Kyiv, Ukraine Two large explosions lit up the night sky south of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early Sunday morning.The explosions appear to have been around Vasylkiv, which has a large military airfield and multiple fuel tanks and is about about 30 kilometers south of Kyiv.The latest development comes after Ukraine’s outgunned forces held the capital for the third day on Saturday as battles continued across the country, while a defiant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told citizens to defend the country.
A blast lit up the skyline on Saturday night in the strategic maritime city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine as heavy shelling reverberated around its outskirts.
The sound of small arms fire and the impact of multiple rockets punctuated the night following a day of heightened tension in the city. A Ogreszinas crew saw Ukrainian troops fire warning shots and throw suspected Russian saboteurs from their cars to the ground.
After unconfirmed reports of Russian paratroopers landing in the city’s northern areas, a bridge was raised for the first time in years in a bid to cut a main connection between the north and south of the city — which sits on an inlet from the Black Sea.
As Russia’s war of aggression moves to the streets of multiple Ukrainian cities, with Ukraine’s outnumbered military continuing to hold back the invading forces in multiple locations, the Russian Ministry of Defense said its troops have been ordered to resume their offensive “in all directions.”
Ukraine’s prime minister announced the country was closing its borders with Russia and Belarus beginning Monday, and only Ukrainian citizens would be able to cross into Ukraine from those two countries.
A senior US defense official warned Saturday that more than half of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assembled power was “now committed inside Ukraine.”
Heavy fighting was ongoing in the northern city of Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border, while there was “less resistance in the south,” a US official said.
In Vasilkiv, a town some 35 kilometers south of Kyiv, the mayor said Saturday morning that fierce fighting was taking place in the middle of the town.
Vasilkiv Mayor Natalia Balasynovich said there were losses on the Ukrainian side with “many wounded, unfortunately, they are in the 200s,” she told the Ukrainian parliament channel Saturday.
But Russia’s invasion has not progressed as fast as Moscow would have expected, say Western intelligence officials.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russia has yet to gain control of Ukrainian airspace “greatly reducing the effectiveness of the Russian Air Force.”
Russia has also faced “acute logistical difficulties and strong Ukrainian resistance,” slowing the speed of the Russian advance, the UK ministry said in a Saturday intelligence update shared on Twitter.
But it stressed that the bulk of Russian forces are now only 18.6 miles from the center of Kyiv, warning that casualties are “likely to be heavy and greater than anticipated or acknowledged by the Kremlin.”
Despite being a prime target in the invasion, Zelensky turned down a US offer of evacuation, the Ukraine Embassy in Britain said Saturday on Twitter.
“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” Zelensky told the US, according to the embassy.
Zelensky echoed the resolve of many Ukrainians — some of whom have taken arms — in a video message Saturday afternoon. “We have withstood and successfully repelled enemy attacks. Fighting continues in different cities and regions of our country,” he said.
“Each Ukrainian should keep one thing in mind: if you can stop and destroy the occupiers — do it. Everyone who can come back to Ukraine — come back to defend Ukraine,” he said.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, braced for a further night of fighting, imposing a curfew on the city, from 5 p.m. local (10 a.m. ET) to 8 a.m., beginning Saturday evening. He warned that civilians on the street after curfew will be considered “members of the enemy’s sabotage and reconnaissance groups.”
The resistance to Russia’s invasion has seen civilians prepare to defend their capital in recent days, with officials arming reservists with 18,000 guns and ammunition in Kyiv alone and Ukrainian TV broadcasting instructions for making Molotov cocktails.
In the northern city of Bakhmach, Ukrainian citizens attempted to stop Russian tanks by standing in front of them, according to videos seen by Ogreszinas.