KYIV, Ukraine — Under incongruously bright skies, Ukrainian forces fought fiercely Saturday to protect and maintain control of their country’s capital from Russian troops as sporadic explosions and gunfire shook parts of the city and an apartment tower took a direct hit from a shell.
Ukraine’s outgunned military desperately tried to fend off an advance by invading forces on Kyiv’s northern outskirts. Skirmishes were reported in other parts of the beleaguered city. Shops were closed, nervous reservists clutched battered AK-47s in the streets and makeshift checkpoints made of piled-up tires sprang up to slow any Russian infiltration.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tried to rally his compatriots, appearing in a video shot on a Kyiv street to demonstrate that he had not abandoned the city and to urge Ukrainians to resist.
