Russia invades Ukraine: LIVE UPDATES
Street fighting has broken out in Kyiv as the Russian military closes in on the capital. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that the "fate of Ukraine is being decided now."
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation via his smartphone in the center of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday turned down an offer from the U.S. to help him evacuate the country.
“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” the 44-year-old leader said, according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation.
Zelenskyy has vowed to stay in Kyiv even though he believes he is Russia's "target number one." Saturday morning he filmed himself on his phone on the streets of Kyiv, saying "I am here. We will be defending our country, because our strength is in our truth."
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A family sits in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday. (AP/Emilio Morenatti)
As Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vows to remain in his country and continue the fight in Kyiv and other areas against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, Fox News Digital is receiving passionate pleas from faith leaders across the U.S. for the aggression to stop and for peace to reign.
Santiago "Jimmy" Mellado, CEO and president of Compassion International based in Colorado Springs, Colo., told Fox News Digital in an emailed comment late Friday, "Every time there is suffering, babies and children pay the highest price."
Compassion International is a Christian child development organization that "works to release children from poverty in Jesus' name," the group says in its mission statements.
Santiago also told Fox News Digital, "With another conflict now tragically added to the active wars in our world, I invite us all to pray for the children and families caught in the middle."
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Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan reports from Kyiv, Ukraine, where small arms battles took place overnight.
Firefighters work by a damaged apartment building in Kyiv that was hit by a recent shelling on Saturday.
Photos and videos of Ukraine's capital show an ongoing effort by Russian military forces to edge toward Kyiv and take control of the city while its residents stand ready to defend their democracy.
Residents of Kyiv were encouraged to shelter underground in the city's train tunnels as explosions and street fighting took place overnight into Saturday morning, marking the third day of fighting as Russia attempts to take control of the Ukrainian government.
"The fights are ongoing in many cities and districts of our country, but we know that we are defending our county, land, future of our children. Kyiv and the key towns around our capital are being controlled by our army," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Saturday address.
Zelensky added that Russia "used all their force" against Ukraine on Friday into Saturday morning, including "missiles, jet fighters, drones, artillery, armored equipment, saboteurs, paratroopers."
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will ban the passage of Russian warships to the Black Sea, Zelenskyy announced Saturday.
Zelenskyy hailed the decision as “significant military and humanitarian support for Ukraine.”
“The people of Ukraine will never forget that!” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.
Russia had moved to block off part of the Black Sea in what it claimed was a “counter-terrorism operation” in Ukrainian waters.
Ukraine Member of Parliament Kira Rudik said multiple Russian attempts to break Kyiv's defense were stopped Saturday, and she promised "more surprises" for Russian President Vladimir Putin's army.
Rudik also said U.S. sanctions on Russia came "very, very late."
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to hold a call with the White House national security team Saturday at 10 a.m. ET.
Biden will participate from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, after he departed the White House Friday.
Late Friday, Biden authorized $350 million more in U.S. defense aid to Ukraine.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev speaks, in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday. (Yekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP)
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev posted on social media Saturday that "we don't especially need diplomatic relations... It's time to padlock the embassies and continue contacts looking at each other through binoculars and gun sights," according to Reuters.
"The sanctions are being imposed for one simple reason -- political impotence arising from their [the West's] inability to change Russia's course," Medvedev reportedly wrote on his VK network page, apparently shrugging off the economic measures that have been imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Medvedev also said the sanctions give the Kremlin a good reason to pull out of dialogue on nuclear stability and that Russia's suspension from the Council of Europe human rights watchdog gives it an opportunity to restore the death penalty for criminals, Reuters reports.
A Polish border guard assists refugees from Ukraine as they arrive to Poland at the Korczowa border crossing on Saturday. (AP/Czarek Sokolowski)
Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled Ukraine for neighboring European countries as the third day of Russia’s full-scale invasion intensifies with fighting in the capital Kyiv.
The conflict has already driven nearly 120,000 Ukrainians from their homes and across its borders to Poland, Moldova, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, the United Nations refugee agency said Saturday.
"Almost 116,000 have crossed international borders as of right now. This may go up, it’s changing every minute," said Shabia Mantoo, the spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "It’s very fluid and changing by the hour."
Mantoo added that some refugees have even fled into Belarus, where some Russian troops had were stationed before entering Ukraine days earlier.
The U.N. estimates that up to 4 million people could flee Ukraine if the fighting with Russian forces escalates.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Saturday that he has "authorized, pursuant to a delegation by the President, an unprecedented third Presidential Drawdown of up to $350 million for immediate support to Ukraine’s defense."
"This brings the total security assistance the United States has committed to Ukraine over the past year to more than $1 billion," he added in a statement.
