UKRAINE’S President has warned that tonight will be the “hardest night” for his country so far since the start of the conflict, in a chilling address to his nation.
Speaking from his bunker in besieged Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned: “The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now,” as he said the “enemy” would “go all in” tonight.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Friday night would be the ‘hardest’[/caption]
Kyiv faces a second night of Russian shelling[/caption]
An apartment block in Kyiv was struck by a Russian missile on Thursday night[/caption]
He warned Russia would storm Kyiv on Friday night in a “vile, cruel and inhuman” fashion.
“This night will be the hardest. The enemy will go all in. We must withstand. The night will be very hard, but sunset will come,” he said in a somber TV address.
He added: “This night will be harder than the day. Many cities of our state are under attack: Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, our boys and girls in the Donbas, the cities of the south, special attention to Kyiv.”
President Zelenskyy said starkly: “We can’t lose the capital.”
A defiant Zelenskyy said he was top of tyrant Vladimir Putin’s hitlist as he warned that Ukraine’s outgunned warriors faced a long and hard night.
But he warned bully Putin that Friday night would prove to be “very difficult” as Russia looks to use all available forces to break Ukraine’s resistance.
He told his nation in a stirring battle address: “We have to persevere tonight.”
It follows a similar warning from Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko that Friday night would be “very difficult” for the city of almost 3 million people.
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“The situation now – without exaggeration – is threatening for Kyiv,” he said. “The night, close to the morning, will be very difficult.”
Just before 12.30am Ukrainian time (10.30pm GMT), there were reports of gunfire in Kyiv.
Ukraine’s Defence Ministry has urged people in Kyiv to make their own petrol bombs to repel the Russian invaders.
More than 10,000 assault rifles have been handed out to ordinary citizens in the city as part of a last-ditch defence of the capital.
Ukrainians have pledged to fight to the death to defend their country, after President Zelenskyy urged his country’s military to “take power in your own hands”.
On Thursday night, 13 Ukrainian soldiers told a Russian warship to “go f*** themselves” as they made a heroic last stand.
Tasked with defending Snake Island in the Black Sea, the defiant border guards were ordered to surrender by a Russian warship.
But after receiving the ultimatum over the radio, the Ukrainian troops bravely responded: “Go f*** yourselves,” shortly before they were wiped out in an aerial bombardment.
A brave Ukrainian woman was also filmed confronting two Russian soldiers in the port city of Henichesk, less than 18 miles from the annexed territory of Crimea.
This night will be the hardest
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
After demanding to know “what the f***” the pair were doing in her country, she warned them they would die in Ukraine if they did not leave.
Russia has ramped up its efforts to seize control of Ukraine after making slower-than-expected progress on Wednesday and Thursday, allegedly killing civilians in the process.
Ukraine claims it has killed or captured 2,800 troops, destroyed 80 tanks, and shot down seven warplanes as their troops launched a bloody resistance against the Russians.
In another major blow for Putin’s Kyiv strike force on Friday night, Ukraine claimed to have shot down a Russian Ilyushin II-76 transport plane ferry troops into the Kyiv frontline.
The huge plane – which carries up to 60 people – was reported to have crashed in a fireball near the battlefront at Vasylkiv airbase, where fighting had been raging all day.
If verified, the attack could be the biggest single loss of life yet suffered by Russian invaders.
Ukraine armed forces general staff made the claim as Putin’s fighters struggled to find a foothold in Kyiv on the second day of the campaign.
Earlier on Friday, Russia was accused of bombing a nursery after pictures emerged showing the school in the eastern Ukrainian city of Okhtyrka “surrounded by bodies”.
Bodies of at least two adults were seen lying outside the “Sunshine” nursery in pools of blood as people crouched alongside them.
Ordinary Ukrainians have taken up arms to defend their country[/caption]
Some 10,000 assault rifles have been given to citizens in Kyiv[/caption]
On Thursday night, Kyiv was rocked by explosions[/caption]
The front of the building – which has a sandpit, play area, and slide – appears blown out with its shutters scattered on the ground.
Kyiv’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of war crimes and said his government was putting together a report which it would send to the Hague.
In another disturbing video, a Russian tank was filmed driving over a moving car in Kyiv, completely crushing it.
It reversed off the vehicle before ordinary people were able to prise the driver out of the flattened car using axes and other tools.
Miraculously, the elderly man behind the wheel survived the shocking incident.
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Elsewhere, a soldier blew himself up on a bridge to stop Russians storming in from Crimea.
And a viral video clip showed a fearless man walking up to armoured cars.
Fierce exchanges erupted through the day five miles north of Kyiv city centre as fighters engaged Russians arriving in attack helicopters.
Putin’s elite Spetsnaz troops backed by undercover assassins and armoured vehicles were reported to be locked in gun battles in Kyiv’s suburbs while the main Russian force lay in wait 30 miles north.
The UK’s Chief of Defence Intelligence Lt Gen Sir Jim Hockenhull warned Russia would continue its bombardment and encirclement today.
He said: “Russian forces continue to advance on two axes towards Kyiv. Their objective is to encircle the capital to secure control of the population and change the regime.”
A crazed Putin doubled-down on his verbal attacks on Friday, calling on the Ukrainians to turn on their “drug-addicted neo-Nazi” leaders or lay down their arms and go home.
Western intelligence sources confirmed that Russians were trying to encircle Kyiv but were being beaten back. A security source said: “The Ukrainians have done excellent work taking down bridges to slow them.
“Russia has largely not met its Day One objectives and its battleplan timings are slipping. The conflict is the choice of Putin, this is now not a war of choice, but one of necessity, so he has to win.
“He would resort to any means necessary. If we do end up with significant urban fighting I have a concern for the way Russia would use indiscriminate force.”