.
Military experts have said that Russia may move to take full control of the capital as early as tonight or tomorrow.
This afternoon, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy's urged Russia to enter peace negotiations.
"I want to appeal to the president of Russia, let's sit down and talk to stop people dying," he said.
Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak told that "if talks are possible, they should be held."
"If in Moscow they say they want to hold talks, including on neutral status, we are not afraid of this," he said.
"Our readiness for dialogue is part of our persistent pursuit of peace."
Later, a Kremlin spokesman said Russia was ready to send a delegation, including foreign and defence ministry officials, to the Belarusian capital of Minsk, for talks with Ukraine.
The spokesperson said the talks could proceed, provided Ukraine agreed to demilitarise.
Following on from additional sanctions imposed yesterday, the European Union, UK and US today further agreed to freeze the assets of Russian president Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
According to the finance minister of Latvia, the decision to freeze Mr Putin and Mr Lavrov’s assets indicates that western powers “are moving towards unprecedented measures to try to stop the invasion of Ukraine".
However, the move is largely symbolic and does not include a travel ban, as ministers wish to maintain a diplomatic way through the crisis.
The EU is also holding back from blocking Russia from an international payments system through which it receives foreign currency, though this may change.
Higher than usual gamma radiation levels have been detected in the area near the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant, after it was seized by the Russian military, according to Ukraine’s nuclear energy regulatory agency.
The state nuclear regulatory inspectorate said on Friday that higher gamma radiation levels have been detected in the Chernobyl zone, but did not provide details of the increase.
It attributed the rise to a “disturbance of the topsoil due to the movement of a large amount of heavy military equipment through the exclusion zone and the release of contaminated radioactive dust into the air”.
Ukrainian authorities said that Russia took the plant and its surrounding exclusion zone after a fierce battle on Thursday.
In the evening, the Council of Europe began a process to suspend Russia’s membership.
Russia had previously been kicked out of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly over the annexation of Crimea in 2014, but was reinstated in 2019 with full rights.
The Council of Europe has suspended Russia’s rights of representation.https://t.co/V8uUfjBkm3 pic.twitter.com/LfVLnNfvDz
— Council of Europe (@coe) February 25, 2022
Today’s motion, brought by Ukraine and Poland, was approved by 42 out of the 47 member states.
In a video address earlier, Russian president Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian military to seize power in order to better negotiate with Russia.
In the video, a visibly angry Putin called the Ukrainian government a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis".
He also repeated a claim that the Ukrainian leadership and army had engaged in “genocide” in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
In a press conference, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg suggested that Russia's intentions would not cease with Ukraine.
Mr Stoltenberg said Putin’s decision to pursue a war against Ukraine was a “terrible strategic mistake” for which Russia would pay a “severe price".
He said US president Joe Biden and his counterparts have agreed to send parts of the organisation’s response force to help protect allies in the east.
He did not say how many troops would be deployed, however.
"We are facing a new normal in European security," he said.
Lithuania, a former soviet state and current Nato member, has declared a state of emergency, according to reports
Ukrainian officials reported at least 137 deaths on the Ukrainian side so far, with up to 500 injured. However, these figures have not yet been verified.
Ukraine also claims hundreds more had died on the Russian side.
Conversely, Russian authorities have released no casualty figures.
UN officials have so far reported 25 civilian deaths, mostly from shelling and airstrikes.
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