Kyiv encircled: Satellite images show hundreds of Russian soldiers surrounding Ukrainian capital

Blasts have been heard both in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the country’s second biggest city of Kharkiv on Monday morning. 

Kyiv had been mainly quiet overnight according to information provided by Ukrainian officials who released a brief statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has warned the country faces a ‘crucial’ 24 hours as Russia throws even more ground forces at Kyiv.

Satellite images shared overnight showed a three mile-long convoy heading towards the capital, after Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on ‘alert’.

Russian military vehicles were pictured moving in despite officials agreeing to hold peace talks at the border with Belarus later today. 

The images, released by Maxar Technologies, showed a deployment of hundreds of military vehicles moving in the direction of the Ukrainian capital from approximately 40 miles away.

It came as President Zelensky again spoke to Boris Johnson on Sunday night, who told him he will do ‘all he could’ to ensure further military aid reaches Ukrainian forces. 

The Prime Minister praised the ‘heroic’ resistance of the Ukrainian people in the face of the Russian attack, according to the No 10 readout of the call.

Mr Zelensky said, in turn, that the next 24 hours will be ‘a crucial period’ for his country.

‘The Prime Minister lauded the bravery of the Ukrainian people following the Russian invasion and praised the leadership of President Zelensky in the face of such adversity,’ a No 10 spokesman said. ‘The resistance of the Ukrainian people was heroic, the Prime Minister added.

‘President Zelensky said he believed the next 24 hours was a crucial period for Ukraine, and the Prime Minister said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from the UK and allies reached Ukraine.

‘The leaders agreed to continue to stay in close contact and the Prime Minister reiterated the UK’s staunch support for Ukraine’s sovereignty.’

It came as Ursula von der Leyen last night insisted Ukraine is ‘one of us’ as she led calls for the war-torn nation to join the European Union – which unveiled a fresh package of sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime, including closing off its airspace to all Russian planes and banning Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik.

Earlier on Sunday, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko issued a chilling threat that the West’s sanctions on Russia are pushing the Kremlin into a Third World War. 

‘Now there is a lot of talk against the banking sector, gas, oil, SWIFT,’ Lukashenko said. ‘It’s worse than war. This is pushing Russia into a Third World War. We need to be restrained here so as not to get into trouble. Because nuclear war is the end of everything.’

Ukraine’s health ministry said on Sunday that 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia’s invasion. It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, had been wounded

President Zelensky’s office had earlier said the two delegations will meet ‘without preconditions’ near the Pripyat River, to the north of Chernobyl, in a deal brokered in a phone call with Lukashenko himself.

A spokesperson added that Lukashenko has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation’s travel, talks and return.

Mr Zelensky described his discussion with Lukashenko as ‘very substantive’, adding that he had made it clear he did not want troops to move from Belarus to Ukraine and Lukashenko ‘assured him of this’.

He added: ‘I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try, so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war.’ 

It came as Putin declared, in his own televised address, that he had ordered troops operating the nuclear deterrent onto a ‘special regime of duty’ in light of ‘aggressive statements’ from NATO leaders and ‘unfriendly economic actions’. Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg responded: ‘This is dangerous rhetoric’. 

Ukraine filed a lawsuit against Russia at the Hague, with Mr Zelensky requesting that the UN International Court of Justice orders Russia to stop its attack against Ukraine and starts trials soon.  

The United States also condemned Putin’s order to put his nuclear forces on high alert as dangerous and ‘unacceptable.’ The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said nothing was ‘off the table’ when asked about the possibility of Putin being tried in international court as a war criminal.   

Boris Johnson, meanwhile, dismissed Putin’s announcement as a ‘distraction’ from the struggle his troops are facing in Ukraine. The Prime Minister also cast doubt on possible negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations to try to resolve the crisis. 

‘There’s nothing I’ve seen so far in his behaviour that leads me to think that he could possibly be sincere,’ he said.

Earlier Russian television footage showed Mr Putin meeting with his defence minister and the chief of the general staff, and instructing them to put the nuclear deterrent on a ‘special regime of combat duty’.

‘Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading Nato members made aggressive statements regarding our country,’ he said.

But on a day when the expected assault on Kyiv again failed to materialise and the Ukrainians claimed to have driven Russian forces out of the country’s second city Kharkiv, Mr Johnson said his words were ‘a distraction from the reality of what’s going on’.

‘This is an innocent people who are facing a totally unprovoked act of aggression against them, and what’s actually happening is that they are fighting back perhaps with more effect, with more resistance, than the Kremlin had bargained for,’ he said.

‘You can see some of the logistical difficulties that the Russian forces are experiencing. The Russian defence ministry have themselves conceded that they’re having casualties. This is a disastrous misbegotten venture by President Putin.’

Elsewhere, oil giant BP announced on Sunday it is ditching its controversial 20 per cent stake in the Russian energy group Rosneft ‘with immediate effect’.

Chief executive Bernard Looney revealed the move today, saying he was ‘saddened’ and ‘shocked’ by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

It comes after he was summoned to a meeting with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday amid growing unease about the BP’s Russian dealings. 

As Russian troops draw closer to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv’s mayor is filled with pride over his citizens’ spirit but remains anxious about how long they can hold out.

After a gruelling night of Russian attacks on the outskirts of the city, mayor Vitali Klitschko was silent for several seconds when asked if there were plans to evacuate civilians if Russian troops managed to take Kyiv.

‘We can’t do that, because all ways are blocked,’ he finally said. ‘Right now we are encircled.’  

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Thursday, the city of 2.8 million people initially reacted with concern but also a measure of self-possession. However, nerves started fraying when grocery stores began closing and the city’s famously deep subway system turned its stations into bomb shelters.

The mayor confirmed to the AP that nine civilians in Kyiv had been killed so far, including one child.

A Klitschko-ordered curfew began about sundown on Saturday and is to extend until at least 8 a.m. Monday. His order pointedly stated that any unauthorized person outside could be considered a saboteur.

‘We are hunting these people, and it will be much easier if nobody is on the street,’ Klitschko explained, saying that six Russian ‘saboteurs’ were killed Saturday night.

Russian troops’ advance on the city has been slower than many military experts had expected.

‘I just talked to the president [Volodymyr Zelenskyy]. Everybody is not feeling so well,’ Klitschko said, adding that the Ukrainian city government employees were in shock but not depressed. ‘We show our character, our knowledge, our values.’

In the last few days, long queues of people – both men and women – were spotted waiting to pick up weapons throughout the capital, after authorities decided to distribute weapons freely to anybody ready to defend the city. 

‘There are concerns, however, about arming nervous civilians with little military experience amid warnings of Russian saboteurs disguised as Ukrainian police or journalists.

‘To be honest, we don’t have 100% control,’ said Klitschko. ‘We built this territorial defense in a short amount of time – but these are patriotic people.’

‘Right now, the most important question is to defend our country,’ he added.

Responding to a question about the city’s capacity to replenish dwindling stocks of food and medicine, Klitschko’s view darkened, however.

‘We are at the border of a humanitarian catastrophe,’ he said. ‘Right now, we have electricity, right now we have water and heating in our houses. But the infrastructure is destroyed to deliver the food and medication.

Ukrainian forces in Kyiv destroyed a column of Russian vehicles in the city’s northwest after surviving a ‘brutal’ night of shelling.

Volunteers, among them the former Miss Ukraine Anastasiia Lenna, have taken up arms to fight off Vladimir Putin’s army, with ‘long queues’ of citizens waiting to be issued weapons at recruitment centres in Kyiv.

Ukrainian forces have managed to halt the advance of Russian troops on the capital, blowing bridges into the city to hinder the advance of Moscow’s soldiers.

Russian forces were on Sunday afternoon destroyed in Bucha, near the Gostomel air base in the north west of Kyiv, after becoming trapped when the Irpin bridge into the city was destroyed.

Footage posted online purported to show the harrowing aftermath of what military experts said was likely a drone strike on the Russian Airborne Forces column, with parts of vehicles strewn across the road in a warp, fiery heap.

Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian servicemen were pictured roaming in the centre of Kyiv to enforce a 39-hour curfew to keep people off the streets.

Earlier on Sunday, in a speech to mark Russia’s special forces day, Putin thanked soldiers for ‘heroically fulfilling their military duty’ in Ukraine, before parroting his propaganda line that his armies are providing assistance to the ‘people’s republics of Donbas’ – referring to two rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine that Russia recognised as independent states ahead of its invasion.  

‘I want to thank the command, the personnel of the special operations forces, veterans of the special forces units for their loyalty to the oath, for their impeccable service in the name of the people of Russia and our great motherland,’ he said. 

In a televised address, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the peace talks were called after Belarus prepared its forces to join the Russian invasion.

