Ukraine conflict: Russia advances to Kiev, people flee - what happened until Friday

Created: 02/25/2022, 15:25

By: Christina Denk

War has been raging in Ukraine since Thursday.

Explosions erupted in Kiev on Friday morning.

All developments and reactions by Friday afternoon.

Kiev – explosions, battles and calls to fight: President Putin has been attacking Ukraine* since Thursday night.

The first attacks were aimed, among other things, at the missile bases in the country.

During the night, the Ukraine crisis* reported explosions in Kiev.

Since then, the war seems to have reached the capital as well.

What has happened in the last few hours?

The overview of the current status on Friday (25.2).

Ukraine conflict: Explosions in Kiev - capital under fire

Several explosions shook the capital Kiev on Friday night.

This was reported by the Unian agency.

"Terrible Russian rocket attacks on Kiev," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that night.

Eyewitnesses reported violent explosions in Kiev.

This information could not be independently verified.

What is certain, however, is that in the capital, a multi-storey residential building on the east bank of the Dnipro River was hit, causing fire to break out.

The city administration announced on Telegram that debris from a rocket had hit there.

Three people were injured.

An adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister wrote that Ukrainian forces had managed to shoot down a Russian aircraft.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko published a video on the social network Telegram that showed fires on several floors of the building.

Firefighters were on site.

One of the injured is in critical condition, he wrote.

Ukraine conflict: A house was destroyed in a rocket attack in Kiev during the night.

© Emilio Morenatti/AP/dpa

According to the Ukrainian army, it is fighting advancing Russian troops north of the capital Kiev.

As the Ukrainian armed forces announced on Facebook on Friday, fighting broke out in the towns of Dymer and Ivankiv, north of the capital.

"A large number of enemy tanks had arrived there".

The general staff said there was also fighting at the strategically important Hostomel airfield northwest of Kiev.

Ukrainian troops also held their ground there. The residents of the capital were called upon to get as safe as possible in view of the Ukraine war.

The city's subway stations, which have a population of about 2.8 million, served as shelters.

Ukraine conflict: Russia is advancing into the capital - first shots near the government district

The first Russian units are said to have already entered Kiev.

Clashes were reported in a northern district of the Ukrainian capital around 10 a.m. on Friday.

There were also shots near the government district.

The ministry called on the population to prepare so-called Molotov cocktails for battle and to report sightings of Russian military technology.

“Come out onto the streets with Ukrainian flags, film the Russian occupiers.

Show them that they are not wanted here, that everyone will resist them," the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said in an emotional appeal.

The

:

• Kiev: A Russian aircraft shot down, fighting in the north of the city

• Dymer (45 km north): Battles

• Ivankiv (80 km north): Russian tanks arrived

• Hostomel airfield (northwest of Kiev): fighting

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov once again declared the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine as a goal.

Once the "democratic order" has been restored, the situation will allow negotiations again.

There could also be negotiations under a tough condition*.

Ukraine conflict: fighting and attacks in other places - situation in separatist areas remains tense

Fighting and attacks in the Ukraine war were also reported from other places, such as the city of Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine near the Russian border.

In the south of the country on the Azov Sea, the border guards spoke of fatalities and injuries from rocket fire at one of their posts around five in the morning.

The town of Primorskyj Posad is located on the coast between the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia, and the eastern Ukrainian separatist area.

The Ukrainian military assumes that the Russian army wants to conquer a corridor between the two areas in the Ukraine conflict.

The situation in eastern Ukraine also remains tense, according to reports late Thursday evening.

The Donetsk area of ​​operations is controlled by the army, according to a report by the Ukrainian army on Thursday evening.

The shelling by Russia* continues.

A map shows which areas are already under Russian control.

In view of the developments, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for tougher sanctions: “Stop Putin.

Isolated Russia.

Disconnects all connections.

Kick Russia out of everything,” he wrote on Twitter.

Ukraine conflict: EU adopts further sanctions against Russia

The heads of state and government of the 27 EU countries approved a comprehensive package of sanctions against Russia at a crisis summit on Friday evening.

The punitive measures affect, among other things, the areas of energy, finance and transport.

In addition, there should be export controls for certain products and restrictions on issuing visas.

Other countries have already imposed sanctions in response to the Ukraine crisis*.

The

:

• Financial Sector

  : No money lending/borrowing for Russian banks in the EU.

• Financial sector

  : No refinancing of Russian state-owned companies in the EU.

• Financial Sector

  : No trading of Russian stocks.

• Transport Sector

  : Cut off the supply of spare parts and other technology to the Russian aviation industry.

• Transport

  Sector: Export controls for high-tech products and software.

• Visa Policy

  : Restrictions on privileged entry for diplomats and businessmen, among others.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen conjured up the unity of the EU on Friday night after the around six-hour consultations, to which the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj* was also involved.

"Our unity is our strength," she said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin* is trying to redraw the map of Europe.

"He must and he will fail."

According to the reports, the EU states disagreed on a possible Swift exclusion.

As a result, Russian financial institutions would be virtually excluded from the global financial system.

Germany in the Ukraine conflict is one of the countries that are currently rejecting this instrument of sanctions.

Scholz justified this attitude in Brussels with strategic considerations.

One should initially stick to the package of sanctions that has been prepared over the past few weeks, he said.

In EU circles on Thursday it was considered possible that Russia would be excluded from Swift at a later date.

Conflict in Ukraine: Zelenskyj orders general mobilization in Ukraine

In view of the Ukraine war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj ordered a general mobilization late Thursday evening.

According to the Unian agency, the order is valid for 90 days and provides for the conscription of conscripts and reservists.

The 44-year-old did not say how many men will be affected.

According to Ukrainian authorities, male citizens between the ages of 18 and 60 are also not allowed to leave the country.

They will not be allowed across the border, said the head of the Ukrainian customs authority in Lviv, Danil Menshikov, on Thursday evening.

He asked people not to panic and not try to cross the border on their own.

Ukraine conflict: 100,000 people have fled - 137 soldiers have already died

The situation in the Ukraine war is getting worse and worse.

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, around 100,000 people are fleeing in Ukraine.

Several thousand people have already fled the country, UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo told the AFP news agency on Thursday.

According to Zelenskyy, 137 soldiers died on Thursday, the first day of the Russian invasion.

316 soldiers were injured, the President said in a video message on Friday night.

You can read all of the current developments in Ukraine on Friday in the news ticker.