Ukrainian tower block is hit by MISSILE: Building is ripped apart by Russian strike - as defiant Zelensky emerges at dawn during Battle for Kyiv and Ukraine 'kills 3,500 Russian troops during street-to-street combat'
- President Volodymyr Zelensky at dawn on Saturday was out in the streets of Kyiv, defiant after intense Russian efforts to capture his capital
- The 44-year-old filmed a video posted to social media in which he warned of fake news circulating, claiming he had ordered a surrender, and declared: 'This is our land, our country, our kids, and we will defend them'
- Hours before, at midnight on Friday, he had warned his people in an address to the nation that the capital, Kyiv, would be attacked overnight
- The battle was far from over on Saturday morning, and the interior ministry warned residents to remain indoors as street-by-street battles continued
- Russian troops attempted to advance on Kyiv in the early hours of Saturday with fierce fighting by the city's zoo in the west, near the Beresteiska metro, and to the north, near the Troieshchyna thermal plant
- Russian troops were encountering heavy resistance, and the advance from the west appeared to have been pushed back, with the Ukrainian Armed Forces claiming to have repelled the move
- Early on Saturday morning Ukraine's army said that 3,500 Russians had been killed in the fighting, and 200 captured
- Ukraine claimed that 14 Russian aircraft, eight helicopters, and 102 tanks had been seized. The scale of Ukrainian losses was not clear
By HARRIET ALEXANDER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and TOM PYMAN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 09:45 AEDT, 26 February 2022 | UPDATED: 19:30 AEDT, 26 February 2022
Russian missile hits residential building in Ukrainian capital Kyiv as fighting rages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA368e26Ktw
A high-rise apartment block in Kyiv was hit by a devastating missile this morning as fighting continues to rage in the capital between Russian attackers and Ukrainian forces.
Emergency services said the number of victims from the attack in the Zhuliany district was 'being specified' and that an evacuation was underway. Images show the tower block with a hole covering at least five floors blasted into the side and rubble strewn across the street below.
It comes as a barrage of cruise missiles have also been launched by Russian forces against Ukrainian military facilities.
Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said the military struck a range of installations with long-range Kalibr cruise missiles.
He said that since the start of Russia's attack on Thursday, the military has hit 821 Ukrainian military facilities, including 14 air bases and 19 command facilities, and destroyed 24 air defence missile systems, 48 radars, seven warplanes, seven helicopters, nine drones, 87 tanks and eight military vessels.
Maj Gen Konashenkov claimed the Russian military has taken full control of the southern city of Melitopol, about 35 kilometres inland from the Azov Sea coast, and said Russia-backed separatists have made significant gains in the eastern region of Donbas.
Meanwhile, the mayor of a city south of the capital says the country's military has fended off a Russian attempt to take control of a military air base.
Natalia Balansynovych, mayor of Vasylkiv, about 25 miles south of Kyiv, said Russian airborne forces landed near the city overnight and tried to seize the base. She added that fierce fighting also raged in Vasylkiv's central street.
She said Ukrainian forces repelled the Russian attacks, and the situation is now calm. Ms Balansynovych said there were heavy casualties, but did not give any numbers.
It comes as Ukraine's president emerged on Saturday morning defiant and determined after an onslaught on his capital city, declaring that Kyiv would resist the Russian advance and vowing to fight Vladimir Putin's forces.
Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video on Twitter captioned 'Don't believe the fakes'.
He condemned the false claims that he had surrendered and told his compatriots to lay down arms, and insisted his country would not give in to Russian aggression.
'Recently, fake info was spread about me ordering our army to lay down arms and evacuate,' Zelensky said.
'It's untrue. I'm here, we are not laying down, we will protect our state. This is our land, our country, our kids, and we will defend them.'
The 44-year-old, who has been widely praised for his courage in the face of Russia's aggression, said on Thursday that he knew he was 'target number one' for Putin's assassins.
'There's a lot of fake information online that I call on our army to lay down arms, and that there's been an evacuation ordered,' he said.
'I'm here. We won't lay down our arms. We will defend our state.'
Yet even as Zelensky spoke, the Ukrainian interior ministry was warning Kyiv's residents to shelter in place and not venture out onto the streets.
Ukraine's armed forces on Saturday morning claimed 3,500 Russians had been killed overnight, and 200 taken prisoner.
They said 14 Russian aircraft, eight helicopters, and 102 tanks had been seized. The scale of Ukrainian losses was not clear.
Armed forces were engaged in a fierce battle for control of the city, with footage on social media showing explosions close to a metro station in the western center of the capital by the zoo; a battle ongoing for control of a thermal power plant to the north; and multiple reports suggesting fierce fighting 20 miles south, near a vital airbase.
