Friday February 25, 2022
'The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees,' mayor of Kyiv says as people seek safety
Missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Friday as Russian forces pressed their advance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with the international community to do more, saying the sanctions announced so far were not enough.
Air raid sirens wailed over the city of three million people a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion that has shocked the world.
A Ukrainian official said a Russian plane had been shot down and crashed into a building. Russian troops seized Chornobyl, the former nuclear power plant north of Kyiv, as they advanced on the city from Belarus.
Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova said Friday that Russian troops that captured Chornobyl took 92 personnel.
Markarova also said Russian troops attacked an orphanage with 50 children, but not one was injured.
Ukrainian military vehicles are entering Kyiv to defend it against approaching Russian troops, Ukraine's interior ministry said Friday, as people in the capital scrambled to try and find safety.
Markarova said that Russian attacks on Ukraine Friday "have been more brutal," but "they were not successful."
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko earlier said the city had "entered into a defensive phase."
"The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us," the mayor said, alleging that "saboteurs" had already entered the city.
Ukrainian guards fired warning shots to prevent a stampede at Kyiv's central railway station on Friday as thousands of people tried to force their way onto evacuation trains. Crowds were so large that not everyone could get on the trains from the capital to the western city of Lviv, as fears of a Russian assault on Kyiv mounted.
Some in Kyiv were sheltering in underground metro stations, while in one hotel in the city centre, guests were directed to a makeshift basement shelter, lined with piles of mattresses and bottles of water. Workers — all local university students — served tea and cookies. Some people ducked out to a courtyard to smoke or get fresh air.
"We're all scared and worried. We don't know what to do then, what's going to happen in a few days," said one of the workers, Lucy Vashaka, 20.