By Dave Clark and Dmytro Gorshkov
Kyiv—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday called on Europeans with “combat experience” to take up arms and defend Ukraine against invading Russian forces, adding the West was too slow to help his country.
His dramatic call for help came as Russian forces were approaching the Ukrainian capital, with some units reportedly reaching the city’s northern suburbs.
“If you have combat experience in Europe and do not want to look at the indecision of politicians, you can come to our country and join us in defending Europe, where it is very necessary now,” Zelensky, who appeared tired, said in a video.
Speaking on the second day of the attack launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelensky also asked Europeans to “demand from your governments that Ukraine receive more financial, more military aid.”
The 44-year-old leader also said the West was in no hurry to help Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
“How are you going to defend yourself when you are so slowly helping us in Ukraine?” he said. “State institutions in Europe are not in a hurry with really strong decisions.”
An advance party of Russia’s invasion force left a trail of damage in its wake as clashes erupted inside Ukraine’s capital Kyiv for the first time, amid rising fears the city is about to be stormed or come under siege.
Pedestrians ran for safety as small arms fire and explosions erupted in the Obolonsky district in the city’s north.
The larger blasts could be heard in the city center, where residents endured a first tense night under curfew and the sounds of bombing.
Eyewitnesses said they saw corpses of what looked to be two dead Russian soldiers near the truck, but the Ukrainian military, who were inspecting the wrecked car, did not allow Agence France-Presse to come closer.
Ukrainian forces fought off Russian invaders in the streets of Kyiv as Zelensky accused Moscow of targeting civilians and called for more international sanctions.
Pre-dawn blasts in Kyiv set off a second day of violence after Russian President Vladimir Putin defied Western warnings to unleash a full-scale invasion on Thursday that quickly claimed dozens of lives and displaced at least 100,000 people.
The United States and its allies responded with a barrage of sanctions, but the Russian forces looked to press home their advantage after a string of key strategic victories in their air and ground assault.
“Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted on Twitter after the initial explosions were heard in the capital Friday morning.
“Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one.”
Russian forces first arrived on the outskirts of Kyiv on Thursday when helicopter-borne troops assaulted an airfield just outside the city, close to Obolonsky.
The Ukrainian military said it had repulsed the attack on the Gostomel airbase, but Russian ground forces have also been pushing down the west bank of the Dnieper River from Belarus.
As Russian forces arrived in Obolonsky, the Ukrainian defense ministry urged civilians to resist.
“We urge citizens to inform us of troop movements, to make Molotov cocktails, and neutralize the enemy,” it said.
Ukraine says 137 people, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed since Russia attacked.
“Ukrainians are demonstrating heroism,” Zelensky said in a video message, accusing Russia of lying about striking only military targets and calling up conscripts and reservists nationwide.
After speaking to EU chief Ursula von der Leyen he called for more sanctions, tweeting that “the pressure on Russia must increase”.
In the Ukrainian village of Starognativka near the frontline where separatists have faced off against Kyiv’s forces for years, official Volodymyr Veselkin said on Friday missiles had been raining down all morning and the power was out.
“They are trying to wipe the village off the face of the earth,” he said.
Olena Kurilo was among 20 people wounded by flying shards of glass following a blast in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuguiv on Thursday.
“Never, under any conditions will I submit to Putin. It is better to die,” the 52-year-old teacher said, her face covered in bandages.
The UN’s refugee agency said late Thursday that some 100,000 were already displaced inside Ukraine, while thousands of others fled across the border. Streams of people in cars and on foot were seen crossing into Hungary, Poland, and Romania on Thursday.
Zelensky said there was now a “new iron curtain” between Russia and the rest of the world, adding later that his nation had been “left alone.”
“Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone.”
And while the United States moved to impose sanctions on Russian elites and banks, it stressed that American forces would not fight in Ukraine.
NATO said it had activated “defense plans” for allied countries but had no plan to send alliance forces into Ukraine.
Among the highest-profile strategic developments on Thursday, Ukraine said Russian forces had seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant—prompting concern from international nuclear watchdogs.
Zelensky called the attack on Chernobyl “a declaration of war on all of Europe.”
Russian ground forces moved into Ukraine on Thursday from the north, south, and east.
In the capital, many residents fled their homes and took shelter in the city’s subway system.
Russia said Thursday its forces had “successfully completed” their objectives for the day, claiming to have destroyed over 70 Ukrainian military targets, including 11 airfields.
Western intelligence confirmed Moscow had established “complete air
superiority” over Ukraine.
Weeks of diplomacy failed to deter Putin, who massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders in what the West said was Europe’s biggest military build-up since World War II.