In Kyiv, footage shared on social media showed a bombardment close to Beresteiska metro station, in the west of the city, which is near the zoo.
More than 50 explosions and heavy machine gun fire were reported in the district of Shulyavka, near Beresteiska metro and the zoo, according to The Kyiv Independent.
A bridge near the metro was blown up, according to reports. It was unclear whether the explosion was caused by artillery or by Ukrainian forces intent on stopping the Russian advance.
The district is under the control of the 101st Independent Security Brigade of the General Staff.
Terrified residents posted videos filmed from their apartments, with flashes of light and the sound of gunfire. One video shared on social media showed an apartment building glowing with red lights, which some speculated was to guide bombers or snipers. Others said the lights were to warn the military not to bomb them.
The northern suburb of Troieshchyna was also coming under sustained attack for another night, as Russia tried to wrest control of the thermal power plant on the banks of the Dnieper river. Unconfirmed reports suggested dozens of Russians had been arrested.
Meanwhile, satellite images show a huge queue of trucks and cars waiting in a traffic jam leaving Ukraine, near the Romanian border in Siret.
A high-rise apartment block in Kyiv was hit by a devastating missile this morning as fighting continues to rage in the capital between Russian attackers and Ukrainian forces
Emergency services said the number of victims was 'being specified' and that an evacuation was underway
Smoke could then be seen billowing from the tower block following the devastating attack earlier this morning
CCTV images show the inside of the Kyiv apartment block moments before it was attacked by a Russian missile
A huge explosion can be seen as the missile connects with the apartment building in the Ukrainian capital
Seconds later the devastation can be seen as the window smashes and a plume of smoke billows through the room
Images show the tower block with a hole covering at least five floors blasted into the side and rubble strewn across the street below
Firefighters extinguish fire in an apartment building damaged by recent shelling in the Ukrainian capital this morning
Medical specialists transport a wounded woman to an ambulance after recent shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday
A firefighter works inside an apartment building damaged by recent shelling in Kyiv earlier this morning
People take cover as an air-raid siren sounds, near an apartment building damaged by recent shelling in Kyiv
Firefighters extinguish fire in an apartment building damaged by recent shelling in the Ukrainian capital this morning
Helga Tarasova hugs her daugther Kira Shapovalova as they wait in a undergound shelter during bombing alert in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv
Ukrainian soldiers investigate debris of a burning military truck on a street in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday
Debris of a burning military truck is seen on a street in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday morning as Russian troops stormed towards the capital
Ukrainian service members look for and collect unexploded shells after a fighting with Russian raiding group in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv
A Ukrainian service member holds a cup of tea as he patrol the empty road on west side of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv
Ukrainian soldiers walk near debris of a burning military truck on a street in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday morning
Ukrainian soldiers walk past debris of a burning military truck on a street in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday morning
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, posted a video on social media on Saturday morning insisting that his country would fight on
A satellite image shows queues of trucks and cars waiting in a traffic jam leaving Ukraine, near the Romanian border in Siret
Elsewhere, RT head Margarita Simonyan - seen as a leading Putin cheerleader - accused the Armed Forces of Ukraine of deploying Grads missile launchers in residential areas.
'Only terrorists do this. This is a war crime. They are asking Putin: bomb our people,' she said.
Wagner - a private mercenary army seen as having Kremlin links - indicated they would join the war in Ukraine.
'We will do exactly the same to you, Ukraine, as what you've done to Donbas,' said the group in a website post. We are against those who kill children, women and elderly.'
An appeal has been signed by more Russian doctors to Putin to stop the war. So far 350 have backed the call - but the number is rising fast.
'The war will take so many lives, cripple so many destinies that we won't be able to help however hard we try,' they said.
'And everyone will be screaming in pain, calling for their mother, in one and the same language.'
By 5:30am in Kyiv (10:30pm Eastern), Ukraine's armed forces were claiming that the advance from the west had been repelled.
But a CNN crew in Kyiv reported the sounds of heavy gunfire and what appeared to be anti-aircraft fire.
Ukraine's government said earlier on Friday night that they had shot down two Russian military transport planes carrying paratroopers on the outskirts of Kyiv.
The first IL-76 came down near Vasylkiv, 20 miles south of Kyiv, the Ukrainian military said.
The second IL-76 was shot down near Bila Tserkva, 50 miles south of the capital, Nexta reported.
The fate of those onboard was unclear. The aircrafts - medium-range military transport aircraft, which first went into service in 1974 - can hold 150-225 fully-equipped soldiers, and is used to drop paratroopers into combat and resupply arms.
