Russia has sent over 10,000 Chechen fighters to Ukraine as fears grow the conflict will turn into a horrific slaughter.
The battle to fight for the capital Kyiv along with the other major cities is underway and the President Volodymyr Zelensky has become the number one target for the death squads.
Ruthless killers who hail from the Chechen battalions are thought to be special forces who are to hunt down Zelensky and his government.
According to reports more than 200,000 Russian troops are believed to be in Ukraine as huge streams of tanks from Moscow pour across the border.
Ukrainian resistance fighters have killed over 1,000 Russian soldiers as they bravely defend the country but it is thought Putin’s specialist Chechen death squads are already inside Kyiv.
One British military source told the Mirror Online : “These Chechen forces are tough, battle-hardened and utterly ruthless.
“They are likely to have little regard for civilian lives as they focus on their mission.”
The battle for Ukraine’s cities is about to become a bloody insurgency as men and women civilians have been handed firearms to defend their homeland.
Men aged between 18 and 60 years of age are being called up to resist the Russian onslaught as Kyiv’s airport fell to Moscow’s forces.
More than 100 Ukrainians are dead, among them women and children, although Ukraine’s military was fighting bitterly to defend their cities.
Experts fear Kyiv could fall within two days unless Ukraine’s troops can hold the line and protect the government from being toppled by the attackers.
A battalion of Chechen forces were spotted hiding within dense forests outside Kyiv but are now believed to have started to close in on embattled Kyiv city.
These tough fighters were recruited by Putin’s commanders to form militia units and enforce Moscow’s will in Chechnya after troops became bogged down in conflict.
Russia has pressed its invasion of Ukraine to the outskirts of the capital after unleashing air strikes on cities and military bases, particularly in the eastern city of Kharkiv.
It has sent troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that could rewrite the global post-Cold War security order.
Explosions sounded before dawn on Friday in Kyiv and gunfire was later heard near the government quarter.
Ukraine’s president pleaded for international help to fend off an attack that could topple his government and cause massive casualties.
The Russian military said it had seized a strategic airport just outside Kyiv and cut the city off from the west.
The Ukrainian military said a group of Russian spies and saboteurs had been seen in a district of Kyiv about three miles north of the centre.
Elsewhere in the capital, soldiers established defensive positions at bridges, and armoured vehicles rolled down the streets.
Earlier, the military said that Russian forces had seized two Ukrainian military vehicles and some were heading towards the city to try to infiltrate under the guise of being locals.
President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to global leaders for even more severe sanctions than those imposed by Western allies and for defence assistance.
He said: “If you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door.”
Mr Zelensky said he is the number one target for the invading Russians but that he planned to remain in Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials said they lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Mr Zelensky said in a video address that 137 “heroes”, including 10 military officers, had been killed and 316 people wounded.
He concluded an emotional speech by saying that “the fate of the country depends fully on our army, security forces, all of our defenders.”
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