February 25, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a new video message Friday morning, urging resistance to the Russian invasion and criticizing Ukraine's allies for the second time in just a few hours.

"Russia was hit with sanctions yesterday, but these are not enough to get these foreign troops off our soil. Only through solidarity and determination can this be achieved."

Zelensky added that the Ukrainian people are continuing to resist, "demonstrating real heroism. The enemy was stopped in most of the directions. There are fights going on ... We will not tire."

Zelensky opened his short address by saying it was the "second morning of the all-out war."

"In the sky over Kyiv (this morning), there was bombing. There was a fire at a residential apartment building. Such attacks on our capital haven’t occurred since 1941."

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a tweet Friday morning that three people were injured, one of whom is in critical condition “as a result of a wreckage from a rocket hitting residential building 7-A on Koshitsya Street.”

Ukrainians in the capital Kyiv huddled in air raid shelters Friday morning, as a battle for the city raged overhead and Ukrainian forces sought to hold back rapidly advancing Russian troops by blowing up a key bridge.

Last night, along with many others, Oleksiy Goncharenko went to Kyiv's police headquarters. He was there to pick up his rifle.

Goncharenko is not — and has never been — a military man. He is a member of Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, and one of the many civilians who responded to the call by Ukrainian authorities to get ready to defend the country from the Russian invasion.

“I'm not a professional soldier at all, but I can try and I can do my best and I will do it if Russian forces enter Kyiv,” he told CNN. 

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that 18,000 guns with ammunition have been distributed to reservists in the Kyiv region alone since the Russian invasion began early Thursday. 

Goncharenko is not a reservist or a member of the volunteer Territorial Defence Forces. In fact, as a member of the parliament, he is not allowed to join the defense forces, according to the Ukrainian law.

On Friday morning, Goncharenko packed a change of clothes, basic hygiene supplies, his documents, laptop and chargers and headed to the headquarters of his local defense battalion. He said volunteers as well as professional soldiers were assembling there. The professionals were in charge, making plans and telling them what to do. For now, the command is to stay put.

“We are probably the last reserves because, certainly, we are not very professional,” he said. “But part of our battalion, the most professional ones, they already engaged yesterday in the Hostomel Airport fightings,” he said. 

Goncharenko said he has two children — a 3-year-old and a 16-year-old son. His younger child has no idea about what is going on. The older one is, like everyone in this country right now, in shock. 

“It's hard for him. But he tries to be a man," he said.

The second day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began with the sound of explosions in Kyiv, the country's capital.

It's now mid-afternoon in the city. Here's what you need to know.

A fight for Kyiv: CNN reporters heard blasts in the capital early Friday, after the Biden administration warned that Russian forces which entered Ukraine through the Belarus border are just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the city.

Residents huddled into air raid shelters, as a Ukrainian official said cruise or ballistic missiles hit the city. There were reports of troops blowing up a bridge to stop an advance of Russian forces.

US intelligence officials are concerned that Kyiv could fall under Russian control within days, according to two sources familiar with the latest intelligence.

Ukraine boosts military: Some 18,000 guns with ammunition have been distributed to reservists in the Kyiv region alone since the invasion began early Thursday, according to Ukrainian authorities. 

The country has banned all male citizens from 18 to 60-years-old leaving the country as it mobilizes to fight Russia, according to the State Border Guard Service.

Death toll rises: Late Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that according to preliminary figures, 137 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the Russian attack began, and another 316 soldiers have been wounded. CNN has not been able to independently verify these figures. Early Friday, a Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet was shot down over Kyiv. 

Presidential target: Zelensky said late Thursday that Russian sabotage groups have entered Kyiv, that he is “target number 1” — and his family is "target number 2." He added he is staying in government quarters, and that Russia wanted to "destroy" the head of state.

Anti-war protests: Hundreds of people were arrested in cities across Russia for staging anti-war demonstrations on Thursday. Similar protests in support of Ukraine were held around the world, in New York, Paris, Berlin, London, and other international centers.

Sanctions: More financial measures have been unveiled across the West in response to Russia's invasion, including by the EU and President Joe Biden. Russia was also stripped of this year's Champions League final.

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Moscow is ready to send representatives to the Belarusian capital of Minsk to talk with Kyiv, according to a readout from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported. 

Minsk was chosen as a platform for the conversation, the readout added.

Remember: This comes with Ukraine under significant pressure, as Russian forces appear to be closing in on Kyiv. They have entered the Obolon district in the north of the city, just a few miles from its center, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

Pope Francis met with Moscow’s ambassador to the Vatican at the Russian embassy on Friday to express his concerns about the invasion of Ukraine.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni told CNN the Pope went to express his “concern about the war” in Ukraine and met with the ambassador for over an hour and half.