"This package will include further lethal defensive assistance to help Ukraine address the armored, airborne, and other threats it is now facing," Blinken continued. "It is another clear signal that the United States stands with the people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereign, courageous, and proud nation."
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A Los Angeles Times reporter has captured videos showing the insides of an apartment building in Kyiv that was struck by a rocket Saturday morning.
The center of Moscow is full of police and vans in anticipation of protests that may well not happen today as people get stopped for even trying to put up a piece of paper with an anti-war message in some cases, Fox News’ Amy Kellogg reports.
Russia’s state media watchdog has made a list of independent news organizations and has forbidden them from using the words “war” and “invasion” in their coverage.
Western coverage of the war is also being heavily criticized. One show ran with lots of video of Ukrainians said to have handed over their arms and surrendered. They were shown unharmed, fed, given water and being put on clean buses home to their families.
According to Russian TV, there are also no Russian saboteurs in Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video to social media on Saturday morning showing himself walking around the streets of Kyiv after a night of artillery fire in different parts of the city, telling the nation "I'm here." (Credit: President of Ukraine)
Kyiv remains under Ukrainian control as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refuses to leave his country on the third day of Russia’s invasion.
Russia started its advance into the capital city Friday night but appeared to make limited progress until early Saturday morning local time when gunfire could be heard in the city center. Government officials urged people to seek shelter and avoid going near windows or out onto balconies.
A British intelligence report Saturday claimed the bulk of Russian forces are now 18.5 miles from the capital city and that Russia has failed to gain control of the airspace over Ukraine, greatly reducing the Russian Air Force’s impact and potentially leveling the fight.
"Russian casualties are likely to be heavy and greater than anticipated or acknowledged by the Kremlin," the report from the British Ministry of Defense said.
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Posts from Russian state media outlets will be flagged as well.
Estonia's prime minister announced Saturday that the country is banning Russian airlines from operating within its airspace.
"We invite all European Union countries to do the same," Kaja Kallas said in a tweet. "There is no place for planes of the aggressor state in democratic skies."
Russia's military activity in Ukraine. (Fox News)
Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry has announced that a Russian missile was shot down before dawn Saturday as it headed for the dam of the sprawling water reservoir that serves Kyiv.
“If the dam is destroyed, the flooding will cause catastrophic casualties and losses - including flooding of residential areas of Kyiv and its suburbs,” the ministry said.
The mayor of a city south of the Ukrainian capital also said the country’s military has fended off a Russian attempt to take control of a military air base.
Natalia Balansynovych, the mayor of Vasylkiv, about 25 miles south of Kyiv, said Russian airborne forces landed near the city overnight and tried to seize the base. She said fierce fighting also raged on Vasylkiv’s central street.
She added that Ukrainian forces repelled the Russian attacks, and that the situation is now calm. Balansynovych said there were heavy casualties, but didn’t give any numbers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A toy amongst the debris near an apartment building damaged following a rocket attack, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. (AP/Emilio Morenatti)
Ukraine's Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said Saturday that three children are among the 198 killed so far in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It was not immediately clear whether that number includes casualties from Ukraine's armed forces fighting the Russian army.
The conflict also has left 1,115 people -- 33 of which are children -- wounded, the Associated Press reported, citing Lyashko.
A Ukrainian soldier investigates debris of a burnt military truck in a street in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. (AP/Efrem Lukatsky)
Kyiv's metro system announced Saturday that it is shutting down services in order to become a shelter for residents of Ukraine's capital.
"Warning! The subway went into shelter. There will be no transportation," read a tweet from Kyiv Metro.
The system has three lines and 52 stations, with the centrally-located Arsenalna station being around 344 feet underground -- making it one of the deepest in the world.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told him in a call that he supports ousting Russian President Vladimir Putin from the SWIFT banking system.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said Cyprus had confirmed it wouldn't block a decision to ban Russia from SWIFT.
The U.S. and its allies are considering the step in a further round of sanctions.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday he had spoken to European Union President Ursula von der Leyen about "effective assistance" for the besieged country.
"Ukraine is fighting the invader with weapons in hands, defending its freedom and European future," he tweeted. "Discussed with @vonderleyen effective assistance to our country from EU in this heroic struggle. I believe that the #EU also chooses Ukraine."
Kira Rudik, a member of Ukraine's parliament and the leader of the Voice party, said she is ready to fight for her country Friday as Russian troops closed in on the capital.
"I learn to use #Kalashnikov [rifle] and prepare to bear arms," she tweeted. "It sounds surreal as just a few days ago it would never come to my mind. Our #women will protect our soil the same way as our #men. Go #Ukraine!"
She said if someone would have asked her about using a gun to defend herself three days ago, "I would tell you like 'definite no' and we would have an argument or something like that. And then I had to wake up at 5 a.m. because there were attacks ... and it was the first siren and first bomb shelter in my life." She told MSNBC she had to then vote for martial law in her country and after that lawmakers asked for and received guns from the military.
She said it's hard to believe what has happened in her country, but at some point "you just say like 'I'm not going anywhere."
She also praised Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to leave Ukraine.
“He is acting in Ukraine’s best interests. He didn’t flee. He isn’t scared." She joked that since she's from the opposition party, "I normally criticize the hell out of him.”
"There was always a question what would be the force that would stop #Putin," she tweeted later. "We thought it would be some great #unity of great #countries, and it will take ages to put together. But it was us. It was always us from the very beginning. So proud of #Ukrainian army and people!"
After filming himself in Kyiv Saturday morning following Russian troops storming the capital overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that it's a "crucial" moment to decide "once and for all" on whether Ukraine can join the European Union.
He said he had discussed "further effective assistance and the heroic struggle of Ukrainians for their free future" with Charles Michel, president of the European Council.
Liquor stores across the U.S. and Canada have started throwing out their stocks of Russian vodka in protest of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to reports.
In Ontario, Canada, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy directed the provincial Liquor Control Board to have stores remove Russian vodka and other alcoholic products, according to the Canadian Press.
"Ontario joins Canada's allies in condemning the Russian government's act of aggression against the Ukrainian people and we strongly support the federal government's efforts to sanction the Russian government," Bethlenfalvy said. "We will continue to be there for the Ukrainian people during this extremely difficult time."
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A high-rise apartment building in Kyiv was hit by a missile, Ukraine's government said Saturday. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said Saturday morning a high-rise apartment building in Kyiv was hit during overnight fighting with Russian troops by a missile and around 80 residents were evacuated.
Two floors of apartment were gutted by the fire.
At least six civilians were injured in the attack, according to a rescue worker.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sviatoslav Yurash tells Laura Ingraham that Kyiv is a city of millions of people — and they are fighting back.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video to social media on Saturday morning showing himself walking around the streets of Kyiv after a night of artillery fire in different parts of the city, telling the nation "I'm here."
Zelenskyy said in a short video address to Ukrainians, "We will defend our country," and said that there's a lot of false information online.
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“The CCP’s repugnant support of Putin’s aggression is the clearest sign yet that the free world is fighting a new axis of tyrants," Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul said in a statement late Friday. "Instead of working to limit the bloodshed of innocent Ukrainians, General Secretary Xi Jinping stood shoulder to shoulder with Putin at the Olympics to unite against democracies and rebuffed attempts at peaceful solutions. It’s clear Xi and Putin are choosing violence instead of reason and cannot be trusted. Cooperating with thugs in supposed areas of mutual interest is not realistic and has no place in a serious U.S. policy towards China."
McCaul continued, "President Reagan was correct that “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction” and the United States and our allies and partners must decide our place in history."
"Do not believe in fake information," Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media after the sun came up in Kyiv on Saturday morning. "I am here. We will be defending our country, because our strength is in our truth."
"We will be defending our country," he added.
Zelenskyy's post comes after loud explosions and intense gunfights broke out in Kyiv overnight as Russian troops reportedly entered the capital.
"A new day on the diplomatic frontline began with a conversation with @EmmanuelMacron," Zelenskyy added in a Twitter post. "Weapons and equipment from our partners are on the way to Ukraine. The anti-war coalition is working!"
Click here for Fox News’ earlier coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv officials are warning residents that street fighting is underway against Russian forces, and they are urging people to seek shelter.
The warning issued Saturday advised residents to remain in shelters, to avoid going near windows or on balconies, and to take precautions against being hit by debris or bullets.
"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the following authorities, subject to fulfilling the requirements of section 614(a)(3) and section 652 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), in order to provide immediate military assistance to Ukraine," Biden announced on the White House website late Friday night.
This authorizes $350 million to provide immediate military assistance to Ukraine, in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, and to make the determinations required under such section to direct such a drawdown.
Earlier in the day, the White House asked Congress for $6.4 billion for humanitarian assistance for Ukraine and NATO Allies, as well as efforts to counter Russia’s cyber-attacks and misinformation in the region.
"As the President and bipartisan members of Congress have made clear, the United States is committed to supporting the Ukrainian people as they defend their country and democracy," an OMB official told Fox News.
"In a recent conversation with lawmakers, the Administration identified the need for additional U.S. humanitarian, security, and economic assistance to Ukraine and Central European partners due to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion.
The Administration will continue to closely coordinate with our European allies and partners to assess on-the-ground needs, and remain in close touch with Congress as these needs evolve.”
Fox has been told that some of the money could be stuffed into the pending omnibus spending bill but that most of the funds would fall into President Biden's budget.
Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report
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