The fight for Kyiv: Russian forces enter Ukrainian capital

Tense atmosphere in city threatened from north-west and east in what appears to be a lightning attack

Russian forces have entered Kyiv and were threatening the Ukrainian capital from the north-west and east in a lightning attack apparently aimed at seizing the city.

The defence ministry in Moscow claimed its forces had taken control of the strategic Hostomel airfield to the north-west after a day of fighting, while Russian tanks were filmed by locals in the Obolon suburb about six miles north of the city centre in the morning.

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Klitschko brothers, former heavyweight boxing champions, urge countries to support Ukraine – video

Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko have posted a video on social media, calling for action from around the world to stop what they described as Russian aggression in their country.  

'This senseless war is not going to have any winners, but losers,' said Wladimir Klitschko, who has reportedly enlisted in the Ukraine army. 'Don't let it continue happening in Ukraine, don't let it happen in Europe and eventually in the world. United we are strong. Support Ukraine.'

Vitali Klitschko, who is the mayor of Kyiv, has declared a state of emergency and called on the city's 3 million people to stay indoors unless they work in critical sectors

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Covid recovery funding pits Italy’s dying towns against each other

Programme that involves small communities bidding for slice of €420m fund sparks controversy and division

Perched on a rock surrounded by a vast nature reserve, the hilltop hamlet of Trevinano sent tremors across the Lazio region when it was announced this month that it and its 142 residents were in line for €20m (£16.73m) from a Covid recovery fund to save small villages on the verge of extinction – equal to a whopping €140,845 per resident.

“This initiative is generating a lot of envy and bad feeling,” said Alessandra Terrosi, the mayor of Trevinano, who has the responsibility for spending the millions before 2026, when the funding programme ends. The hamlet’s good fortune has fuelled rancour among its neighbours who missed out, raised questions over how efficiently Italy will invest some of the €191bn coming its way from the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund and had critics asking if €20m is just too much money for one small village.

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China ponders how Russia’s actions in Ukraine could reshape world order

Beijing is walking a diplomatic tightrope but crisis also offers the opportunity to express grievances against its adversaries

The news came as a surprise to many in Beijing. Barely 24 hours ago, Chinese pundits predicted that a war in Ukraine was not inevitable. In New York, as Russia geared up for a full-on assault on its neighbour, China’s UN envoy, Zhang Jun, urged in a security council meeting that “the door to a peaceful solution to the Ukraine issue is not fully shut, nor should it be shut”.

But when people in Kyiv woke up to sound of bombs in what the Nato chief called a “deliberate, cold-blooded” invasion, the door had clearly been closed. China’s state media, however, insisted it was a “special military action” by Russia. Quoting Vladimir Putin, China’s central television tweeted: “Russia was left with no other choice.”

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UK says it will work ‘all day’ to persuade Europe to cut Russia off from Swift

Foreign secretary goes on diplomatic drive to rally support for peak sanctions measure

The UK has said it will work “all day” to persuade fellow European states to cut Russia off from the international Swift payment system.

The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, ended the pretence that Britain was not at odds with its fellow European leaders over the issue. He said there was still time for Russia to be excluded, and the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said: “The UK is working with allies to exclude Russia from the Swift financial system.”

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Ukraine soldiers told Russian officer ‘go fuck yourself’ before they died on island

Thirteen border guards died in air and sea bombardment on Snake Island in Black Sea after refusing to surrender

Ukrainian soldiers who died defending an island in the Black Sea from an air and sea bombardment reportedly told an officer on board a Russian navy warship to “go fuck yourself” when asked to surrender.

There were 13 border guards stationed on Snake Island, a roughly 16-hectare (40-acre) rocky island owned by Ukraine that sits about 186 miles (300km) west of Crimea, when Russian troops bombed the island on Thursday.

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Kyiv faces attack from Russia – in pictures

As the invasion enters its second day, Ukrainians reel from the shock of the attack. The capital Kyiv is braced for the arrival of Russian forces, after Putin unleashed a full-scale ground invasion and air assault that quickly claimed dozens of lives and displaced at least 100,000 people

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Can Germany function without Vladimir Putin’s gas?

Analysis: Nord Stream 2 was meant to deliver 70% of country’s gas and switch to renewable energy has been slow

The Ukraine crisis has plunged Germany into an intense debate about how it will heat its homes and power its industry in future, summed up in the short question: can Europe’s largest economy function without Vladimir Putin’s gas?

The Green federal economics minister, Robert Habeck, answered with a decisive “yes it can”, a day after the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, announced the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was meant to deliver from Russia as much as 70% of Germany’s gas requirements. There are considerable doubts as to whether the $11bn project will ever now go ahead.

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Effort under way to challenge Russia’s right to seat on UN security council

In wake of Ukraine invasion, diplomats consider if Russia can be removed as one of five permanent security council members

An effort is under way to isolate Vladimir Putin diplomatically by challenging Russia’s right to a permanent seat of the UN security council on the grounds that Russia took the seat from the defunct Soviet Union in 1991 without proper authorisation.

Diplomats are also looking to see if there is a basis for removing Russia from the presidency of the council.

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‘Her blood … his hands’: what the papers say about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Photograph of teacher bloodied by Russian attack on Ukraine dominates front pages as Putin sends his troops to war

The front pages in Britain and around the world are devoted to the shocking events in Ukraine, with graphic images of the destruction unleashed by Vladimir Putin.

