PUTIN BRINGS TERROR TO KYIV

‘I am target No 1’: Defiant president vows to stay in Kyiv

- Nicholas Cecil, Rachael Burford, David Bond and Will Stewart

• RUSSIAN FORCES ‘ENTER UKRAINIAN CAPITAL’ AS FIGHTING RAGES
• BOMBARDMENT OVERNIGHT WITH MANY FORCED INTO SHELTERS.
• CONDEMNATION GROWS AS TANKS ARE SEEN ADVANCING TO CITY

RUSSIAN troops were today attacking Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with gunfire heard near the government quarter. After a barrage of air strikes in the early hours, ground forces were reported to be advancing, with “saboteurs” three miles north of the city centre.

Three columns of Russian tanks were understood to be moving towards the capital. Early this morning, fear spread through Kyiv as sirens warned residents in the city of 2.8 million to rush to air raid shelters. Shortly before 10am local time, Ukrainian defence sources said Russian forces were in the Obolon district, some six miles from the parliament building.

They urged locals to make Molotov cocktails to target the advancing troops. As President Vladimir Putin pursued his bloody war, the human cost was fast escalating with at least 137 Ukrainian military personnel and civilians, and 450 Russian troops reported to have been killed. Ukrainian forces were reported to be putting up strong resistance, inflicting heavy losses on the Russian army, but then being hit by overwhelming attacks.

Amid the fog of war, casualty figures could not be verified. Earlier, defence sources said that Russian forces had seized two Ukrainian military vehicles and some uniforms and were heading toward the city to try to infiltrate it.