– Tonight they will storm Kyiv – VG

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– The city has entered a defensive position. Shots and explosions are ringing in some of the neighborhoods that the saboteurs have already occupied, says Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.

He adds that there have been several explosions near a thermal power plant in the capital. The plane alarm has gone off several times during Friday.

On Friday night, a loud bang could be heard near Maidan Square in the center of Kyiv. It was here that thousands of protesters gathered in 2013 and 2014, protests that led to a more Western-oriented government gaining power in the country.

It is still unclear how much of the Ukrainian capital is in Russian hands. In a telephone conversation with US President Joe Biden, President Zelensky warns that Kyiv may soon fall, Sky News reports. The White House confirms that this is indeed a possibility.

– Tonight they will storm Kyiv. We must all understand what awaits us. Tonight we have to persevere, says the Ukrainian president in a Facebook video late Friday night.

Alignment

Photos show a number of Ukrainian soldiers and military vehicles that have taken up positions in several places in the center of Kyiv, ready to defend the capital. Later in the day, the plane alarm went off and there are reports of air strikes.

– The enemy is trying to get the capital to kneel and crush us, says the mayor.

At the same time, Russia claims that it has taken control of the main road into Kyiv in the west, and that it has captured Hostomel Airport just outside the capital.

On Friday night, there are new reports of airstrikes against Kyiv. At 19.44, the city mayor announces that there have been five explosions.

Ministry of the Interior of Ukraine asks the city population about covering marks on rooftops to prevent Russian hits from the air.

The war continued throughout the day and hundreds of deaths have been reported, including from the bombing that thundered through two apartment buildings in Kyiv and also hit bridges and schools.

The Ministry of Defense claims that they will not attack civilian targets in the capital, but the President of Ukraine has claimed that both military and civilian targets have already been hit.

Ask residents to make explosives

Since the invasion of the country began Thursday night, Russian forces have moved ever closer to Kyiv.

Several roads in the west of the country have on Friday been full of cars filled with people trying to flee the country or to safer parts of the country, according to Reuters.

At the same time, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense asks the citizens of Kyiv about making molotov cocktails to “neutralize” the Russian soldiers.

Reuters reports that Ukrainian television stations are now showing instructions on how to make such explosives.

They also urge residents to be careful not to leave their homes.

An intense fire broke out on a bridge over the river Dnipro that divides the western and eastern part of Kyiv. Around 200 Ukrainian soldiers established defensive positions and sought shelter behind armored vehicles and later under the bridge. Another bridge was also blown up on Friday.

President: Both civilian and military targets

The first reports that Russian troops were on their way to the capital came around 3 o’clock on Friday night.

According to the news agency Reuters, witnesses report that they hear several shots in Kyiv. Another witness told Reuters that there was an “intense exchange of fire” in a western part of Kyiv.

The country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyj says that the attacks are aimed at both military and civilian targets.

Just before nine o’clock on Friday, reports came that the soldiers had moved into the Minsk Massif and Obolon areas, which are less than ten kilometers from the city center. according to AFP heard gunshots and explosions in the area.

Less than an hour later, it was reported that gunfire had been heard near the government quarter in the city, according to AP.

– Friday will be the heaviest day

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, said on Friday morning that Russia would use tanks to seize the capital, and that “those defending Kyiv” were ready with anti-tank missiles received by Ukraine from foreign partners.

– Friday will be the heaviest day, he says in a statement.

The country’s deputy defense minister has stated that he expects Russian forces to occupy the areas around the capital on Friday.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba describes the attacks on the capital as terrible in a statement on Twitter. At the same time, he draws parallels to 1941 when the capital was taken by Nazi Germany.

– Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat it. Stop Putin. Isolate Russia. Throw Russia out of everything, he writes.

The emergency services in Ukraine have previously released photos of fire and destruction in a multi-storey residential building that is said to have been hit by airstrikes.

Mayor of Kyiv Vitaly Klitschko signs Twitter that three people were injured after the apartment block was hit by rockets. For one of them, the condition should be critical.