LATEST HEADLINES

• Russia is ready to send a delegation to Belarusian capital Minsk for talks with Ukraine, a Kremlin spokesman said. 

• Russia's defense ministry said it had captured a key airfield just outside Kyiv, with the capital now "blocked from the west." 

• Kyiv city council warned residents of the Obolon district, near an airbase seized on Thursday by Russian paratroopers, to stay indoors because of "the approach of active hostilities."

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia's military operations were not only an aggression, but the beginning of a war against Europe. 

• Ukrainian officials said a Russian aircraft had been shot down and crashed into a building in Kyiv... 

• …however, a Russian defense ministry source said the aircraft was a Ukrainian fighter jet hit by friendly fire.

• The governor of Russia's southern Belgorod province said that seven residential buildings in the region had been damaged by shelling from Ukraine.

• Witnesses reported loud explosions in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, close to Russia's border. 

• Tens of thousands of people have fled the major cities, with Ukrainians fleeing into neighboring Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. 

• Poland's deputy interior minister said conscription-age men were being held back at the border by Ukrainian authorities.

• Ukraine wants peace and is ready for talks with Russia, including on neutral status regarding NATO, a Ukrainian presidential advisor said. 

• Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would be ready to hold talks with Kyiv – if Ukraine's military laid down its arms. 

• Lavrov said Russia wants the Ukrainian people to be independent and have the possibility to freely define their destiny. 

• Russian-backed separatist leaders expect their troops to move outwards to the borders of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions very soon.

• Ukraine's nuclear agency and interior ministry is recording increased radiation levels from the site of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 

• Russia will impose retaliatory sanctions on Western nations.

MORE DETAILS

Missiles pounded Ukraine's capital on Friday as Russian forces continued to advance and authorities in Kyiv said they were preparing for an assault aimed at overthrowing the government.

Russia is ready to send a delegation to the Belarusian capital Minsk for talks with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Peskov told Russian news agencies that Moscow was willing to send a delegation including foreign and defense ministry officials.

Russia's defense ministry announced it had captured a key airfield just outside Kyiv, with the capital now "blocked from the west." The Hostomel airfield was captured with more than 200 Ukrainian special forces nationalists killed and no Russian casualties, said the ministry, with more than 200 Russian helicopters and a landing force involved in the operation. 

A senior Ukrainian official said Russian forces would enter areas just outside the capital later on Friday and that Ukrainian troops were defending positions on four fronts despite being outnumbered.

Kyiv city council warned residents of the Obolon district, near an airbase seized on Thursday by Russian paratroopers, to stay indoors because of "the approach of active hostilities."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia's military operations were not only an aggression, but the beginning of a war against Europe. In his latest video speech, he also criticized aid from European countries for being too slow.

Addressing the Russian population in Russian at the end of a televised speech, Zelenskyy compared the bombing of Kyiv to Nazi Germany's attacks during World War II. "This is reminiscent of 1941," Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian aircraft had been shot down and crashed into a building in Kyiv overnight, setting it ablaze and injuring eight people. However, Russia denied carrying out missile strikes on the capital, according to Russian news agencies citing a defense ministry source saying the aircraft downed was a Ukrainian fighter jet hit by friendly fire.

Windows were blasted out of a 10-story apartment block near Kyiv's main airport, where a two-meter crater filled with rubble showed where a shell had struck before dawn. A policeman said people were injured there but not killed.

The governor of Russia's southern Belgorod province said that seven residential buildings in the region had been damaged by shelling from Ukraine, Russia's RIA news agency reported. 

Witnesses said loud explosions could be heard in Kharkiv – Ukraine's second-biggest city, close to Russia's border. Its mayor urged residents to head to subway stations, bomb shelters and basements. Air raid sirens sounded over Lviv in the west, and authorities reported heavy fighting in the eastern city of Sumy.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the major cities, with Ukrainians were fleeing into neighboring Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia – mostly women and children, after Kyiv restricted passage for men between 18 and 60 years old. 

Poland's deputy interior minister Pawel Szefernaker said Ukrainian bus drivers were unable to drive across the border as conscription-age men were being held back in Ukraine.

Ukraine wants peace and is ready for talks with Russia, including on neutral status regarding NATO, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said. "If talks are possible, they should be held. If in Moscow they say they want to hold talks, including on neutral status, we are not afraid of this," he said. "We can talk about that as well… Our readiness for dialogue is part of our persistent pursuit of peace." 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would be ready to hold talks with Kyiv, but only once Ukraine's military had laid down its arms. He said Russia sees no possibility of recognizing the current Ukrainian government as democratic, saying that Moscow did not want "neo-Nazis" to govern Ukraine. 

Lavrov said Russia wants the Ukrainian people to be independent and have the possibility to freely define their destiny. Lavrov accused Zelenskyy of lying when he said he was ready to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine. 

Russian-backed separatist leaders expect their troops to move outwards to the borders of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions very soon, Russian news agencies quoted separatist leaders as saying. The separatists – whose independence Moscow recognized earlier this week – currently control only parts of those provinces.

Ukraine's nuclear agency and interior ministry said on Friday they were recording increased radiation levels from the site of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Experts at the state nuclear agency did not provide exact radiation levels but said the change was due to the movement of heavy military equipment in the area lifting radioactive dust into the air. 

"Radiation starts to increase. It is not critical for Kyiv for the time being, but we are monitoring," the interior ministry said. The still-radioactive site of the 1986 nuclear disaster is around 100 kilometers from Kyiv.

Ukraine's neighbor Poland said it had not recorded any increase in radiation levels on its territory. Russia will impose retaliatory sanctions on Western nations on the basis of reciprocity, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. 

Russia's TASS news agency quoted upper house speaker Valentina Matvienko, a member of Russia's security council, as saying that Moscow knows the West's weaknesses in regards to sanctions.
Peskov said sanctions would cause problems for Russia but they would be solvable, as it had reduced its dependence on foreign imports.