Russia-Ukraine live updates: Russian forces press closer to Kyiv; U.S. fears capital could fall soon

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday responded to President Biden’s suggestion that any country supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would be “stained by association” with a thinly veiled critique of the United States and its allies.

“Nations that will really have their reputations harmed are those that recklessly interfere in other country’s internal affairs and set off external wars under the banner of democracy and human rights,” ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

The invasion of Ukraine ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday is the biggest test yet for a growing alignment between Moscow and Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping has said the relationship has “no upper limit,” but his government has so far reacted cautiously to the fighting, steering a delicate path by being sympathetic to the Kremlin’s grievances without abandoning its long-held principle of noninterference.

China still considers the Ukraine to be a sovereign country and believes that the “door to a peaceful resolution is not fully shut,” Wang said during a regular briefing.

At the same time, he lashed out at the United States’ sweeping sanctions targeting Russia in response to the crisis, adding that China was always opposed to “illegal unilateral” sanctions outside of the United Nations framework.

“Since 2011, America has imposed sanctions on Russia more than 100 times. The facts show that sanctions have never been an effective solution for the root problem,” he said.

A rocket hit a residential building in the southern part of Kyiv early Friday. Many of the building’s windows were shattered, and debris fell to the ground. Several people were injured, including one who was in critical condition, according to the mayor’s office.

As Russian rockets struck the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early Friday morning, according to several Ukrainian officials, citizens continued to pack up their belongings, flee their homes and seek refuge at shelters across the country with their families and pets, as they faced a second day of conflict.

So far, 137 people have been killed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Friday. He said Russia’s rockets had targeted civilian and military areas “equally.” Photos showed some residences in the capital heavily damaged by the dawn strikes, leaving people devastated and homeless.

Photos showed others gathering at makeshift shelters in Kyiv’s subway network or in air raid shelters in the capital, which is home to about 3 million people.

Many are even seeking refuge abroad, with families seen crossing into Hungary all day Thursday.

The Washington Post verified videos of explosions over Kyiv early Friday morning, as the United States cautioned that the capital city could fall quickly.

The Post reviewed nine different clips from various angles of the explosions. Five are featured in the above video. The Post synchronized audio and visual cues in the videos to better understand the images circulating on various online platforms, and was able to confirm the location of two videos.

In a live stream beginning at approximately 4:19 a.m. local time, the sound of airplanes can be heard overhead. Around a minute later, according to another live stream, a flash of light appears briefly before a larger blast heard throughout the city lights up the sky. Audio of at least three separate explosions are captured in the videos. Debris and a spherical flame rain down toward the ground within 30 seconds. Streams of fire leave residue of smoke streaking the night sky. More video verified by The Post showed a building on Kyiv on fire sparked by what appeared to be rocket debris.

BELGOROD, Russia — In an attempt to justify Russian military action, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that the multipronged attack on Ukraine was meant to “demilitarize and denazify” the country so that the people could be free.

He also denied that there had been any attacks on civilian infrastructure or on military barracks as had been alleged by Ukraine’s president.

Speaking to representatives of Ukraine’s two Russian-aligned breakaway regions, Luhansk and Donetsk, Lavrov outlined why Russia had to invade its neighbor after months of saying it had no intentions of doing so.

“The decision on the operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine was made so that, freed from this oppression, Ukrainians could freely determine their own future,” he said from Moscow.

“No strikes are being conducted on civilian infrastructure,” he added. “No strikes are being made on the location of the personnel of the Ukrainian army in dormitories and other places that are not associated with shock military facilities.”

The U.N. office for human rights has reported at least 25 civilians killed and a 102 injured from shelling and airstrikes.

Lavrov slammed NATO and the European Union, accusing them of ignoring what he called Ukrainian plans to forcibly take over Donetsk and Luhansk — allegations Kyiv has repeatedly denied. Supposed Ukrainian threats to the breakaway regions have been described by the United States and its allies as false-flag operations to be used as a pretext for Russian invasion.

Lavrov, who maintains that the democratically elected government of Ukraine is actually a Western puppet and that many of its supporters are Nazis and a threat to Russia, complained of “abuses, constant shelling from the side of the Kyiv regime, which openly chose the path of Russophobia and genocide.”

The White House on Thursday expressed outrage over “credible” reports that Russian forces were holding the staff of the Chernobyl nuclear facilities hostage.

Ukrainian authorities had earlier said Russian forces captured the abandoned power plant, the scene of a 1986 meltdown that sent a radioactive cloud over parts of Europe and left a no man’s land of contaminated soil and other fallout, which remains dangerous.

“This unlawful and dangerous hostage-taking, which could upend the routine civil service efforts required to maintain and protect the nuclear waste facilities, is obviously incredibly alarming,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a news briefing, requesting the workers’ release.

“The Chernobyl zone — the exclusion zone — and all installations of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant have been taken under control of Russian armed groups,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in a televised statement. He said no casualties have yet been confirmed there.

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