Multiple artillery blasts have been heard in Kyiv with the Ukraine president telling people to prepare themselves claiming it will be the night the Russians “assault” the capital.
There have been reports of frequent explosions coming from the outskirts of Kyiv as Vladimir Putin ’s army closes in on their key target of the city with US officials saying it is Russia's initial aim is to "decapitate" President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government.
The fighting is now reportedly in the “inner-circle” of the city in all directions including at a military base on the west which was repelled the Ukrainian military said in a Facebook posting early on Saturday.
Separately, the Interfax Ukraine agency said Russian soldiers were trying to capture one of the city's electricity generating stations.
Kyiv residents were told by the defence ministry to make petrol bombs to repel the invaders, and witnesses on Friday night have reported hearing artillery rounds and intense gunfire from the western part of the city.
Click here to get the latest updates on Ukraine
Zelenskiy filmed himself with aides on the streets of the capital, vowing to defend Ukraine's independence.
"Tonight, they will launch an assault. All of us must understand what awaits us. We must withstand this night," he said in a video address posted to his Telegram channel. "The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now."
He stated: "We are here, we are fighting."
Moscow said on Friday it had captured the Hostomel airfield northwest of the capital - a potential staging post for an assault on Kyiv that has been fought over since Russian paratroopers landed there in the first hours of the war.
This could not be confirmed and Ukrainian authorities reported heavy fighting there.
Early on Saturday, Ukraine's air force command reported heavy fighting near the air base at Vasylkiv southwest of Kyiv, which it said was under attack from Russian paratroopers.
It also said one of its fighters had shot down a Russian transport plane.
The mayor of Kyiv and its three million people, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, said Russian saboteurs had already entered the city. "The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us," he said.
At the same time the Russian and Ukrainian governments have signalled an openness to negotiations even as authorities in Kyiv urged citizens to help defend the capital from advancing Russian forces in the worst European security crisis in decades.
Ukraine and Russia will consult in coming hours on a time and place for talks, Zelenskiy's spokesman Sergii Nykyforov said on social media, offering the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy since the invasion began.
The Kremlin said earlier it offered to meet in the Belarusian capital Minsk after Ukraine expressed a willingness to discuss declaring itself a neutral country, but that Ukraine had proposed Warsaw as the venue.
That, according to Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov, resulted in a "pause" in contacts.
"Ukraine was and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace," Nykyforov said in a post on Facebook. "We agreed to the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation."
But US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Russia's offer was an attempt to conduct diplomacy "at the barrel of a gun", and that President Vladimir Putin's military must stop bombing Ukraine if it was serious about negotiations.
