Kyiv curfew extended as Russian troops pound on Ukrainian capital

The latest as of 9.30 a.m. ET Saturday:

French officials have seized a ship sailing under the Russian flag and suspected of belonging to a company sanctioned by the European Union

A curfew in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv has been extended as Russian troops continued to pound on several areas of the country for a third consecutive day.

The prolonged curfew will run from 5 p.m. until 8 a.m. and remain in effect until Monday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitchsko announced Saturday after a night of airstrikes and intense gun fighting rocked the city.

“All civilians on the street during the curfew will be considered members of the enemy’s sabotage and reconnaissance groups,” Klitschko said on Twitter.

Ignoring weeks of warnings from Western leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine on Thursday from the north, east and south.

Russia claims its assault on Ukraine is aimed only at military targets, but civilians have been killed and injured during Europe’s largest ground war since World War Two.

As of Saturday, at least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, had been killed in the Russian invasion and 1,115 people were wounded, according to Ukraine’s Healthy Ministry.

The conflict has forced more than 120,000 Ukrainians to flee their homes for Poland, Moldova and other neighbouring countries, United Nations officials said.

Fighting was underway on Saturday near the southern Ukrainian cities of Mariupol, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa, an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s office said. The military said Russian cruise missiles had also launched from the Black Sea.

Kyiv remains a key target, with Ukraine and the West saying that Vladimir Putin aims to topple the Ukrainian government by force.

Heavy fighting was reported across the capital early Saturday, with explosions and artillery blasts heard in several neighbourhoods and on the outskirts of the city before the sun rose.

Kyiv’s government shared a picture of damage to what it said was a residential building in the Solomianskyi district of the city. The state emergency agency said there were no casualties.

However, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the capital remained in the hands of Ukrainian forces who were able to resist the Russian advance.

“We have withstood and are successfully repelling enemy attacks. The fighting goes on,” Zelenskiyy said in a video message posted on his social media.

“We will win,” he said, accusing Russia of hitting infrastructure and civilian targets.

Both Putin and Zelenskyy spoke of possible talks on Friday.

Zelenskyy’s press department told Global News that the president is still open to negotiating with Putin.

“He is ready to negotiate. He wants peace through negotiations, not death,” a spokesperson from Zelenskyy’s office said.

However, the Kremlin said Russian troops started advancing into Ukraine again on Saturday after Putin paused the offensive a day earlier in anticipation of talks with Kyiv that never happened.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitriy Peskov said that after Putin’s order Russian troops only clashed with “groups of nationalists” as opposed to regular Ukrainian forces.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed its troops had taken control of the city of Melitopol in Ukraine’s southeast, where intense fighting had been reported earlier Saturday. Ukraine has yet to verify the claim.

— with files from Crystal Goomansingh, Reuters and the Associated Press 

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