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“This night they will begin to storm,” Zelensky said. “We all have to know what awaits us, and we have to withstand. The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now.”
A senior U.S. defense official said Friday that the Russian military has lost momentum in its offensive, while cautioning that this could change in the coming days.
Here’s what to know
Computer chip industry begins halting deliveries to Russia in response to U.S. sanctions
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The global computer chip industry, including the giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, has begun halting sales to Russia in the wake of U.S. sanctions aimed at punishing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Biden administration announced the sanctions Thursday, saying they would cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports and kneecap the country’s ability to diversify its economy and support its military.
The ban, which is also being enacted by major U.S. allies, is designed to choke off deliveries to defense and other high-tech buyers in the aerospace and maritime technology sectors, but not to block deliveries of consumer electronics, the Biden administration said.
Russia threatens Finland and Sweden over potential NATO membership
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President Biden on Friday emphasized NATO’s open-door policy for new members, as Russia warned Finland and Sweden against joining the transatlantic military alliance.
“President Putin has failed in his goal of dividing the West,” Biden said in a statement after Friday’s NATO emergency summit. “NATO is as united and resolute as it’s ever been, and NATO will maintain its Open Door to those European states who share our values and who one day may seek to join our Alliance.”
Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova threatened “military and political consequences” against Finland and Sweden if they attempted to become NATO members.
“Finland and Sweden should not base their security on damaging the security of other countries and their accession to NATO can have detrimental consequences and face some military and political consequences,” Zakharova said during a news conference.
💬#Zakharova: We regard the Finnish government’s commitment to a military non-alignment policy as an important factor in ensuring security and stability in northern Europe.
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) February 25, 2022
☝️Finland’s accession to @NATO would have serious military and political repercussions. pic.twitter.com/eCY5oG23rL
Membership of NATO confers mutual defense privileges and obligations. The kerfuffle over NATO membership — one that neither Finland nor Sweden were actively seeking — underscores Russia’s fears over the U.S.-led alliance’s presence in its near west. In attempting to justify his assault on Ukraine, Putin has cited Kyiv’s attempt to join NATO, though the alliance has not made any concrete moves to accept Ukraine.
The attack on Ukraine is shifting the debate about joining NATO in Finland and Sweden.
“Finland is not currently facing an immediate military threat, but it is also now clear that the debate on NATO membership in Finland will change,” said Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, YLE News reported.
Both Finland and Sweden — which attended Friday’s NATO summit — have strongly condemned Russia’s incursion and provided “military, technical and humanitarian assistance” to Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Russia’s acts are also an attack on the European security order,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson wrote on Twitter. “It will be met by a united and robust response in solidarity with Ukraine. Russia alone is responsible for human suffering.”
U.S. prepared to help Zelensky leave Kyiv but so far he has refused to go
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The U.S. government is prepared to help Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky leave Kyiv to avoid being captured or killed by advancing Russian forces, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials. But so far, the president has refused to go.
As the Russian military ratcheted up its attacks on Friday, a defiant Zelensky pledged to remain in charge of his government despite grave personal risk. “According to the information we have, the enemy has marked me as target No. 1, my family as target No. 2,” he told Ukrainians in an early-morning address. “They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state.”
For weeks, Zelensky has heard those warnings from U.S. officials.
Video: A building damaged, lives destroyed in apparent Russian strike
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KYIV, Ukraine — From what was left of her fourth-floor balcony, an elderly woman tossed piece after piece of debris to the grass below. Out went heaps of glass, insulation and wood. She occasionally paused to survey the damage around her.
She is among the scores of Ukrainian civilians displaced from their homes in Kyiv on Friday after an unidentified projectile struck just outside their apartment block before dawn, severely damaging the building and wounding several residents, including at least one in critical condition. The apparent Russian strike left behind a large crater that now sits just a few yards from a playground, which remained empty Friday except for one young boy digging in the dirt.
Andriy Zablotskiy, 37, was asleep in one room and his wife and 5-year-old son were in another when the blast struck just outside their windows early Friday in Kyiv. They ran to their bathroom, but then, fearing the building might collapse, fled to the street in their pajamas. Despite the scale of the damage in their apartment, which is on the second floor, no one in the family was injured.
