Zelenskiy expects Russian forces storm Kiev overnight

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he expected the Russian army will storm Kiev overnight, and called on the public to defend the capital.

“The fate of the country is being decided right now,” he said in a video message on his Telegram channel.

“The enemy will use all its forces to break our resistance,” he said, adding: “Tonight, they are setting out to storm Kiev.”

He called on Ukrainians to “stop the enemy wherever possible.”

Meanwhile, the Russian and Ukrainian governments on Friday signalled an openness to negotiations even as authorities in Kyiv urged citizens to help defend the capital from advancing Russian forces in the worst European security crisis in decades.

Ukraine and Russia will consult in coming hours on a time and place for talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s spokesman Sergii Nykyforov said on social media, offering the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy since the invasion began.

The Kremlin said earlier it offered to meet in the Belarusian capital Minsk after Ukraine expressed a willingness to discuss declaring itself a neutral country, but Ukraine had proposed Warsaw as the venue. That, according to Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov, resulted in a “pause” in contacts.

“Ukraine was and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace,” Nykyforov said in a post on Facebook. “We agreed to the proposal of the President of the Russian Federation.”

But U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Russia’s offer was an attempt to conduct diplomacy “at the barrel of a gun”, and that President Vladimir Putin’s military must stop bombing Ukraine if it was serious about negotiations.

The diplomatic overtures stood in stark contrast to events unfolding on the ground and Putin’s harsh rhetoric against Ukrainian leaders, including a call for a coup by the country’s military.

Kyiv residents were told by the defence ministry to make petrol bombs to repel the invaders, and on Friday evening witnesses reported hearing artillery rounds and intense gunfire from the western part of the city.

Zelenskiy filmed himself with aides on the streets of the capital, vowing to defend Ukraine’s independence.

(Reuters, dpa/NAN)