‘Today, we were as close as ever to the entry of Belarus armed forces into the war. This is why President Zelensky and President Lukashenko spoke today,’ he said in his address.

‘We have to defend our northern flank and we have to minimise the threats coming from there. So we agreed to send a delegation to the location on the Ukranian-Belarus border and we go to there to listen to what Russia has to say.

‘We are going there without preliminary agreement on what the outcome of these talks can be. We are going there to say what we think of this war and Russia’s actions.’

Mr Kuleba said Belarus had assured Ukraine that no Belarusian military force will be use against Kyiv while the talks take place, but he insisted Ukraine’s military military would continue to ‘fiercely defend’ the country against Russia attacks in the meantime.

‘I think the fact Russia wants to talk without any pre-conditions or any ultimatums, without any demands addressed to Ukraine, is already a victory for Ukraine,’ he added.

Iskander missiles were launched from Belarus to Ukraine around 5pm (3pm GMT), an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister said. 

Russia’s flagship carrier announced Sunday it was suspending flights to Europe after the European Union closed its airspace to Russian aircraft for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The announcement came after the EU said Sunday it would close its airspace to Russian carriers, adding to a litany of sanctions imposed on Russia over its attack on Ukraine.

‘Aeroflot is suspending flights of the European route network from February 28, 2022 until further notice,’ the company said on its website.

The EU’s airspace ban prohibits flights into or over the EU by all Russian planes, including private jets.

The measure consolidated what was already de facto largely in place, with many of the EU’s 27 nations having individually announced airspace closures to Russian flights.

In response, Russia has barred flights from a number of countries such as Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Russian forces stormed Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv on Sunday after failing in their overnight efforts to seize control of the capital city of Kyiv. 

However reports in Ukraine suggest troops have managed to successfully repel the Russian advance on Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border, with one British reporter on the ground confirming that the city remains under Ukrainian control despite this morning’s attack.

Oleh Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said Ukrainian troops had managed to reclaim the city. In a post on Telegram, he said: ‘Control over Kharkiv is completely ours!

‘The armed forces, the national police, and the defence forces are working and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy.’

Kharkiv’s defence came as Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence claimed Ukrainian troops had killed or injured more than 4,300 Russian soldiers in the first three days of fighting. Russia has not released an updates on its military losses. 

The Kremlin accepted it had lost troops in the conflict for the first time yesterday, but did not provide a number. ‘There have been killed and wounded among the Russian military during the course of the special military operation,’ the defence ministry in Moscow said in a statement quoted by TASS news agency 

A US official told Reuters that Russia had committed around two-thirds of its combat power inside Ukraine and launched more than 320 missiles over the course of the conflict.  

In an article yesterday, UK Armed Forces minister James Heappey has insisted Putin’s ‘days are numbered’ if he fails in Ukraine, with his campaign falling ‘well behind’ its planned timeline.

Mr Heappey, a former major in the Rifles, said Putin’s forces had been unable to capture key cities in the first few days of fighting as intended and had left pockets of ‘well-armed’ Ukrainians to the rear of their front line. 

A picture is emerging of a haphazard and disorganised invasion effort, with armoured columns running out of fuel or getting lost, and some having to advance without air cover. 

Mr Heappey wrote in the Telegraph: ‘After three days of intense fighting, spurred by dogged Ukrainian resistance, Russia is well behind its planned timeline.

‘Progress to Kyiv has been much slower than they’d expected, they were unable to take key cities early and now must try to bypass them.

‘This leaves pockets of well-armed and well-trained Ukrainians to the rear of the Russian front line, exposing a vulnerable logistics tail – an omen for what awaits Putin.’

At the same time, Ukrainians are volunteering in their droves, with ‘long queues’ at recruitment centres, the minister wrote. 

Meanwhile, footage from the town of Koryukivka, near the Russian border, showed hundreds of locals massing on a road to block the advance of a Russian tank column. 

Mr Heappey believes that if Putin fails and ordinary Russians realise ‘how little he cares for them … [his] days as president will surely be numbered and so too will those of the kleptocratic elite that surround him,’ he wrote. 

‘He’ll lose power and he won’t get to choose his successor.’

There have been fresh questions raised about Putin’s mental state, including whether Covid-19 has fueled his paranoia after claims emerged the isolated president spent time ‘stewing in his own fears’ after ‘withdrawing into himself’ during the pandemic.