Total numbers of civilian casualties in Ukraine remain unclear with no comprehensive figures released by Ukraine’s government. Early Friday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said at least 137 people — civilians and military personnel — had been killed in the Russian attacks.
But Russia is facing growing accusations that its barrages are hitting civilian areas, and the tally of Ukrainians killed or injured could climb sharply as Russian forces push into Kyiv and other major cities, many now surrounded by Russian forces.
Multiple explosions rock Kyiv as Russian forces target city
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KYIV — More than four dozen explosions thundered in the early morning in Kyiv Saturday, as Russian forces appeared to ramp up their push to take the Ukrainian capital.
Continuous shelling could be heard for about 30 minutes, around the same time the Ukrainian military repelled Russian attacks near a thermal plant in northern Kyiv, the Kyiv Independent reported.
The country’s intelligence service alerted people to seek safety after more than 50 shots were fired in the Shulyavka, a suburb near the city’s center.
The clashes, at about 3 a.m. in Kyiv, came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the city’s residents of an unprecedented battle over the capital. Air raid sirens sounded off in the city earlier in the night.
U.S. tech firm struggles to get employees out of Kyiv
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John Sung Kim, chief executive of the software outsourcing company JetBridge, has been communicating with his 24 employees in Kyiv, all software developers, through Slack. Half of them are trying to leave Ukraine, but Kim says he is struggling to help them and has been unable to get them train tickets, a rental car or gasoline.
“The other half of my team wants to stay and fight,” said Kim. “I got on an all-hands with them this morning and told them it’s not their responsibility to be soldiers and there’s other ways they can contribute since they’re software engineers, but there’s nothing I can say to dissuade them.”
Kim said JetBridge’s clients are almost exclusively Silicon Valley tech companies that are publicly traded or have raised venture capital financing. “The universal issue other than transportation logistics seems to be grandparents. ‘My babushka’ is the common theme of why they’re torn from actually leaving,” he said.
Kim, whose wife is Ukrainian, said he has friends that have successfully used traditional smuggling routes in forested areas to leave Ukraine, including one at the border with Poland. “I don’t want to say where this is because we may need to use this, but it is a five-kilometer walk from Ukraine over to Poland,” he said.
The fallout from Russia’s invasion has also impacted JetBridge’s employees in Belarus. “The males in Belarus are scared that there’s going to be military conscription, and unlike the Ukrainians, my Belarusian engineers have zero desire to pick up a rifle. Zero,” he said. In anticipation of European Union sanctions on Belarus, Kim said JetBridge has started paying employees in bitcoin.
Explosion at Melitopol hospital, as Russian shelling continues
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A Ukrainian hospital in the southeastern city of Melitopol came under fire on Friday, according to a government official and video of an explosion at the facility, as the city faced heavy shelling and increased pressure from Russian forces.
In a footage of the event, first verified by Storyful, shelling is audible in the background before a large boom followed by a bright flash coming from inside the upper floors of the hospital building. More sounds of what appear to be explosions follow, before the camera zooms in to show sparks pinging off the structure with small puffs of smoke following them. It is unclear from the video what exactly hit the hospital or where it came from.
Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko, in a Facebook post, confirmed the hospital came under fire. He said that no one was hurt. Liashko mentioned several other medical facilities that he said came under Russian attack.
A day earlier, a Russian bomb struck a hospital in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, killing at least four civilians, according to Human Rights Watch, which said it interviewed hospital staff and analyzed photos of weapons remnants. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, tweeted early Friday morning that Russian forces have a “long history of attacking civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, markets and schools.”
As Russian forces press in on the capital, Ukrainians are defiant
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KYIV, Ukraine — With Russian forces pressing into the northern suburbs of this besieged capital this week, Alexei Ianikovskyi took his family into the city’s center. They found sanctuary at a hotel where he worked, one with a basement for a bomb shelter.
By Friday, Ianikovskyi was faced with a difficult choice — one shared by countless Ukrainians: “I really want to join the army,” he said inside the bunker, as explosions rocked the outskirts of the city. “But I also need to protect my family.”
On the second day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv was on edge. A suspected rocket destroyed an apartment building in the city and its outer neighborhoods were either battlegrounds or no-go zones. Russian forces tried to push closer to the seat of the government, but Ukrainian forces repelled the advance. Still, by nightfall, the Russian bombardment, and the war itself, seemed to be intensifying.
Map: Latest ground advances of Russia into Ukraine
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Russian troops have moved into Ukraine from the north, south and east of the country. Russian forces entered Ukraine through a ground incursion from Belarus toward Kyiv. According to the Pentagon, Russia is facing more resistance in the capital than what it was expecting.
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'It’s my home, it’s my land’: Ukrainians return from abroad to join battle against Russia
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SHEHYNI, Ukraine — At the jammed-up border crossing to Poland, where people lined up for more than a day to make their way out of Ukraine to the safety of the European Union on Friday, some rushed in the opposite direction.
“It’s my home, it’s my land,” said Viktor, 22, who had boarded a plane from London two days earlier and made his way over land from the Czech Republic. “I’m going to fight to my last drop of blood.” He entered Ukraine at the land border crossing near the village of Shehyni with jerrycans of fuel — he’d heard there was a shortage.
As Russia launched its assault on Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky called on citizens to take up arms and fight, and promised firearms to anyone who is willing. Ukraine’s border guards were ordered Friday to stop all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country.
At U.N., Russia vetoes U.S. resolution condemning Ukraine invasion
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The U.N. Security Council did not adopt a U.S.-backed resolution condemning the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday after Russia vetoed the measure, but Beijing’s decision to abstain was seen as an achievement for the United States.
Eleven countries voted in favor of the proposed measure, which would have required Russia to immediately withdraw forces from Ukraine. Three nations abstained: China, India and the United Arab Emirates.
Speaking after the vote, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield described Russia as reckless and irresponsible for launching this week’s military operation.
“Russia, you can veto this resolution, but you cannot veto our voices,” she said. “You cannot veto the Ukrainian people, you cannot veto the U.N. charter, and you will not veto accountability.”
The high-stakes session represented a test of the Biden administration’s ability to sway countries that have appeared to remain on the fence amid President Vladimir Putin’s operation, which U.S. officials say aims to replace Ukraine’s elected government.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the resolution “anti-Russian” and unbalanced, accusing the West of ignoring what he called “blood-chilling crimes” by the government in Kyiv.
The resolution would have also required Russia to reverse its official recognition of breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been battling government forces since 2014. It also called for facilitation of humanitarian aid.
Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the International Crisis Group, said China’s abstention would be a relief to the United States.
“The U.S. and its allies watered down the language of the resolution today precisely to keep China on board,” he said after the vote. “I wouldn’t mistake China’s abstention as a real blow to Russia though. Moscow knows that China is keeping its head down, and won’t take any serious action against it.”
The Emirati representative, Lana Nusseibeh, called the vote a “foregone conclusion.”
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Map: Ukrainian capital a primary target of Russian attacks
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The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was jolted by predawn explosions Friday as part of a full-scale Russian attack that Western officials say is aimed at toppling Ukraine’s government. By the end of the day local time, several Russian rockets fired from the sea had struck the coast of Ukraine around Odessa.
The Russian offensive has been geographically widespread, hitting Ukraine from the eastern city of Luhansk to just outside the western city of Lviv, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
This post will update.
Biden administration asks Congress for more than $6 billion in response to Ukraine crisis
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The White House is asking congressional lawmakers to approve $6.4 billion in new emergency aid to assist Ukraine, hoping to boost humanitarian assistance to the war-torn country and shore up other allies in the region against any further Russian aggression.
Top officials with the Biden administration briefed Democrats and Republicans on the request Friday, hoping that the new sums could be appended to a still-forming, long-term deal to fund the government that lawmakers hope to adopt before March 11.
The first chunk of money, totaling about $2.9 billion, would allow the State Department and other agencies to provide security assistance to Ukraine as well as other states in the region, including Poland and Lithuania, according to a Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the discussions.