The visit is considered to be an unusual occurrence and is not in keeping with normal protocols.

Poland is seeing a large uptick in people crossing into the country from the Ukraine as people flee a Russian invasion, according to Stanisław Żaryn, spokesman for the minister of special services coordinator’s office. Żaryn said that over the last 24 hours, there has been “increased traffic on the border” and that “29,000 people passed through the border crossings from Ukraine.”

Speaking to Polish broadcaster Radio Plus, Żaryn said that about half of those crossing the border have said they are fleeing the war.

“These are people who must be considered as war refugees. These people will be accepted in Poland in accordance with all procedures,” he said.

Poland is preparing for a larger wave of refugees, with the Polish government getting ready to accommodate them by setting up reception centers near the border to help process those arriving from Ukraine.

Germany's Defense Ministry on Friday said it has expanded its support of NATO's air-policing mission in Romania.

''We have already stepped up Air Policing in Romania to secure the airspace on NATO's south eastern flank - to up to six Eurofighters by the end of March,'' the defense ministry tweeted, adding ''in mixed operations with Italy they will perform armed protection flights as 'Quick Reaction Alert.'”

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that Germany intended to expand its support of the Romania mission and also to comply with further requests from the alliance.

Earlier this month, Germany sent three combat aircraft to participate in the NATO mission to protect Romanian airspace. Germany also recently deployed 350 additional troops to Lithuania as part of its NATO engagement — in addition to its 550 troops that are part of the German-led NATO combat unit.

A "counter-offensive" is underway in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, the Russian defense ministry's spokesperson said Friday, claiming Ukrainian servicemembers had surrendered to Russian troops and pro-Russian separatists.

CNN could not immediately check the veracity of those claims.

"Groupings of troops of the DPR and LPR [the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics] continue counter-offensive operations against units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with fire support from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," Igor Konashenkov said. "Troops of the DPR ... advanced one more kilometer deep into the defense of the nationalist [Ukrainian] battalions in the Volnovakha direction."

Konashenkov also claimed advances by Russian and separatist forces in the area of Stepovoye [Stepove] in the Luhansk region, and claimed without further evidence that 150 Ukrainian servicemembers had laid down their arms and surrendered in those operations.

Chernobyl taken: The Russian military also confirmed its airbone troops had taken control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ukrainian officials on Thursday confirmed that Russian forces had overtaken and seized control of the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

Konashenkov said background radiation in the area of the nuclear power plant was "normal." He claimed that the Chernobyl operation was organized so that "nationalist formations or other terrorist organizations will not be able to take advantage of the current situation in the country to organize a nuclear provocation."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made baseless claims about Ukraine's nuclear ambitions. The White House on Thursday condemned Russia for "holding staff of the Chernobyl facilities hostage."

Sanctions expected: The Russian government was expecting US and NATO allies to retaliate against the invasion of Ukraine with sanctions and says it will retaliate, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

“We were expecting it,” Peskov said. “Of course, responses will follow. The law of reciprocity will operate here.”

“But as to how symmetrical or asymmetrical they will be, it will depend on our analysis,” Peskov went on to say. “And our own interests. We will act solely on the basis of our own interests.”

The spokesman for the Kremlin also said he expects diplomatic relations with the global community to be fully restored, once there is widespread understanding of Russia’s motives.

“As soon as there is an understanding that this operation was necessary, an understanding of the inevitability of firm decisive actions on the part of Russia to ensure its security, one way or another, a period of normalization will come,” he said.

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko — armed and surrounded by defense forces — spoke with CNN this morning from the streets of Kyiv, saying that Ukrainians are ready to defend their country.

"Everybody should understand, [Russian President] Putin declared a war not for Ukraine. Putin declared a war to the whole world," he said.

He called the Russian president "simply mad."

Poroshenko said his battalion is about two to three kilometers (about 1.5 miles) from the fighting between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.

He said Ukraine needs the West's assistance, including sanctions, kicking Russia out of SWIFT — a high security messaging network that connects thousands of financial institutions around the world — and blocking Russian planes and ships in EU and NATO ports.

Poroshenko also thanked the United States and United Kingdom for providing defense weapons.

"This is important for us that we feel we are not alone, that you are together with us," he said.

The former president said Putin will never capture Ukraine.

"No matter how many soldiers he kills, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has, we Ukrainian[s] are free people with a great European future," he said.  

Watch the interview:

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Video: Former Ukrainian president armed in Kyiv - CNN Video