The sound of gunfire has echoed through Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as Russian tanks were filmed entering the city for the first time.
Russian troops reached the outskirts of Kyiv after launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine from three main directions.
Troops are advancing from the north; from the east through Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Sumy; and from Crimea in the south.
Dozens of targets have been struck, as Russian troops have poured into Ukraine.
Gunfire has been heard in the central government area of the city centre near the presidential office.
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.
News agency AFP reported, Pedestrians ran for safety as small arms fire and explosions erupted in the Obolonsky district in Kyiv’s north. Larger blasts could be heard in the city centre, where residents endured a first tense night under curfew and the sounds of bombing.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said the clash had been provoked by “an enemy sabotage and reconnaissance group”. Russian forces first arrived on the outskirts of Kyiv yesterday when waves of helicopter-borne troops assaulted the Gostomel airfield just outside the city, close to Obolonsky.
The fighting on the broad highways and in between the densely inhabited multi-storey apartment blocks of northern Kyiv may be an omen of what is to come if Russian forces assault the city of some three million people.
Russia’s Interfax news agency reports, the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces have taken control of the key Hostomel airfield near Kyiv,
It says 200 Russian helicopters and a landing force were used to seize it. It also says Kyiv is “blocked from the West”.