The aid would include humanitarian assistance for vulnerable populations and fresh investments to bolster those countries’ digital defenses against potential Russian cyberattacks, the official said. With it, the Biden administration also has asked Congress to set aside another $3.5 billion to address funding needs at the Defense Department, the official added.
Top congressional and White House aides cautioned Friday that the exact amount and approach could still change in the face of a rapidly evolving crisis. But an official at the Office of Management and Budget, who also requested anonymity to describe the early deliberations, said the request reflects the president’s commitment to “supporting the Ukrainian people as they defend their country and democracy.”
To expedite its passage, the Biden administration has recommended it be included as part of any broader proposal to fund federal agencies, known as an omnibus. Democrats and Republicans have been negotiating such a deal for weeks, hoping to stave off a shutdown that could occur as a result of congressional inaction in a matter of weeks. The Ukraine assistance could also come alongside the addition of billions of dollars in new coronavirus relief, according to a congressional leadership aide, who requested anonymity to describe the talks.
Poland, Bulgaria latest countries to close airspace to Russia
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A growing list of nations announced Friday that they would close their respective airspace to Russian airlines after the country’s assault on Ukraine.
The countries — which include Poland, Czech Republic and Bulgaria — were all behind the Iron Curtain and have since become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Polish airspace would soon be closed to Russian airlines because of the invasion of Ukraine. A country bordering both Russia and Ukraine, Poland since early Thursday has received an influx of people fleeing Russia’s assault on its western neighbor from three directions.
“I have ordered the preparation of a resolution of the council of ministers which will lead to the closure of the airspace over Poland to Russian airlines,” Morawiecki tweeted.
The Czech Republic will bar Russian carriers’ operations on its territory starting Saturday, the country’s Minister of Transport Martin Kupka said on Twitter.
“As of midnight today, we are stopping the operation of all Russian air carriers on Czech territory,” Kupka wrote.
Bulgaria also joined the block — banning flights to the country operated by Russian airlines and closing its airspace to all Russian aircraft from Saturday, the nation’s Ministry of Transport and Communications announced Friday.
The move is a “result of the escalation of the military conflict and as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine,” the government agency said in a news release.
Britain on Thursday prohibited all scheduled Russian airlines from entering its airspace or touching down on British soil. But on Friday, the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps said he was buttressing such restrictions.
“Putin’s actions are unlawful and anyone benefiting from Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is not welcome here,” Shapps wrote on Twitter. “I’ve strengthened our ban in the UK so that no Russian private jet can fly in UK airspace, or touchdown — effective immediately.”
The countries’ announcements come after LOT Polish Airlines canceled all flights to Ukraine until further notice. Other airlines, such as Germany’s Lufthansa and Ireland’s Ryanair, have also suspended services into Ukraine.
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11:48 a.m.
Siobhán O'Grady: KYIV, Ukraine — As sirens blared in the streets of Kyiv, signaling that residents should head to underground bunkers, Washington Post journalists headed to their hotel’s basement where staff and their families were also sheltering. There, hotel workers served up heaping plates of spaghetti bolognese and Greek salad — a welcome surprise considering the restaurant is closed and supplies are dwindling.With a shortage of plates, some guests shared, and others took turns waiting for plates or silverware to be washed. One man handed out pieces of carpet for guests to put over the cold tile floor. The elderly and children have been given priority for seating. Afterward, a jovial hotel staffer walked around mopping up spilled sauce and lettuce.The shared sense of camaraderie in the basement bunker was a glimmer of light in an otherwise dark time.
Siobhán O'Grady, Cairo bureau chief
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5:20 a.m.
Isabelle Khurshudyan: KHARKIV, Ukraine — There were loud booms just now in the center of Kharkiv, much closer than they had been in recent days. Four guys who had been walking on the street started running. One group of people in a long line for the pharmacy looked around confused before dispersing. It’s very snowy today. Smell of sulfur in the air. One upscale hotel told people to take shelter in its underground garage and handed out chairs. There are kids and pets and media crews in here.
Isabelle Khurshudyan, Foreign correspondent based in Kyiv
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