Heavy fighting in Kiev outskirts as Russia, Ukraine signal possibility of talks

AFP

Russian and Ukrainian forces clashed on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital on Saturday as authorities urged citizens to help defend the city from advancing Russian forces.

Heavy, frequent artillery fire and intense gunfire, apparently some distance from the city center, could be heard in Kiev in the early hours, a Reuters witness said. The Ukrainian military said Russian troops attacked an army base on a main Kiev avenue but the assault was repelled.

But even as the fighting grew more intense, the Russian and Ukrainian governments signaled an openness to negotiations, offering the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy.

"The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday in a video address posted to his Telegram channel. "Tonight, they will launch an assault. All of us must understand what awaits us. We must withstand this night."

The air force command reported heavy fighting near the air base at Vasylkiv southwest of the capital, which it said was under attack from Russian paratroopers.

Kiev residents were told by the defence ministry to make petrol bombs to repel the Russian troops, as witnesses reported hearing artillery rounds and intense gunfire from the western part of the city.

Some families cowered in shelters after Kiev was pounded on Thursday night by Russian missiles. Others tried desperately to get on packed trains headed west, some of the hundreds of thousands who have left their homes to find safety, according to the United Nations' aid chief.

"I once again appeal to the military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine: Do not allow neo-Nazis and (Ukrainian radical nationalists) to use your children, wives and elders as human shields," Putin said at a televised meeting with Russia's Security Council on Friday. "Take power into your own hands."

Putin has cited the need to "denazify" Ukraine's leadership as one of his main reasons for the operation, accusing it of genocide against Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine.

'Ready to talk'

Western countries have announced a barrage of sanctions on Russia, including blacklisting its banks and banning technology exports. But they have so far stopped short of forcing it out of the SWIFT system for international bank payments.

A spokesman for Zelenskiy said Ukraine and Russia would consult in coming hours on a time and place for talks.

The Kremlin said earlier it offered to meet in the Belarusian capital Minsk after Ukraine expressed a willingness to discuss declaring itself a neutral country while Ukraine had proposed Warsaw as the venue. That, according to Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov, resulted in a "pause" in contacts.

"Ukraine was and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace," Zelenskiy's spokesman, Sergii Nykyforov, said in a post on Facebook. "We agreed to the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation."

Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter that there had been heavy fighting with deaths at the entrance to the eastern cities of Chernihiv and Melitopol, as well as at Hostomel.

The White House asked Congress for US$6.4 billion in security and humanitarian aid for the crisis, officials said.