Volunteers armed with machine guns, Molotov cocktails

KYIV • Ukrainian military vehicles yesterday entered the capital city Kyiv to defend it against approaching Russian tanks and troops, the BBC reported, as 18,000 machine guns were given to volunteers.

The government also gave instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails amid reports that Russian troops have reached the northern districts of Kyiv, a city of three million people, the BBC said.

Armed Ukrainian volunteers were seen walking the streets.

Russia yesterday claimed that it "eliminated" 200 Ukrainian forces when it captured Antonov Airport in the town of Hostomel, 15km from Kyiv.

Quoting the Russian Defence Ministry, the BBC reported yesterday that some 200 Russian helicopters were involved in the pitched battle to capture the airfield, a vital staging post for a planned assault on Kyiv.

Fighting was also reported all over the country of 44 million people.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that there had been heavy fighting, with people killed at the entrance to the eastern cities of Chernihiv and Melitopol, as well as at Hostomel.

Witnesses said loud explosions could also be heard in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, close to Russia's border, and air raid sirens sounded over Lviv in the west. The authorities reported heavy fighting in the eastern city of Sumy.

Ukraine said earlier that Russian forces had seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - prompting concern from international nuclear watchdogs.

Mr Zelensky called the attack on Chernobyl, a highly radioactive area around the nuclear reactor that melted down in 1986, as "a declaration of war on all of Europe".

In the village of Starognativka, near the front line where Ukrainian separatists have faced off against Kyiv's forces for years, village official Volodymyr Veselkin said yesterday that 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.

Ms 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.

In Kyiv yesterday, Russian missiles pounded the city as families cowered in shelters.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said: "The city has gone into a defensive phase. Shots and explosions are ringing out in some neighbourhoods. Saboteurs have already entered Kyiv. The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us."

Air raid sirens wailed over the capital, where some residents sheltered in underground metro stations.

Kyiv resident Yevhen Havrylov told the BBC that he spent the night in a bomb shelter under a nearby school.

"You won't sleep, you won't eat, can barely drink, because you are nervous," he said, telling the BBC that the shelters are well organised by the authorities and with drinking water.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian aircraft had been shot down and crashed into a building in Kyiv overnight, setting it ablaze and injuring eight people.

At an apartment block near Kyiv's main airport, windows were blasted out of the 10-storey building. A 2m crater showed where a shell had struck before dawn.

"How we can live through it in our time?... Putin should burn in hell along with his whole family," said Ms Oxana Gulenko, sweeping broken glass from her room.

At Kyiv's central railway stations yesterday, Ukrainian guards fired warning shots to prevent a stampede as thousands of people tried to force their way onto evacuation trains.

When a train drew up at a platform, people rushed to the doors, hoping to get on board, some of them with their children and pets.

"You can see, it is dangerous to break through the crowd with a kid. The dog is scared. Honestly, we are exhausted," said a woman who goes by the name Maria.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE