KYIV, Ukraine — Russian troops closed in on this besieged capital Friday as missiles streaked through the night, sirens wailed, the president stood defiant and civilians took up arms amid Europe’s most extensive fighting since World War II.
“Make Molotov cocktails, neutralize the occupier!” the Ukrainian Border Guard implored as tens of thousands of young and old men and women around the country loaded rifles, assembled homemade bombs and joined ragtag militias in an effort to beat back one of the most powerful armies in the world.
The battle for Kyiv unfolded into a second night as the United States and the European Union imposed some of their harshest sanctions yet against Russia while NATO, the trans-Atlantic military alliance, deployed more troops to its member states in Eastern Europe.
Despite an assessment from top Pentagon officials that Russia’s invasion was not advancing as quickly as expected thanks in part to a spirited defense by Ukraine’s air force, military and civilian deaths here were mounting and tens of thousands of refugees were fleeing. As explosions and air raid sirens sounded in the nation’s picturesque capital, a deepening awareness settled in that despite widespread global outrage over Russia’s invasion of a democratic nation, no foreign armies were coming to help.
“We are defending our country alone,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a solemn video address in which he ordered men of fighting age to stay in the country and arm a resistance.
Shortly after Zelenskyy spoke to President Joe Biden for nearly 40 minutes Friday, the U.S. announced new economic sanctions, this time directly against Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was the latest in a series of punishing sanctions imposed by Western powers, part of what British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called “a remorseless mission to squeeze Russia from the global economy piece by piece.”
Zelenskyy said he was grateful for the support, but he has repeatedly slammed sanctions levied against Russia as insufficient, warning that unless world leaders do more to stop the invasion, Putin would broaden his aggressions.
“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,” said Zelenskyy, a former comedic actor who has transformed, overnight, into a wartime leader. He called on Europeans with combat experience who were disappointed that leaders hadn’t offered more direct military assistance to come to Ukraine “and protect Europe with us.”
On the second day of its large-scale assault on Ukraine — part of Putin’s dream of stitching back together remnants of the former Soviet Union — the Kremlin sent mixed messages about whether it was open to dialogue with Ukraine in order to avert more violence.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the nation was ready for talks once the Ukrainian army laid down arms, insisting that Russia does not intend “to oppress” the Ukrainian people and said they should have “a chance to decide their future.”
But Putin was much less diplomatic at a meeting with members of his security council, where he said he did not expect to reach agreements with “a gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that have settled in Kyiv and taken the entire Ukrainian people hostage.”
Zelenskyy, who has repeatedly said that he would not accept a Ukraine under Russia’s thumb, has offered to negotiate on one of the Kremlin’s key demands: that Ukraine declare itself neutral and abandon its ambition of joining NATO. The goal of membership in the military alliance is enshrined in Ukraine’s constitution.
Russia’s offer of dialogue led some to question whether it had begun to doubt its ability to quickly seize control of Ukraine — or whether the conflicting messages were a part of Putin’s broader strategy of psychological warfare, not unlike his tauntingly slow buildup of tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine’s borders in recent months.
U.S. military officials said there was evidence that Russia’s attack on Ukraine, a nation the size of Texas with a population of 44 million, had not gone entirely according to plan.
A senior Pentagon official said he believed the Russians had “lost a little bit of their momentum” in their invasion, noting in a briefing to journalists that Russia had not yet captured any major Ukrainian cities or achieved air superiority over Ukraine, and that Ukraine’s communications and media systems remained intact.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said about one-third of the roughly 190,000 troops that Russia assembled before the invasion were now in Ukraine, and that Russia had not deployed its full cyberattack capabilities.
The official said the U.S. had indications that Russia was conducting an amphibious assault west of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov. “They are putting potentially thousands of naval infantry ashore there,” he said.
In the meantime, Russian troops continued their assault in other parts of Ukraine, hitting strategic military sites but also civilian targets.
In a Kyiv apartment building, residents woke Friday to plumes of smoke and screaming — the result, according to the city’s mayor, of Russian shelling.
“What are you doing? What is this?” asked a dazed survivor, Yurii Zhyhanov, according to The Associated Press. As tens of thousands of his compatriots have already done, he quickly gathered his belongings to flee the city with his mother.
“The enemy wants to bring the capital and us to our knees,” said Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, adding that Russian saboteurs had already infiltrated the city.
A former heavyweight boxing champion who was known as Dr. Ironfist in his fighting days, Klitschko said he was prepared to defend Kyiv as a soldier. “I believe in Ukraine, I believe in my country and I believe in my people,” he said.
Authorities said that about 18,000 guns had been distributed to reserve fighters in Kyiv. Across the nation, everyday citizens lined up to join what are known here as “territorial defense” militias. In a speech, Prime Minister Denis Shmigala said tens of thousands of people had already registered with the militias, and pleaded for more people to join them and “stand up against terror.”
“Help the military, help the volunteers, help the doctors,” he urged.
As night fell Friday, all eyes were on Kyiv, a city that dates back more than 1,500 years and where just 48 hours ago, bars and restaurants were full of locals unwilling to let the prospect of a Russian blitz blunt their moment of good cheer.
Now air raid sirens echoed through the empty streets, their wail floating above the irregular thump-thump of explosions in the distance.
Russia’s military said it had seized a strategic airport near Kyiv, which would allow it to rapidly build up forces to take the capital.
It said it had already cut off the city from the west — the direction in which many of those escaping the invasion were heading. Lines of cars sat snarled in traffic as people tried to make their way toward the Polish border.
United Nations officials reported at least 25 civilian deaths, and said that at least 100,000 people had fled their homes. The U.N. has warned that some 4 million Ukrainians could flee the country if the fighting escalates, which would represent a refugee crisis in Europe not seen since 2015, when millions arrived after escaping the Syrian civil war.
Zelenskyy said in an address late Thursday that 137 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the first day of fighting, along with 316 others wounded.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar gave a tally of Russian losses. As of Friday afternoon, she said, the Russian army had lost up to 80 tanks, hundreds of armored combat vehicles, 10 warplanes and seven helicopters. The figures could not be independently verified. Moscow has not issued a toll of losses.
The pyrotechnics over Kyiv were largely absent in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-most populous city.
In the morning, residents cautiously emerged from the underground subway stations where they had taken shelter, making their way along mostly empty streets amid a snowstorm. Even the buses were still running.
It wasn’t until slightly before noon that the sounds of explosions reverberated through the city center, sending pedestrians scurrying for shelter while motorists attempted to escape from a threat they could only hear but could not see.
One of the last remaining staff members at a hotel in Kharkiv said he intended to stay. Alexander, a 24-year-old waiter who declined to give his last name, seemed resigned to the Russian invasion to come.
“Why would I go?” he said. “This is my country. America isn’t here. The European Union isn’t here. So we’re fighting on our own.”
____
(Bulos reported from Ukraine and Linthicum from Mexico City. Times staffer Anumita Kaur in Washington contributed to this report.)