A photograph of a woman with a bloodied and bandaged head in the wake of a Russian attack dominates the front of the Guardian with the headline “Putin invades”.

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: what we know so far

Ukraine is expecting Putin’s tanks to attack Kyiv and citizens have been urged to resist Russian forces

Gunfire has been heard in central Kyiv and there are reports of heavy fighting in the city’s northern suburbs after Ukraine said it expected a Russian armoured attack on the capital and its outskirts on Friday.

Russian forces have taken control of Hostomel airfield near Kyiv, according to reports, and the capital’s mayor has said it has entered a “defensive phase”.

The defence ministry urged citizens to resist when Russian forces entered Kyiv, telling residents to inform authorities of all troop movements, and “make molotov cocktails and neutralise the enemy”.

Explosions rocked Kyiv in the early hours in preparations for the Russian advance, with Ukraine claiming it had shot down a Russian military aircraft over the capital. Officials said a tower block had been set on fire.

Russian forces have taken the city of Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine, according to a resident who said there were Russian military vehicles in the streets.

Russia is ready to send a delegation to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, for talks with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Ukraine has said it is willing to discuss declaring itself a neutral county.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, insisted “no one is planning to occupy Ukraine”, also saying that Moscow was ready for talks if Ukrainian forces laid down their arms.

Russia banned UK flights from its airspace after the British government said Russia’s national carrier, Aeroflot, would be banned from British airspace as part of the UK’s package of sanctions.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, confirmed reports of Russian missile strikes in a national address early on Friday, also calling for Nato defence support and tougher sanctions against Russia.

Russian troops seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the north of Ukraine.

Ukraine decreed a full military mobilisation against the Russian invasion. Ukrainian men aged 18-60 are now forbidden to leave Ukraine. Zelenskiy has declared martial law.

The president said on Thursday night he would remain in Kyiv, despite saying he was Russia’s primary target. “We are not afraid. We are not afraid of anything,” he said.

The EU is preparing to freeze the assets of Putin and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as part of a third round of sanctions. Amid Ukrainian anger at the bloc’s reluctance to cut Russia out of the Swift international payments system, EU foreign ministers are set to approve more measures on Friday afternoon.

Thousands attempted to flee Kyiv, leading to large traffic queues. Pictures have emerged of Kyiv residents crowding into underground metro stations where they are taking shelter from further Russian attacks.

Anti-war protests attracted thousands of people in cities across Russia, with local authorities swiftly cracking down on the unsanctioned rallies. Police made at least 1,702 arrests in 53 Russian cities on Thursday night.

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Biden’s Russia warnings come to pass – what does the US president do now?

Inflation is rising, Republicans are resurgent – and the increasingly embattled president now has a foreign policy crisis to deal with

For weeks, Joe Biden has issued urgent warnings that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen at any moment. The moment came overnight, when Russian troops began attacking Ukraine by land, air and sea.

For the US president – increasingly embattled at home by a resurgent Republican party – it was evidence that the White House had largely assessed the Ukraine crisis correctly, even though their preference would have been to be wrong about their predictions of a disastrous war in Europe.

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Ukraine fights for its survival as Putin presses forward

Ukraine leaders warn world to wake up to Russian threat as west promises to make Putin international pariah

Ukraine was fighting for its survival after Vladimir Putin unleashed a punishing offensive on the country that left hundreds dead or injured, and world leaders warned that Moscow had embarked on a dangerous new era of imperial expansion.

The continent awoke to the shock of scenes it once believed it had left in the 20th century: helicopters strafing homes outside the capital, long lines of tanks ploughing ever deeper towards Ukraine’s heartland, roads choked with refugees, and civilians huddled in underground stations to escape bombardment.

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Footage shows Russian helicopters engaging with forces in Ukraine – video

Military helicopters, apparently Russian, were filmed flying over the Dnieper river on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, where they were met by Ukrainian counter fire. An ambitious attack by helicopters on the Hostomel military airbase on the outskirts of Kyiv was also recorded.

Russian forces have attacked Ukraine by land, sea, and air on a massive scale, bringing to a calamitous end weeks of fruitless diplomatic efforts by western leaders to avert war

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Decision to invade Ukraine raises questions over Putin’s ‘sense of reality’

Officials in western capitals concerned by ‘despotic mindset’ of Russian president and rambling Monday speech increased doubts

Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a catastrophic new European war, combined with the sheer weirdness of his recent public appearances, has raised questions in western capitals about the mental stability of the leader of a country with 6,000 nuclear warheads.

They worry about a 69-year-old man whose tendency towards insularity has been amplified by his precautions against Covid, leaving him surrounded by an ever-shrinking coterie of fearful obedient courtiers. He appears increasingly uncoupled from the contemporary world, preferring to burrow deep into history and a personal quest for greatness.

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‘I don’t want to leave’: Ukrainians record messages from their cars as they flee war – video

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing or preparing to flee the country after Russian leader Vladimir Putin began an invasion.

Videos and photos on social media show lines of cars moving out of cities and heading west, as well as numbers of people on foot near the southern and western borders while reports of casualties mount. 

We spoke to Maria Romanenko and Alena Dalskaya-Latosiewicz from their cars as they tried to escape the conflict, as well as Romeo Kokriatski a Ukrainian-American, who says he hopes to stay in the capital, Kyiv, for as long as possible. 

'I love my country. I don't want to leave,' said Romanenko

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