(CNN) — Two large explosions lit up the night sky southwest of Kyiv early Sunday with a detonation that appeared to be approximately 20 kilometers from the city center.
The blasts come after Ukraine’s outgunned forces occupied the capital of Kyiv for a third day on Saturday as battles continue across the country, with Ukraine’s defiant president, Volodymyr Zelenskytold the citizens to defend the country.
An explosion lit the horizon on Saturday night in the strategic seaside city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, as heavy shelling reverberated off its outskirts.
The sound of small arms fire and the impact of multiple rockets marked the night after a day of great tension in the city. A CNN crew saw Ukrainian soldiers fire warning shots and throw suspected Russian saboteurs from their cars to the ground.
After unconfirmed reports of Russian paratroopers landing in the northern areas of the city, a bridge was raised for the first time in years in an attempt to sever a main connection between the north and south of the city, which is in an inlet of the Black Sea.
As the war moves to the streets of various cities across the country, with Ukraine’s outnumbered army continuing to hold off invading forces in multiple locations, the Russian Defense Ministry said its troops have been ordered to resume their offensive “in all directions”.
A senior US defense official warned on Saturday that more than half of the power mustered by Russian President Vladimir Putin “is now compromised inside Ukraine.”
Heavy fighting was ongoing in the northern city of Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border, while there was “less resistance in the south”, a US official said.
In Vasilkiv, a city about 35 kilometers south of Kyiv, the mayor said on Saturday morning that fierce fighting was taking place in the city center.
Vasilkiv Mayor Natalia Balasynovich said there were losses on the Ukrainian side with “many wounded, unfortunately, they are in the 200s,” she told the Ukrainian parliament channel on Saturday.
But the invasion of Russia has not progressed as quickly as Moscow would have hoped, Western intelligence officials say.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russia has yet to gain control of Ukrainian airspace “greatly reducing the effectiveness of the Russian Air Force.”
Russia has also faced “acute logistical difficulties and strong Ukrainian resistance”, which has slowed the speed of the Russian advance, the UK ministry said in an intelligence update on Saturday. shared on twitter.
But he stressed that most of the Russian forces are now only 30 kilometers from the center of Kyiv, warning that casualties “are likely to be large and greater than anticipated or acknowledged by the Kremlin.”
Despite being a prime target in the invasion, Zelensky rejected a US evacuation offer, the Ukrainian Embassy in Britain said on Twitter on Saturday.
“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.” dijo Zelensky to the United States, according to the embassy.
Zelensky echoed the determination of many Ukrainians — some of whom have taken up arms — in a video message on Saturday afternoon. “We have successfully resisted and repelled enemy attacks. Fighting continues in different cities and regions of our country,” he said.
“Every Ukrainian must have one thing in mind: if you can stop and destroy the occupiers, do it. Everyone who can return to Ukraine, return to defend Ukraine,” he stated.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko braced for another night of fighting and imposed a curfew on the city, from 5:00 p.m. local (10:00 a.m. ET) to 8:00 a.m., starting Saturday. at night. He warned that civilians on the streets after curfew will be considered “members of the enemy’s sabotage and reconnaissance groups.”
The resistance to Russia’s invasion has seen civilians prepare to defend their capital in recent days, with officials arming reservists with 18,000 weapons and ammunition in Kyiv alone and Ukrainian television broadcasting instructions for making Molotov cocktails.
In the northern city of Bakhmach, Ukrainian citizens tried to stop Russian tanks by standing in front of themaccording to videos seen by CNN.
A CNN team detected a Russian multiple rocket launcher south of Belgorod, Russia, near the Ukrainian border on Saturday afternoon.
The TOS-1 or TOS-1A Multiple Rocket Launcher seen by CNN is capable of launching rockets with thermobaric warheads. There is no evidence that thermobaric weapons have been used in the Ukraine conflict.
These types of weapons do not use conventional ammunition. Instead, they are filled with high-temperature, high-pressure explosives. They are sometimes called “vacuum bombs” because they suck in oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a powerful explosion and large pressure wave that can have enormous destructive effects.
Damage to the upper floors of a building in Kyiv on February 26, 2022, after it was reportedly hit by a Russian rocket. (Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)
Early Saturday morning, a large residential apartment block in western Kyiv was hit by a missile or rocket, as city residents were forced to seek shelter after a terrifying night of fighting.
