Kiev, The Indonesia Post – Russian troops launched coordinated missile and artillery strikes on Ukrainian cities on Saturday including the capital, Kiev, where gunfire erupted near government buildings in the city center, according to military officials and a Reuters witness.
Ukrainian authorities have urged citizens to help defend Kiev against the onslaught of Russian troops who invaded Thursday in Europe’s worst security crisis in decades.
But even as the fighting intensifies, the Russian and Ukrainian governments signal an openness to negotiations, offering the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion.
Artillery shells exploded in Kiev, a Reuters witness said.
Ukrainian officials said Russian troops fired cruise missiles from the Black Sea at the cities of Sumy, Poltava and Mariupol and there was heavy fighting near the southern city of Mariupol.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in a video message from outside his office in Keiv, was defiant.
“We will not lay down our arms, we will defend our country,” Zelenskiy said.
The air force command earlier reported heavy fighting near an air base in Vasylkiv southwest of the capital, which it said was under attack from Russian paratroopers.
It said one of its fighters had shot down a Russian transport plane. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
The Interfax news agency said Russian troops had taken control of the Kiev hydroelectric plant but Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the president’s office, said the situation in Kiev and its suburbs was under control.
“There are cases of sabotage and reconnaissance groups working in the city, police and self-defense forces working efficiently against them,” Podolyak said.
The residents of Kiev were told by the defense ministry to make petrol bombs to repel the invaders.
Several families are huddled in shelters and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes in search of safety, according to a UN aid official.
Ukraine says more than 1,000 Russian soldiers were killed. Russia did not release casualty figures. Zelenskiy said late Thursday that 137 soldiers and civilians were killed with hundreds injured.
Putin’s Call
After weeks of warnings from Western leaders, Putin launched a three-way invasion of Ukraine from the north, east and south on Thursday, in an attack that threatens to overturn Europe’s post-Cold War order.
“I once again appeal to the military personnel of the Ukrainian armed forces: do not allow neo-Nazis and (Ukrainian radical nationalists) to use your children, wives and parents as human shields,” Putin said at a televised meeting with Russia’s Security Council.
“Seize power in your own hands.”
Putin has cited the need to “denazify” Ukraine’s leadership as one of his main reasons for the invasion, accusing it of genocide against Russian-speaking speakers in eastern Ukraine. Kiev and its Western allies reject the accusations as baseless propaganda.
Ukraine enthusiastically voted for independence during the fall of the Soviet Union and Kiev hoped to join NATO and the European Union – aspirations that angered Moscow.
Putin said Ukraine, a democratic country of 44 million people, was an illegitimate state formed from Russia. Putin’s view is considered Ukraine aims to erase more than a thousand years of their history.
‘Ready to talk’
Western countries have announced a barrage of sanctions against Russia, including blacklisting their banks and banning technology exports. But they didn’t force him out of the SWIFT system for international bank payments.
The United States imposed sanctions on Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. The European Union and Britain previously froze any assets Putin and Lavrov had on their territory. Canada is taking a similar step.
The invasion sparked a series of credit rating moves on Friday, with S&P downgrading Russia to “junk” status, Moody’s reviewing it for a downgrade to trash, and S&P and Fitch quickly cutting Ukraine over default concerns.
But in the midst of the chaos of war appeared a glimmer of hope.
A Zelenskiy spokesman said Ukraine and Russia would consult in the coming hours on a time and place for talks.
“Ukraine has been and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace,” Zelenskiy spokesman Sergii Nykyforov said in a Facebook post. “We agree with the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation.”
But US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Russia’s offer was an attempt at diplomacy “by the barrel of a gun” and Putin’s military should stop bombing.
But US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Russia’s offer was an attempt at diplomacy “by the barrel of a gun” and Putin’s military should stop bombing Ukraine if it was serious about negotiations. (mhn/ojn/bbs)
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