Russia-Ukraine live updates: Explosions heard in Kyiv as Ukrainian president says ‘enemy sabotage groups’ have entered capital

Russian forces are nearing Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, according to the Biden administration.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers Thursday evening that the Kremlin’s mechanized forces deployed from Belarus were 20 miles from Kyiv. He also said Washington was examining ways to provide Ukraine with more defensive equipment. Axios first reported on Austin’s briefing.

The European Union approved a second round of sanctions on Russia Friday, joining the United States and other allies in targeting the country’s economy over its attack on Ukraine.

The package takes aim at a range of sectors including finance, transport and energy. It imposes export controls, includes new visa measures and adds more Russians to a sanctions list.

“The package of massive and targeted sanctions European leaders approved tonight clearly demonstrates that it will have maximum impact on the Russian economy and the political elite," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a news conference early Friday.

“Our unity is our strength,” she said. “The Kremlin knows this. And it has tried its best to divide us but it has utterly failed.”

More details are expected Friday. But in a series of tweets, von der Leyen said that the sanctions would affect everything from Russia’s ability to upgrade its oil refineries to the ability of businessmen and diplomats to obtain visas.

She said that the sanctions target 70 percent of the Russian banking market and ban the sale of aircraft to Russian airlines.

One question going into the talks was whether the E.U. would heed calls from eastern European countries to cut Russia off from the Swift global payment system. However, President Joe Biden said Thursday Swift was not part of the plan because, “that’s not the position the rest of Europe chooses to take” — suggesting they were overruled.

European leaders have warned for weeks of devastating sanctions, but have been divided on when and how to proceed. Some countries initially hoped to deter a Russian invasion by hitting the country with one big sanctions package, others pressed for an incremental approach.

There has also been public disagreement about whether certain sectors, such as energy, should be excluded because of the potential economic impact on Europe. However, the sight of tanks rolling into eastern Ukraine seemed to quiet the chatter.

On Tuesday, the E.U. announced a first round of penalties that targeted Kremlin officials, lawmakers, three banks and also restricted Russian access to E.U. financial and capital markets.

Putin invaded anyway, sending the bloc scrambling for next steps.

E.U. officials promised that the second tranche would be a tougher blow.

“These events mark the beginning of a new era. Putin is trying to subjugate a friendly European country. He is trying to redraw the map of Europe by force. He must and he will fail,” von der Leyen said.

“This is now a critical moment for the history of the European Union, the history of Europe,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters ahead of meetings Thursday. “The whole free world is looking at us.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview Thursday evening that he is “convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin aims to overthrow the Ukrainian government.

Russia is targeting Kyiv, the seat of the Ukrainian government, an effort U.S. officials have anticipated, Blinken told David Muir on ABC’s “World News Tonight.” Blinken estimated that Putin had planned the strike “for a long time.”

Referring to Article 5 of the NATO pact guaranteeing mutual defense of its members, Blinken told NBC host Lester Holt that allies were prepared to deter Russian aggression on NATO’s eastern flank, although Blinken said he believed the Russian president’s ambitions were in Kyiv.

“It’s much bigger than NATO,” Blinken said. “This is all about trying to get Ukraine back into his orbit, to reconstitute, if he could, something approximating the Soviet empire or short of that, re-exerting his sphere of influence to subjugate countries on his borders to his will — that’s what’s going on.”

Experts have estimated that the Russian fronts aim to overtake Kyiv, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “enemy sabotage groups” had already entered the capital.

U.S. Army Gen. George Joulwan, a former allied commander in Europe, told CNN he expects Russian forces to encircle the city within 24 to 48 hours.

“They’re not going to stop,” Joulwan said. “They’re going to go day and night, and I think the target is Kyiv.”

The United States is prepared to accept Ukrainian refugees fleeing the ongoing Russian invasion that could displace millions, the White House said.

A majority of those leaving the country under fire will probably seek asylum in neighboring European countries, press secretary Jen Psaki said during media Thursday’s briefing, adding that the administration was working with countries accepting an influx of Ukrainians.

Poland, for instance, is expected to receive 1 million people arriving from Ukraine. As of Thursday, Moldova and other nations had set up centers to provide assistance to those crossing their borders.

Although refugees are likely to flee to neighboring European countries, Democratic governors in the United States said they would welcome refugees. New York officials said those who have fled Ukraine could resettle there in months and the state would follow federal direction then. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, in a video message Thursday, noted that 11,000 Ukrainians live in his state and said his administration would offer to take in refugees.

Russian forces on Thursday captured Ukraine’s Snake Island, killing all of the service members defending the territory in the northwestern Black Sea, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Also known as Zmiinyi, the tiny, rocky landmass — of some 42 acres — lies some 185 miles west of Crimea, to the country’s south. With fewer than 100 inhabitants, the island marks Ukraine’s territorial waters — giving it a strategic role within the Black Sea by connecting the shipping corridor to the Ukrainian port cities of Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson.

Throughout much of Thursday, a group of some 13 border guards had attempted to protect the island, Zelensky said in a televised address. All were killed and will be honored posthumously.

The soldiers became a symbol of Ukraine’s defiance and courage after news of their encounter with a Russian fleet made rounds across social media.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said Russian forces told the island’s Ukrainian garrison to surrender “to avoid bloodshed,” according to the audio he posted.

The soldiers refused and a deadly artillery strike soon followed.

MOSCOW — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainians in a video address that he was remaining in the government headquarters in Kyiv, the nation’s capital, even though enemy saboteurs had entered the city and “according to our information, the enemy has identified me as the number one target.”

“They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” Zelensky said in a video address in the early hours of the morning. His family, he said, was the No. 2 target, but they also remained in Ukraine.

“My family is not traitors, but citizens of Ukraine. But I have no right to say where they are now,” Zelensky added.

He said enemy “sabotage groups” had infiltrated the city, and that NATO and Europe had left Ukraine alone to defend itself against the Russian onslaught.

“We’re alone for defense of our country. Who will fight along with us now? To be honest, I see no one.”

Zelensky said 137 Ukrainians had died fighting Russians in the first day of the invasion, including 13 border guards who were confronted by a Russian naval ship and ordered to give up or face an attack.

The men refused and were killed, he said, adding that they would be given posthumous medals for bravery.

Zelensky said he remained in government headquarters “with everyone who is needed for the work of the central government.”

The president said Ukraine was “not afraid to talk about neutral status. We are not in NATO now. But what guarantees will we have? And most importantly, which countries will give them to us?”

In the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest and a mere 25 miles from the Russian border, hundreds of residents huddled together in underground metro stations. Russian artillery sporadically thundered above.

Kharkiv was long considered a likely target for the Russians because of the city’s proximity to the border and its majority Russian-speaking population. But some people were still confused by the sound of blasts in the morning.

Inside one subway station, people lined the walls and sat along the stairwell. Trains sat on both sides of the platform with the doors open. People unrolled yoga mats and blankets on the floor. Children played games on phones while adults refreshed the latest news. Some people had strollers, suitcases and pets with them. Others had very few belongings.

Oksana Nipogodneyeva, 46, said it was as if she “woke up in another reality.” She expected to spend the night on the metro station floor with her mother and two daughters.

“The people who call us a brotherly country are committing these actions,” she added. “It’s some kind of betrayal and you just can’t understand it.”

Thousands of soldiers from an armored brigade combat team based at Fort Stewart in Georgia will deploy to Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, defense officials said Thursday.

The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, is expected to deploy to Germany, as the Pentagon sends other U.S. troops to Eastern Europe to bolster security there, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements. The unit includes tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, logistics and engineering, among other capabilities.

The brigade, numbering more than 4,400, will deploy as part of a larger force of 7,000 that the Pentagon announced Thursday after President Biden addressed the crisis at the White House.

The additional forces will boost to more than 12,000 the total number of forces that have deployed to Europe since the crisis with Russia began, a senior defense official said. They joined between 80,000 and 90,000 U.S. service members who already were stationed in Europe either on land or at sea.

The Biden administration has redeployed more than 2,000 troops in Europe farther east as part of its response to Russia’s actions, sending some to the Baltic states and others to Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.