Images and video from the scene showed the massive impact on some ten floors of the building, with the cause of the hit unclear and the number of victims unknown. Several apartment units were completely blown out, missing exterior walls and windows, leaving a large visible hole in the side of the building.
The Ukrainian troops are fighting against a significantly superior military power. Russia’s defense spending is about ten times that of Kyiv and its armed forces number about 900,000 active troops and two million in reserves, compared to 196,000 and 900,000 reservists in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not reported a single casualty from the invasion combat, a CNN review of its press releases shows. But Zelensky has claimed that the country’s forces have killed “hundreds” of Russian soldiers, without giving an exact figure. On Friday morning, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Russia had lost more than 450 troops.
Ukrainian officials have acknowledged casualties on their side.
CNN has not been able to independently verify casualty figures.
Is there room for diplomacy?
There have been suggestions of efforts toward diplomacy to stop the bloodshed, with Zelensky’s senior adviser Myhailo Podoliak saying Saturday morning that Ukraine would set conditions in any process, noting that he did not believe the country had weak”.
A separate Zelensky spokesman, Sergii Nykyforov, said Friday night that Ukraine “has been and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a halt to the Russian army’s advance into Ukraine pending negotiations, but operations resumed after the Kyiv government reportedly rejected the talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry said on Saturday. Peskov.
Zelensky’s spokesman, Nykyforov, had previously denied any “claim that we have refused to negotiate.”
“The sooner negotiations start, the better the chances of resuming normal life,” he said.
Western officials have been examining whether Zelensky could form a government-in-exile if he were to flee Kyiv, US officials told CNN. But those officials and a source close to Zelensky said the Ukrainian president rejected those offers.
Residents evacuated from the damaged apartment building in Kyiv on February 26. (Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine)
In a statement on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have taken control of the city of Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine. This comes after a massive explosion at Melitopol airport was captured in footage shared on social media.
Russia also launched overnight cruise missile strikes against targets in Ukraine.
There have been reports of apartment buildings and kindergartens bombed, civilians killed and rockets found on residential streets since the beginning of the invasion earlier this week.
The images analyzed by CNN they confirmed that, on several occasions, Russian forces have attacked densely populated areas throughout the country.
Russia’s invasion has been followed by sweeping sanctions by Western nations, designed to harm Russia’s economy and turn Putin into an international “pariah.”
Saturday saw a push in Europe to cut off Russia from SWIFT, a highly secure messaging network that connects thousands of financial institutions around the world, with Italy and Hungary signaling support.
Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine has seen its allies such as China struggle to balance its close strategic partnership with Moscow with its seemingly contradictory policy of supporting state sovereignty.
China, which has refused to criticize Russia’s attack, abstained in voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
humanitarian crisis
While the previous two nights in Kyiv were marked by the sounds of sporadic explosions in the distance, Friday night in the capital was different for residents who stayed behind, with bursts of small arms fire and visible lines of orange fire they rose to the sky.
Streets around the city center were also empty, with many of those who remained spending the night in subway stations and underground parking lots seeking safe shelter.
A Kyiv resident who identified herself as Olga said she had her young son Vadim, a kindergarten-age boy, sleeping in the bathroom.
A fire in western Kyiv at dawn on Saturday.
“We do not go to the shelter, it does not guarantee 100% security and it can affect the psychology of a child. At home he sleeps well, eats and thinks everything is fun, ”she said.
an unknown number of Kyiv residents had already left the capital on Friday, quieting highways heading west from the capital that had been busy on Thursday. Refugees have been pouring into neighboring European countries in recent days, with international leaders warning of a humanitarian crisis.
Kelly Clements, the UN refugee agency’s deputy high commissioner, told CNN that more than 120,000 Ukrainians have fled Ukraine, while 850,000 are internally displaced. As many as 4 million Ukrainians could flee if things continue to deteriorate, she said.
As the situation worsened, the international community has sought ways to support Ukraine without actively deploying troops to the country, a move both the United States and NATO have said they will not take.
Late Friday night in Washington, the White House announced that US President Joe Biden had approved the release of up to $350 million in immediate support for Ukraine’s security and defense.
This statement, announced in a White House memo, comes after a 40-minute call between Biden and Zelensky the previous Friday, during which they discussed “concrete defense assistance.”
Nick Paton Walsh, Natalie Gallon, Vasco Cotovio, Natasha Bertrand, Nathan Hodge, Richard Roth, Paul P. Murphy, Josh Pennington y Kaitlan Collins de CNN contribuyeron a este reporte.