This story was updated at 3:45 p.m. Brussels time.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the war with Moscow had reached a decisive point as his soldiers pushed back an attack by Russian forces inside Kyiv early on Saturday morning.
Ukrainian ground forces said they had repelled a Russian column that had advanced as far as Kyiv’s Beresteiska metro station, which lies on a major thoroughfare running to the city center from the west.
That battle came after a night of heavy fighting in which several Ukrainian cities came under all-out assault. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted an image of an apartment block in Kyiv that had been hit by a Russian strike, and called for a diplomatic and oil embargo against Russia.
Zelenskiy himself vowed to hold fast in Kyiv and not flee, although he acknowledges that Russia’s main goal is to depose him and install a puppet regime. The former comedian posted a video of himself on Saturday morning near Gorodetsky House, a prominent Art Nouveau building in central Kyiv.
“Good morning, Ukrainians. Now there has been a lot of fake information on the internet that I’m ordering our army to lay down arms and evacuating. But it’s like this: I am here. Our weapons are our truth. What is true is that this is our land. Our country, Our children. And we will defend it all. There it is,” he said.
At midnight Kyiv time, he had warned difficult battles lay ahead. “I must say quite frankly: This night will be harder than the day. Many cities of our nation are under attack: Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv … in the Donbass, the cities of southern Ukraine and, pay special attention to Kyiv. We cannot lose the capital,” he said in a video address.
“The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now,” he added.
Kyiv residents on social media reported air-raid sirens, blasts and gunfire, while Ukrainian government officials stressed that they fully control the capital despite the assaults.
A Kremlin spokesperson said in a statement that the main Russian forces in Ukraine continued to advance Saturday afternoon. The U.K. Defense Ministry said the bulk of Russia’s forces were within 30 kilometers of the Kyiv city center.
Although facing a massively more powerful military superpower, Ukraine’s experienced troops have mounted a fierce resistance in cities across the country and along the border with Russia in the eastern Donbass region over the past two days.
While Russia is not admitting to any losses, Ukraine’s military claims that it has killed more than 1,000 invading soldiers, destroyed large numbers of enemy tanks and armored vehicles and has shot down several aircraft. Overnight, Kyiv said it brought down a giant Russian Il-76 transporter plane, which can carry large numbers of airborne troops.
Zelenskiy makes it a point of pride that he will hold fast in Kyiv and not flee, saying that Moscow’s main military goal is to depose him and replace him with a puppet regime. The Associated Press reported he had rejected a U.S. offer to evacuate him, saying: “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”
The Biden administration in the U.S. on Friday requested $6.4 billion in aid for Ukraine, including $3.5 billion in military funding and $2.9 billion for foreign security and humanitarian assistance. The funding proposal is expected to “evolve” as the administration works with international partners to “assess on-the-ground needs,” according to a White House budget office official.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned of a “long and difficult showdown.” Writing in Le Monde, Borrell posed the possibility of an “emboldened” Putin occupying the corridor that connects Kaliningrad to Belarus. Kaliningrad is a Russian province that is separated from Belarus by Poland and Lithuania.
French President Emmanuel Macron had a similar warning about the longer-term effects of the war as he addressed the International Agricultural Show on Saturday morning. Macron indicated that the war would have lasting consequences, adding that the French government was preparing a resilience plan to deal with the economic impact.
Ashleigh Furlong contributed reporting.