The town of Vasylkiv appeared, at 3am local time (8pm Eastern), to be a focus of heavy fighting to the south.
Nexta, a local media network, reported that Russians 'dressed in uniform of the Ukrainian national police' attacked a checkpoint near Vasylkiv, shooting at Ukrainian soldiers.
'Immediately after that a group of Russian military in a truck came in. There is a heavy fight going on,' the site reported.
New satellite images showed the build up of troops to the north, in Belarus.
The photos showed approximately 150 transport helicopters and ground troops 20 miles from the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, in southern Belarus.
Not long after the first troop carrier was shot down, Ukraine's State Agency for Special Communications said that Ukraine's air defense had downed a Russian close-support aircraft and a helicopter in Donbas.
A S-300 surface-to-air missile system destroyed a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 jet and an unspecified helicopter at midnight, they said.
The Russian Air Force currently operates around 250 Su-25s of all variants, and they are considered a staple of Russian ground-attack regiments.
Opposition was growing in Russia to the carnage in Ukraine.
Communist MP Mikhail Matveev said: 'I think that the war should be stopped immediately.
'When I voted for the recognition of the DPR / LPR, I voted for peace, not for war.
'For Russia to become a shield, so that the Donbas was not bombed, but not for Kyiv to be bombed.'
The onslaught came shortly after Ukraine's president warned that the Russians intend to take Kyiv overnight, urging his countrymen to resist the expected onslaught as Western officials say the city appears surrounded.
Zelensky, addressing the nation from a secret location in the capital, had a dire warning for his embattled and defiant people on Friday night.
'Russia will try to break our resistance with all its might,' he said, in a video posted to social media.
'Tonight the enemy will begin storming us. We need to withstand them!'
The United States has offered to evacuate Zelensky and his family, but the president is refusing to leave. On Thursday evening he told the country he was aware that he was 'target number one' for Russian assassins, but he and his family would not leave.
Smoke and flames are seen billowing over Kyiv's Peremohy Avenue in the west of the city, near the zoo, in the early hours of Saturday morning
The Ukrainian armed forces tweeted in the early hours of Saturday that the attack from the west, near the city's zoo, had been repressed, stating: 'Russian war criminals attacked one of the military units in Kyiv on Victory Avenue. The attack was repulsed'
Kyiv was in flames in the early hours of Saturday
Significant explosions were seen from Beresteiska metro station in the west of Kyiv
Zelensky said that Chernihiv, Symy, Kharkiv, Donbas, and the south could also come under attack.
'This night will be difficult, very difficult. But the morning will come,' he said, according to The Kyiv Independent.
The 44-year-old referenced the Russian shelling of a kindergarten in Ukraine that killed at least one child and injured more, saying: 'What kind of war is that? Were these children neo-Nazi? Or were they NATO soldiers?'
Vitali Klitschko, the former world champion heavyweight boxer who is now the mayor of Kyiv, said his city faces a 'difficult night'.
The British Ministry of Defence said they believe Kyiv, home to 1.4 million people, is close to being encircled as the Russians advance from all sides.
Kyiv's streets were empty on Friday night as people sought shelter in the city's subway system. Many had fled, with buses and trains out of the city packed with people desperate to escape, and long lines of traffic choking the roads.
In Cherkasy, home to 270,000 people 120 miles south of Kyiv, video on social media showed people in a basement on Friday night, resolutely singing the national anthem as they awaited the onslaught.
In New York, on Friday night, a United Nations resolution that called on Moscow to halt its attack on Ukraine and withdraw its troops was vetoed by Russia - a permanent member of the Security Council. China, India and the UAE abstained.
Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, urged Ukraine's troops on Friday to overthrow their own government and begin to negotiate with the Kremlin.
'It looks like it will be easier for us to come to terms with you than with this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis,' he said.
There was little sign that Ukrainian generals were tempted, and Russia appears to have been somewhat taken aback at the scale of Ukrainian resistance and their ability to defend their country.
There was no doubt, however, that Russia's overwhelming military superiority would soon come into effect.
With 900,000 troops, Russia has the fourth largest military in the world, and more than a decade of reforms and procurement has made it a dangerous opponent.
Ukraine has just 361,000 troops, although Zelensky on Thursday ordered a full mobilization of troops and banned men aged 18-60 from leaving the country, in readiness for a whole-nation effort.
