Ukrainian, Russian troops fight in streets of Kyiv

BSS :
Ukrainian forces repulsed a Russian attack on Kyiv but “sabotage groups” infiltrated the capital, officials said Saturday as a defiant President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Ukraine would never give in.
On the third day of an invasion that Ukraine said has killed 198 civilians including three children, Russia also brushed off the barrage of Western sanctions and said it had fired cruise missiles at military targets.
Wearing olive green military-style clothing and looking tired but determined, Zelensky spoke in a video message posted on his Twitter account.
“I am here. We will not lay down any weapons. We will defend our state, because our weapons are our truth,” he said. “Our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children and we will protect all of this.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed a full-scale invasion that has forced tens of thousands to flee their homes and sparked fears of a wider conflict in Europe.
“We thought something like this might happen but we were hoping until the end that it wouldn’t,” Irina Butyak, a 38-year-old teacher, told AFP as she took shelter in a basement in Kyiv, where explosions were heard through the night.
“We were hoping that common sense and common decency would prevail. Well, it didn’t,” said Butyak, who hoped she would be able to escape soon to western Ukraine.
In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that the world must brace for a long war. “This crisis will last, this war will last and all the crises that come with it will have lasting consequences,” Macron said, adding: “We must be prepared”.
After speaking to Macron, Zelensky tweeted to thank “partners” for sending weapons and equipment. “The anti-war coalition is working,” he said. AFP reporters in Kyiv heard occasional blasts of what soldiers said were artillery and Grad missiles being fired in an area northwest of the city centre.
There were also loud explosions in the centre. Emergency services said a high-rise apartment block was hit by shelling overnight, posting a picture that showed a hole covering at least five floors blasted into the side of the building. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, said that the building had been hit by a missile.
“The night was difficult, but there are no Russian troops in the capital,” he said. “The enemy is trying to break into the city, in particular from Gostomel, Zhytomyr, where the aggressors are neutralized,” he said, referring to two settlements to the northwest and west of the city.
“Now in Kyiv there are, unfortunately, sabotage groups, there were several clashes, shootings,” he said.In a northern district of the city, AFP on Friday saw a dead man in civilian clothes lying sprawled on the pavement as nearby medics rushed to help another man whose car was crushed by an armoured vehicle.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said “two enemy targets were shot down”- identifying them as a Russian SU-25 helicopter and a military bomber-near the separatist zone in the east of the country.
A Russian Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane had also been “knocked down” near Vasylkiv, a town roughly 30 kilometres (19 miles) southwest of Kyiv, the ministry added on its official Facebook page.