Title: Russian troops advance on Kyiv as Ukrainian leader pleads for help

Feb 25, 2022 03:10AM ET

By: AnalysisWatch

On Friday, as Russian troops continued their offensive, missiles rained down on the Ukrainian capital, and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called on the international community to do keep on going, stating that the sanctions announced so far were not enough.

A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin's shocking invasion, a Russian plane was downed and crashed into a building, according to unconfirmed reports.

A senior Ukrainian official said Russian troops would attack areas outside Kyiv's capital later on Friday and that Ukrainian troops were standing their grounds on four fronts despite numerical superiority.

100,000 people escaped as explosions and gunfire startled major cities. Dozens of deaths are reported. As Russian troops advanced from Belarus towards the city, the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant was seized.

US and Ukrainian officials say Russia wants to seize Kyiv and overthrow the government, which Putin considers a US puppet.

Zelensky said he knew Russian troops were after him but promised to stay in Kyiv.

On Thursday, after Putin declared war, Russia launched an offensive on land, sea, and air, the biggest attack on a European country since World War II.

Putin claims Russia is conducting a special military operation to prevent the Ukrainian government from committing genocide against its own people—a charge the West calls unfounded. He also claims that Ukraine is an illegitimate state whose territory historically belongs to Russia.

Ukrainian troops shot down an enemy aircraft over Kyiv in the early hours of Friday morning, which then crashed into a residential building and set it on fire, said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister.