Russia-Ukraine live updates: As Russian forces press closer to Kyiv, more than 50,000 flee Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine — Several blasts could be heard from central Kyiv starting after 8 p.m. local time Friday, with the sound of sporadic gunfire ringing out in the distance. This marks the first time The Washington Post has heard gunfire from Ukraine’s capital in recent days.

A louder blast appeared to strike at 8:51 p.m. local time.

Most civilians remained indoors, with many sheltered in underground bunkers, basements or parking garages to try to protect themselves. Concerns continued to mount over the possibility that Russian forces could soon close in on the capital.

Russia launched an extensive assault on Ukraine on Thursday, after months of denying that it would do so. Invading forces hit several Ukrainian towns and cities, closed in on Kyiv, and captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the scene of a 1986 disaster. Casualties mounted, thousands under siege tried to flee or hunkered down, and protests were underway in several Russian cities.

President Biden denounced the operations as “unprovoked and unjustified” and, on Thursday, announced an unprecedented package of sweeping sanctions and export controls coordinated with European and Asian allies to punish and isolate Russia.

“Putin is the aggressor,” Biden said at the White House. “Putin chose this war. And now, he and his country will bear the consequences.”

In photos, videos and maps, this is how the situation on the ground is unfolding, including reports from journalists for The Washington Post on the scene.

The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders said Friday that it had stopped administering aid in eastern Ukraine amid the crisis. The group said it had been treating HIV patients in Severodonetsk and others with tuberculosis in Zhytomyr, as well as seeking to improve health-care access in Donetsk.

“These programs have now mostly stopped — we did all we could to ensure some continuity of care for our patients,” the organization wrote on Twitter. “Needs were already high as people had been living through more than 7 years of conflict and we’re worried about the impact prolonged fighting could have on patients, many of whom are elderly and suffer from chronic diseases.”

Before Russia attacked, Doctors Without Borders said, the medical organization provided training at several hospitals in the Donetsk and Luhansk administrative regions in emergency medicine and surgical preparedness. The organization said it also provided a mass casualty kit to a hospital in Mariupol.

Teams in Belarus and Russia are still prepared to provide assistance there, the group said, and the organization is looking to send teams to be on standby in other neighboring countries. Doctors Without Borders supply centers are also preparing medical kits to dispatch, the organization said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video Friday in which he said he was among those continuing to defend the capital of Kyiv from falling during the Russian invasion.

In a video published to his official Telegram account, Zelensky is shown standing in front of the presidential administration building in Kyiv with a group of Ukrainian government officials. It’s unclear whether the video was recorded Thursday or Friday.

“Good evening, everyone,” he said, before introducing the officials around him, which include Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. “The president is here. We’re all here. Our military is here. The citizens and the society are here. We are all here, we’re defending our independence, our state, and we’ll keep on doing that.”

He added: “Glory to our men and women defenders. Glory to Ukraine!”

The men behind him said, “Glory to the heroes!”

U.S. officials have said recently that they think Russian forces will move on Kyiv and could take control of the city within a few days after launching an attack. Multiple current and former U.S. officials said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ultimate goal apparently is to topple the Ukrainian government by capturing or killing Zelensky.

As of Friday, Zelensky was still in Kyiv, according to a Ukrainian official not authorized to speak publicly.

Michael Birnbaum and Shane Harris contributed to this report.

Russia on Friday announced a “partial restriction” of access to Facebook after reporting the social media network had taken action against the accounts of several Kremlin-backed media outlets over their coverage of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russian Internet regulator Roskomnadzor demanded that Facebook lift the blocks placed Thursday on several outlets, including state news agency RIA Novosti and state TV network Zvezda, affiliated with the Ministry of Defense.

Roskomnadzor explained its move as “measures to protect the Russian media,” and along with the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office, accused Facebook of “violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian nationals.”

The “partial restriction” of Facebook takes immediate effect. However, the regulator did not provide details on what the measures would include.

Zvezda said Facebook imposed restrictions on its page after the posting of two news stories, “Russian Defense Ministry: Air Defense Forces of Ukraine Suppressed” and “The Russian Defense Ministry said that the military border services of Ukraine are not resisting.” The network said the restrictions relate to how Zvezda stories appeared, lower in the Facebook feeds so that fewer users can see them.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last year Roskomnadzor slowed down the speed of Twitter, accusing the U.S. social media company of failing to remove what it considered banned content, leading to issues with accessing video and photos posted on the network.

Facebook, Twitter and other Western social media platforms are widely used by the Kremlin’s opponents, including Alexei Navalny, who has been jailed since January of last year upon returning to Russia after treatment for a poisoning attack in Siberia.

For several years, Russia and its Internet regulator tried to pressure foreign tech firms to comply with its increasingly strict rules on what it deems illegal content — particularly apps, websites, posts and videos related to demonstrations organized by Navalny or his network, which has been labeled as extremist in the country.

Google was fined nearly $100 million for these violations in December, the largest such penalty yet in the country.

Earlier this week, Roskomnadzor threatened media with hefty fines if they do not stick to “official Russian sources” in their coverage of the attack on Ukraine. Independent Russian outlets described it as an ominous move that could see their Web resources blocked in Russia, along with social networks.

The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was jolted by predawn explosions Friday as part of a full-scale Russian attack that Western officials say is aimed at toppling Ukraine’s government. At midmorning local time, large booms rattled the eastern city of Kharkiv.

The Russian offensive has been geographically widespread, hitting Ukraine from the eastern city of Luhansk to just outside the western city of Lviv, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

This post will update.

The European Broadcasting Union announced Friday that no Russian act will be allowed to appear in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest because of the invasion of Ukraine.

The EBU’s executive board made the decision after a recommendation from the Reference Group, the governing body of the Eurovision Song Contest, the agency said in a news release. The decision to ban Russian acts from appearing in this year’s competition was “based on the rules of the event and the values” of the agency, the EBU wrote.

“The decision reflects concern that, in light of the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine, the inclusion of a Russian entry in this year’s Contest would bring the competition into disrepute,” the agency wrote.

The Eurovision Song Contest, the self-described “world’s biggest live music event,” is a cultural phenomenon. The competition said 183 million viewers tuned in to watch the return of the show last May.

It isn’t the first time that Russian aggression toward Ukraine has affected the show. After Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Eurovision Song Contest organizers installed anti-booing technology to drown out boos from the audiences anytime a Russian act performed.

Radiation levels at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant site in Ukraine remain in a safe range after Russian forces captured the facility Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

The IAEA said Friday that readings reported by the regulator at the old Soviet site have measured up to 9.46 microSieverts per hour — a level the agency characterized as “low” for the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Those readings “remain within the operational range measured in the Exclusion Zone since it was established, and therefore do not pose any danger to the public,” said the IAEA, which promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Ukraine previously warned that radiation levels near Chernobyl “exceeded” control levels, while Russia insisted that levels remained “normal.” The IAEA on Friday said Ukraine’s regulatory authority had since said the high readings may have been caused by military vehicles stirring up soil contaminated from the 1986 explosions.

Also, Ukrainian officials reported that their nuclear reactors were operating safely, the agency said Friday.