Western allies had initially imposed some sanctions on Russia in an effort to deter Putin, then followed through on Thursday with vows to heavily punish Russia economically.
US President Joe Biden announced export controls against Russia to cut off more than half of the country’s high-tech imports, alongside
sanctions on Russian elites he called “corrupt billionaires,” and banks.
He will meet Friday with fellow NATO leaders in an extraordinary virtual summit to discuss the security situation in and around Ukraine.
The EU moved to impose “massive” sanctions on Russia’s energy and finance sectors.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused Putin of trying to destroy Ukraine’s statehood.
“This is total war. Putin has decided… to take Ukraine off the map of nations,” Le Drian told France Inter radio.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the invasion was “barbaric, unjustified and shows a callous disregard for human life.”
The fighting also spooked global financial markets, with oil prices soaring past $100 and a surge in the price of wheat as Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s largest producers.
In a televised address, Putin justified the assault as a defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics in eastern Ukraine.
The leaders of the two separatist territories asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv after Putin recognized their independence on Monday.
A conflict between the separatists and government forces has dragged on since 2014, killing more than 14,000 people.
Russia has also long demanded that Ukraine be forbidden from ever joining NATO and that US troops pull out from Eastern Europe.
Thousands of Russians defied tough anti-protest legislation to stage anti-war rallies across the country.
OVD-Info, which monitors arrests at opposition protests, said that more than 1,800 people in 59 cities had been detained across Russia.
France’s finance minister said on Friday the European Union wants to cut all links between Russia and the global financial system, adding
that removing Moscow from the SWIFT interbank system remained a “last resort.”
Speaking hours after European national leaders agreed further sanctions on Russia over its attack on Ukraine, Bruno Le Maire said the EU “wants to cut all the links between Russia and the global financial system.”
“We want to isolate Russia financially… We want to dry up the financing,” he added as European finance ministers met in Paris to discuss the economic measures.
Both Le Maire and his German counterpart Christian Lindner said that removing Russia from the Belgium-based SWIFT system remained “on the table.”
“This is the very last resort, SWIFT, but this is one of the options that remains on the table,” the French minister said.
But Lindner insisted that “we already have a complete blockade of Russian banks, which means business dealings with Russia are as good as stopped.”
Reacting Thursday to sanctions decided by the EU, Britain, the United States, and other Western nations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “the pressure on Russia must increase” from what has already been announced.
“Not all possibilities for sanctions have been exhausted yet,” he added.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had been more explicit Thursday, writing on Twitter that “who now doubts whether Russia should be banned from SWIFT has to understand that the blood of innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children will be on their hands too.”
SWIFT’s messaging system allows banks to communicate rapidly and securely about transactions, and cutting Russia off would cripple its
ability to trade with most of the world.
Iran has been disconnected from the system in the past over its nuclear program, while Moscow has been developing domestic financial infrastructure to counter just such a threat, including the SPFS system for bank transfers and the Mir card payments system.
Cutting off Russia could complicate remaining trade with Europe, including natural gas imports vital to the continent’s energy supply
as well as oil shipments.
While emphasizing that Europe must be ready to make hard choices to confront Russia, Le Maire said Thursday that Paris would protect French households from any resulting increase in energy prices.
And Lindner spelled out that “in one-off cases payments (to Russia) remain possible, for example to pay for gas deliveries.”
Berlin this week said it would halt certification of a new pipeline bringing gas from Russia known as Nord Stream 2, but an existing direct link remains in operation.
Lindner added that “further steps are possible but their consequences must be weighed, the idea is to inflict consequences on the Russian economy” rather than cause harm to Europe.
Moscow on Friday banned all UK-linked planes, including transiting flights, from its airspace after its flagship carrier Aeroflot was prevented from flying over Britain following the Russian attack on Ukraine.
“A restriction was introduced on the use of Russian airspace for flights of aircrafts owned, leased or operated by an organization linked to or registered in the UK,” the Rosaviatsia aviation authority said in a statement.
The ban took effect from 11:00 am Moscow time (0800 GMT), it said, and included flights transiting through Russian airspace.
It said the decision was taken “as a response to unfriendly decisions of the UK aviation authorities.”
London banned Aeroflot from using British airspace on Thursday.
It also froze the UK assets of Russian titans in banking and arms manufacturing, in sanctions announced after Putin launched an attack on Ukraine.
Rosaviatsia said it had sent its British counterpart a proposal to “hold consultations” on Thursday and that it had received “a negative
reply” on Friday.
Invading Russian forces reached the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday.
Putin defied a barrage of international sanctions and pressed on with the invasion, which he announced in the early hours of Thursday.