Ukrainian forces keep grip on Kyiv despite Russian onslaught
KYIV, Ukraine — As night fell in Ukraine on Saturday, military forces and thousands of armed volunteers fought fiercely to maintain control of their capital against Russian troops after a day of sporadic explosions and gunfire that shook parts of the city, leaving a missile-hit high-rise tower partially destroyed, a citywide curfew in place and residents crowded into subway stations as they sought protection from further attacks.
Ukraine’s outgunned military desperately sought to fend off an advance by invading Russian forces on Kyiv’s northern outskirts. Skirmishes were reported in other parts of the beleaguered city. Shops were closed, nervous reservists clutched battered AK-47s in the streets and makeshift checkpoints made of piled-up tires sprang up to slow anticipated Russian infiltration. Huddled in bomb shelters, Kyiv residents stuffed old wine bottles with flammable liquid to prepare Molotov cocktails.
Some signs suggested Ukrainians were succeeding in fighting beyond the expectations of Russia, which U.S. officials said has sent in the majority of the 150,000 troops it had amassed near Ukraine’s borders.
Russians “have been frustrated by what they have seen is a very determined resistance,” a senior U.S. Defense Department official said on Saturday. The official added that, while Ukraine’s air- and missile-defense systems had been targeted, they remained viable, and that there was no indication Russia had taken control of any Ukrainian cities in what is Europe’s biggest ground war since World War II.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who defiantly remained in Kyiv despite a reported American offer to be evacuated, called on Ukrainians within its borders and beyond to defend their nation against Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion on the nation’s eastern border three days ago after months of building up troops on its edges while denying there were plans to attack.
“We aren’t going to lay down weapons. We will protect the country,” Zelensky said in one of several video appearances. “It’s our land, our country, our children. And we will defend all of that.”
In a tweet Saturday, the Ukrainian Embassy in the U.K. said Zelensky had refused a U.S. offer to be evacuated. “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” read the post, quoting Zelenskyy.
The U.S., which has dispatched several thousand troops to neighboring Poland, a fellow NATO member state, and announced multiple sanctions against Russian and Putin personally, on Saturday said it would join with Canada and major European powers to cut off certain Russian banks from SWIFT, an international network that allows global banks to complete transactions and will effectively isolate major parts of the Russian financial system.
Just days ago, President Joe Biden said targeting Russian participation in SWIFT was “always an option” but not yet on the table.
Also on Saturday, the U.S. authorized an additional $350 million in military assistance to Ukraine. Some of it is earmarked for anti-armor and other munitions and equipment.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the extra aid was “a sign of our unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The move coincided with
those by other nations to isolate Russia politically and economically as well as arm Ukraine’s military. Japan and Australia are among those that have imposed sanctions. On Saturday, Germany — widely mocked for an earlier offer to donate 5,000 helmets to Ukraine defenses — said it would send 1,000 anti-tank weapons, 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles and 10,000 tons of fuel.
In addition on Saturday, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they would close their airspace to Russian airliners. In a tweet, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said, “there is no place for planes of the aggressor state in democratic skies.”
But the threat of a Russian takeover of Ukraine remained as Putin, who has long sought to expand Russian territory and influence over former U.S.S.R. territories, has refused to relent. Russia, which claimed to have paused operations Friday while awaiting possible negotiations with Ukraine, said Saturday it had resumed them. Fears have caused Ukrainians to flee, with 120,000 refugees making it to Poland in the last days, according to the United Nations.
“This may go up, it’s changing every minute,” said Shabia Mantoo, the spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “It’s very fluid and changing by the hour.” The agency said up to 4 million people could flee Ukraine to neighboring nations.
In Kyiv, the capital of nearly 3 million people in the country of 44 million people that’s nearly the size of Texas, sirens
continued to blare overnight as residents awaited another day of war.
Saturday began as a beautiful, sunny day, the sort that would normally bring out crowds in force to enjoy Kyiv’s many sights.
Gatherings in front of gas stations, pharmacies and supermarkets became more sparse as the day wore on, and nighttime brought a deeperhued darkness. The occasional car still zoomed past traffic lights; but now those lights flashed only yellow, an acknowledgment by the Kyiv municipality that no one had time to wait on red.
Around 8 p.m. came what was now the expected siren call, its rise-and-fall an ominous change to a city which only a few days ago simmered with pedestrians and cars until the late hours.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko imposed a strict citywide curfew that would extend from 5 p.m. local time until 8 a.m. Monday morning. Klitschko said he was taking the step to counter the efforts of Russian infiltrators suspected to be already in the city.
“We remind you that all civilians who will be on the street during the curfew will be considered as members of the enemy’s sabotage and reconnaissance groups,” the order stated.
Between Friday and Saturday, Ukrainian forces deliberately destroyed some of Kyiv’s many bridges as a defensive tactic aimed at slowing down the incoming forces. Those that remain standing are carefully guarded, like
the Perchesky Bridge, where nervous but dour-faced soldiers popped trunks open and questioned motorists.
On Lobanovsky Avenue, the war’s impact was starkly evident where a shell had slammed into an apartment block about 8 a.m. Saturday, obliterating a chunk of the building between the 16th and 21st floors and wounding six people, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Rescuers agency said. Glass, hunks of cement and personal belongings from the destroyed units carpeted the boulevard below.
About 80 people were evacuated from the tower, which also houses a travel agency, a sushi restaurant and a gym. The exploded round turned a 16th-floor apartment into a smoke-filled maw of distressed masonry and rebar; on the 18th floor, a wall dangled and swung gently in the wind like a cement curtain.
It was the latest in the tally of civilian targets hit by Russian forces, despite Moscow’s insistence that its troops have aimed their massive firepower only at military installations.
“I don’t sleep these days, so I was awake beside my wife — she’s nine months pregnant — and reading the news when I heard this huge bang and the building shook,” said Eugene Limar, a 31-yearold programmer who lived on the 22nd floor. He was rushing down the stairs with two suitcases in hand, barely pausing a moment to speak to a reporter.
“I just dumped everything in these bags and we’re leaving,” he said.