Residents of Kyiv take cover in a bomb shelter in the early hours of Saturday
Kyiv locals endured a terrifying and sleepless night on Friday, as the bombardment began at around 3am Saturday
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, is seen addressing the nation on Friday night
Photos posted to social media showed what they said were explosions in Kyiv on Friday night
Ukrainians sing their national anthem in a basement in Cherkasy, 120 miles south of Kyiv
Ukrainian soldiers are pictured forming up across a highway in Kyiv as they prepare to defend the city from Russian attackers, with gunfire and explosions heard in the centre of the capital
Soldiers tasked with defending Kyiv from advancing Russian troops take up positions underneath a highway into the city
Ukraine's highly-motivated infantry have modern weapons and protective gear, including N-LAW and Javelin anti-tank missiles provided by Britain and the US.
With the Russian advance slower than expected, there were fears on Friday night that Putin could resort to high-power thermobaric weapons - dubbed the 'father of all bombs' - as brave Ukrainians resist his attempts to take control of Kyiv.
There are also concerns that units that are running behind schedule as they encounter stiff opposition could resort to indiscriminate shelling as a terror weapon.
Thermobaric weapons - also known as vacuum bombs - are high-powered explosive that use the atmosphere itself as part of the explosion. They are among the most powerful non-nuclear weapons ever developed.
A thermobaric bomb dropped by the U.S. on Taliban in Afghanistan in 2017 weighed 21,600 pounds and left a crater more than 1,000 feet wide after it exploded six feet above the ground.
Thermobaric weapons were developed by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1960s. In September 2007, Russia detonated the largest thermobaric weapon ever made, which created an explosion equivalent to 39.9 tons.
The U.S. version of the weapon reportedly costs over $16 million each.
'My fear would be that if they don't meet their timescale and objectives they would be indiscriminate in their use of violence,' a Western official said.
'They don't adhere to the same principles of necessity and proportionality and rule of law that Western forces do.'
The bomb works by using oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, making it far deadlier than a conventional weapon.
While Russian special forces have reached the suburbs of Kyiv, the bulk of Russia's heavy armor is believed to be still more than 30 miles away from the capital.
Kyiv's streets were eerily empty on Friday evening as the city's residents braced themselves for the expected onslaught
Kyiv's empty streets are pictured on Friday night
Kyiv's inhabitants take refuge in the subway on Friday night
A Ukrainian passenger train from Kyiv arrives at the Przemysl station in southeastern Poland on Friday. About 29,000 people crossed Poland's border with Ukraine over the past 24 hours
A senior U.S. defense official said Friday that Russia appears to have lost some of its momentum due to the Ukrainian's fiery resistance.
'We do assess that there is greater resistance by the Ukrainians than the Russians expected,' the official said, adding Ukraine's command and control of its military 'remains intact.'
'They are not moving on Kyiv as fast as what we believe they anticipated they would be able to do. That said, they continue to try to move on Kyiv.'
Putin has only mobilized about one-third of the 190,000 troops he has stationed at the Ukraine border, the official said.
Zelensky and his aides, including the defense minister, Oleksiy Reznikov - behind Zelensky, with glasses - posted a video from Kyiv early on Friday morning, reassuring the people that he remained with them and had not fled, despite his life being in danger
Russian troops are now advancing on Kyiv from the north and east, with US intelligence saying the plan is to besiege the city, capture an airport, and fly in paratroopers who would then attack the capital. The aim would be to capture the government and force them to sign a peace treaty handing control of the country back to Russia or a Russian puppet
Ukrainian soldiers look at their burnt-out army military vehicle in Kyiv on Friday
Firemen extinguish a fire inside a residential building damaged by a missile on Friday in Kyiv
Astonishing footage from Kyiv on Friday showed a Russian tank swerving towards a car and then driving over it twice - and the elderly driver then being pulled, alive, from the flattened vehicle.
The driver of the tank could then be seen reversing back over the car further crushing it.
'I saw an armored vehicle and there was automatic fire,' said Kyiv resident Viktor Berbash, 58.
'And here this car, with probably an anti-aircraft gun on it, was already here.
'It was not by chance, it was for fun, there was no need for this,' Berbash said.
'And it just ran into this car. Stopped, reversed over it again and drove on.'
The collision occurred in Kyiv's Obolon district on Friday.
The tank was believed to be a Strela-10 — an anti-aircraft vehicle used by both the Russian and Ukrainian armies.
Incredibly, the elderly driver was still alive and pulled free from the wreckage
Video shows the shocking moment a Russian tank runs over the car of a civilian
The Russian tank can be seen deliberately crossing several lanes to reach the car
The vehicle was completely flattened resulting in screams from those watching nearby
A group of men used tools including an axe and a crowbar to free the man from the wreckage
The men used tools in order to try and free the man from the wreckage
Incredibly the man appeared to have survived the collision with the Russian tank
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Defiant Zelensky emerges at dawn in Kyiv after Putin's forces stormed the capital
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