NEW YORK (VINnews) — The second day of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine has seen Russia attempting to consolidate its territorial gains and close in on Kyiv, the capital of the Ukraine, despited determined resistance from the outgunned Ukrainian army.
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10:31 GMT – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow will only be ready to hold talks with Kyiv once Ukraine’s military has laid down its arms.
Lavrov claimed that Russia wants the Ukrainian people to be independent and have the possibility to freely define their destiny, but warned the Kremlin did not want “neo-Nazis” to govern Russia’s neighbour.
He added that Russia sees no possibility of recognising the current Ukrainian government as democratic.
10:24 GMT – Local authorities in Kyiv have told residents in the city’s north-western Obolon area to stay off the streets as “active hostilities” are approaching.
“In connection with the approach of active hostilities, residents of Obolon district are asked not to go outside,” the city council said in an alert.
10:14 GMT – A spokeswoman for the UN’s human rights office has condemned the “arbitrary” arrests of more than 1,800 people in Russia for protesting against the country’s invasion of Ukraine and called for their immediate release.
“Arresting individuals for exercising their rights to freedom of expression or a peaceful assembly constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of liberty,” Ravina Shamdasani told reporters.
At least 1,831 protesters were detained by police at anti-war demonstrations held in 60 cities throughout Russia on Thursday evening, according to the OVD-Info monitoring group.
08:40 GMT – Russia’s defence ministry claims its forces have captured Zmiinyi Island in the Black Sea south of Odessa.
The ministry said 82 Ukrainian soldiers stationed there had surrendered to Russian forces.
Ukrainian officials have said that all 13 border guards deployed on the island south of the port city of Odesa were killed by arms fire from a Russian warship.
08:25 – Russian forces have bombed more than 30 civilian sites since the beginning of their attack on Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s interior ministry.
“The Russians say they are not striking civilian objects. But 33 civilian sites have been hit over the last 24 hours,” Vadym Denysenko, a ministry official, was quoted on Interfax as saying.
7:55 GMT – Ukrainian president Zelensky says he has spoken with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda to seek defence assistance from Eastern European members of NATO and help in bringing Russia to the negotiating table.
“We need [an] anti-war coalition,” the Ukrainian president tweeted.
Ukraine is an ally of NATO but not a full member of the United States-led transatlantic military alliance.
07:34 GMT – Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Kyiv, says the situation in the city is “horrific”.
“There was a litany of air raids overnight and one success for the Ukrainian defence [effort] in that they shot down one of Russia’s [aerial] bombers, but that unfortunately crashed down into a civilian area, causing an unknown number of casualties, but it has left at least one person dead,” Simmons said.
“There have also been a large number of air raids since dawn, on three occasions the air raid sirens have gone off and a civilian area was struck by one of those raids,” he added, noting the city’s hospitals were “struggling with the number of casualties right now”.
Simmons said the number of civilian casualties was not clear, however.
07:10 GMT – Russia intends to take the whole of Ukraine but the Russian army failed to deliver on the first day of its invasion, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said.
The United Kingdom supplied Kyiv with defensive weaponry in the weeks leading up to Moscow’s attack, as tensions between Ukraine and Russia grew over the latter’s military build-up along its neighbour’s borders.
06:30 GMT – International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan has expressed his concern over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said the body may investigate possible war crimes in the country.
“I remind all sides conducting hostilities on the territory of Ukraine that my office may exercise its jurisdiction and investigate any act of genocide, crime against humanity or war crime committed within Ukraine,” Khan said in a statement.
05:39 GMT – Ukrainian leader Zelensky says Russia resumed missile strikes at 4 am local time (02:00 GMT), but its troops have been stopped from advancing in most directions.
In a televised speech, the Ukrainian president added the Russian strikes were aimed at both military and civilian targets.
Zelensky added that the continued Russian aggression against his country is evidence that sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West are insufficient.The Ukrainian president added the world was continuing to observe what was going on in Ukraine from afar.
03:57 GMT – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has slammed the “horrific rocket strikes” that shook Kyiv.
“Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv,” he tweeted. “Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany”.
Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv. 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. Stop Putin. Isolate Russia. Severe all ties. Kick Russia out of everywhete.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 25, 2022
3:08 GMT – A missile strike hit a Ukrainian border post in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, killing and wounding some guards, the border guard service says.
The region has no land border with Russia but is located on the coast of the Azov sea which the neighbours share.
11:00 GMT – Volodymyr Zelensky,Ukraine’s president, said Friday that his country had been left on its own to fight Russia after the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that killed 137 Ukrainians in the first day of fighting and pleaded for help as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee.
“We have been left alone to defend our state,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in an emotional video address to the nation after midnight. “Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid,” he added.
It’s no accident that Putin finds himself up against a Jew, When zechus avos will be there to protect, defend and defeat the aggressors. Putin should remember his Jewish neighbors who cared for him when he was a young boy and all the gefilte fish that they fed him. May Ukraine come away from this confrontation better than before IYH.
Full scale war invasion of Ukraina by Russia, over 500 CIVILIAN casualties already, from bombing of cities, straffing roads, missile attacks. Trump is one of few GOP to praise Putin as a ‘genius’ in all his evil. This is a fact, see Trump’s quotes yesterday.
Why did Chabad condemn Israeli offers and efforts to evacuate the Jews in Ukraine? Partners to murder, and now as usual they come begging for funds.
Once the Ukrainian puppet government of NATO stops glorifying nazis and returns to its Slavic roots peace will return. Stop providing russia. Brandon wants to start a war like lyndon Johnson another Democrat.