A total of 4,000 Russians have now been arrested at anti-war protests in recent days, according to independent monitoring group OVD-Info, with a demonstration outside the Kremlin near the site where opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down. 

This morning, footage shared on social media showed Putin’s army trucks rolling through Kharkiv – a city of 1.41 million people – which sits in Eastern Ukraine close to the border with Russia.

Soldiers were also seen marching on foot, with a very dramatic clip showing Russians slowly advancing along a road before running and firing their guns as Ukrainians opened fire on them.

Another clip shared online shows an army vehicle said to belong to the Russians ablaze, with locals saying it had been torched by Ukrainians seeking to defend their city.  Meanwhile, the UK’s Ministry of Defence released its latest intelligence update, saying there had been an ‘intensive’ exchange of rocket artillery in the city, followed by ‘heavy fighting’ between Ukrainian and Russian forces. It said fighting in the capital Kyiv had been ‘less intense’ than previous nights. 

On another sensational day in the conflict, the EU unveiled a new package of sanctions against Putin’s regime, closing off its airspace to all Russian planes and banning Kremlin propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik. 

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced the new measures in a press conference this afternoon, which will include funding the purchase and delivery of weapons to Ukraine. 

Ms von der Leyen said this was the first time the EU had done this for a country under attack. 

She said: ‘We are shutting down the EU’s airspace for all Russian aircraft, including the private jets of oligarchs.

‘Second, in another unprecedented step, we will ban, in the EU, the Kremlin’s media machine.

‘The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to support Putin’s lies.’ 

The breach of Ukraine’s defences came hours after Russia was dealt a significant blow when a column of Chechen special forces sent to assassinate Ukrainian President Zelensky were blown up by locals just two days into their mission. 

Among the Chechens said to have been wiped out was general Magomed Tushaev. He was commander of the 141th motorized national guard brigade – Chechen head of state Ramzan Kadyrov’s elite force.

Tushaev had also been pictured with Kadyrov, in a measure of his importance to the Chechen regime, which shot to notoriety in the west for hunting down, torturing and killing gay men.    

It came as Ramzan Kadyrov, the warlord leader of the Chechen Republic, complained Russia’s tactics had been ‘too sluggish’ as he appeared to pave the way for a further escalation of violence against Ukraine. 

He said the Ukrainians were ‘armed to the teeth with new weaponry and ammunition, and new generation heavy artillery’ and that he is ‘hoping they will come to their senses’ and surrender. 

He then asked Putin to ‘give all special forces the order to finish off the Nazis and terrorists’ in the country. The idea that Russia is ‘de-Nazifying’ Ukraine is a common propaganda line spouted by Kremlin allies. 

The armed group – famed for their barbaric violence and human rights abuses – are said to have been obliterated after their convoy of 56 tanks was blown to smithereens near Hostomel, just northeast of Kyiv, by Ukrainian missile fire on the second day of the Chechens’ deployment. It is unclear how many died – but the number is likely to run into the hundreds. 

Their deaths were reported by The Kyiv Independent news outlet as officials in Kyiv revealed that they’d managed to maintain control of Ukraine’s capital city throughout combat on Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

First Deputy Chairman of Kyiv City State Administration Mykola Povoroznyk said: ‘The situation in Kyiv is calm, the capital is fully controlled by the Ukrainian army and the terror defence. At night there were several clashes with sabotage group.’ 

But Russian forces were seen entering Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv on Sunday morning. Footage shared on social media showed Russian tanks and trucks rolling through the city, which sits in eastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border, with gunshots also heard ringing out.

Other videos shared online showed Russian troops walking in to the city of 1.419 million people on foot, as well as an army truck said to be Russian consumed by flames. 

Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko, meanwhile, said their airforce had shot down a missile aimed at the capital Kyiv, by a plane that flew in from Russian ally Belarus.

But while fighting raged in the north, Russian forces said they had successfully blocked Kherson and Berdyansk in the south, effectively opening up a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula – which it annexed in 2014.

The reported killings of the Chechen assassination squad are a crushing psychological blow for Putin’s stalled efforts to conquer Ukraine. The Russian premiere had dispatched the group to capture or kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, knowing full well that the fighters’ brutal reputation would strike further fear into the hearts of besieged Ukrainians. 

Each fighter had been given a deck of cards complete with photos of Ukrainian officials they’d been told to target. 

But Zelensky remains standing, and has become a global hero for his brave dispatches from the front line – while his would-be assassins’ reported killings have brought huge disgrace and widespread grief to Chechnya.