Russia-Ukraine live updates: Ukraine fights to hold Kyiv amid street battles, gunfire and explosions

Ukrainian forces say they are still in control of their capital, Kyiv, early Saturday after a night in which many citizens sought refuge from Russian airstrikes in subway stations and air raid shelters — many among them children.

Others continued to flee abroad, with images showing people crossing borders into Slovakia, Hungary and other neighboring countries.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said early Saturday that about 35 people, including two children, were wounded during a “difficult” night in the capital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the fate of his nation was “being decided right now,” and at daybreak, he posted a video of himself, unshaven, on the streets — proof of his apparent commitment to remain in Ukraine, even as Western officials warn about the possibility of his being captured or killed.

Moscow has a substantial advantage in military power over Ukraine, and Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday claimed it had taken control of Melitopol — a city of 150,000 north of the annexed peninsula of Crimea.

Some Ukrainians have picked up arms and created improvised weaponry including molotov cocktails as Ukraine accuses Russia of targeting civilian infrastructure, which the Kremlin denies.

The United States and its European allies are turning to the United Nations General Assembly after Russia vetoed a U.S.-backed Security Council resolution condemning the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter late Friday that the United States would pursue the matter in the General Assembly, “where the nations of the world can, will, and should hold Russia accountable and stand.”

“We will work to put forward a General Assembly resolution to demand immediate withdrawal of Russian forces,” the European Union delegation at the United Nations said after the veto.

Eleven of the Security Council’s 15 members voted in favor of the resolution, while the United Arab Emirates, India and China abstained — a result that the United States said was proof of Russia’s diplomatic isolation following its assault on Ukraine. Russia is one of the five permanent members of the council with veto power.

A resolution in support of Ukraine can still pass in the 193-member General Assembly, where no member state has a veto. During rare occasions such as the Korean War, member states have sought to bypass vetoes in the Security Council by seeking approval from the wider body, Park In-kook, former South Korean ambassador to the United Nations, said in a phone interview.

The procedure has been invoked after both U.S. and Russian vetoes.

If the United States succeeds in getting the General Assembly to pass a resolution in support of Ukraine, it would boost the diplomatic legitimacy of Western criticism of Moscow’s invasion, Park said.

Ukraine’s health minister marked a rising death toll in an update posted Saturday morning on Facebook. The minister, Viktor Liashko, said that 198 people had been killed in the fighting — up from 137 a day earlier — and that 1,115 had been wounded, including 33 children.

Liashko said Ukraine’s medical system continues to function, both for those injured in the war and those who already needed care because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Britain’s armed forces minister said early Saturday that “isolated pockets” of Russian special forces were waging the street battles in Kyiv overnight as gunfire and explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital.

Municipal authorities said fighting was taking place in the streets and told residents to find shelter as Russian troops pressed toward the city. Videos verified by The Washington Post showed fire and billowing smoke, as well as the sound of live rounds, on a road some seven miles west of the legislature. The Ukrainian military later said it had destroyed combat vehicles in the vicinity.

“What you’re seeing in Kyiv at the moment are very isolated pockets of Russian special forces and paratroopers,” James Heappey, the U.K. minister for the armed forces, said in a morning television interview. “The main armored columns approaching Kyiv are still some way off,” he said.

“As far as we’re concerned, all of Russia’s main day 1 objectives … are still in Ukrainian hands,” he added, mentioning the eastern city of Kharkiv, the port city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea and the southeastern city of Melitopol. Russia’s Defense Ministry said earlier its forces had taken control of Melitopol, while Ukraine did not confirm the report, and footage from the city depicted sounds of heavy shelling.

Images and videos of a blown-out residential building in Kyiv were being shared widely on social media by Ukrainian officials Saturday.

Ukraine’s foreign minster, Dmytro Kuleba, shared a photo of the high-rise apartment building, which he said was damaged by shelling in Kyiv.

The Kyiv City Council also posted images and video of the building being hit on its official website and said floors 17 to 21 had been destroyed and its residents evacuated.

Images from Reuters also showed firefighters extinguishing flames at the residential building, which appeared to be located above shops.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko shared similar images and photos of the building on his Telegram page and called it a “difficult” night for the capital, home to almost 3 million people.

In a video address, he said the city had witnessed “several clashes, skirmishes” overnight and estimated that about 35 people had been injured in the city as of 6 a.m. local time. “I ask everyone to keep their composure. And the safest thing is to stay in the shelters. Because the enemy will attack from the air,” he said.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said Russian state-owned media outlets will no longer be allowed to run advertisements or monetize their content on the social media giant’s platform.

In a statement posted to Twitter on Friday, the head of Facebook’s security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said the company will also continue to label accounts affiliated with Russian state-run media. It will also share the steps it is taking to “protect people” on the site as Russia’s invasion in Ukraine goes into its third day.

Facebook rolled out the policy of labeling accounts and posts from what it considers “state-controlled” outlets in 2019, a response to criticism that it helped the spread of disinformation during the 2016 presidential election.

The official Facebook account for RT, for instance, already has the tag “Russia state-controlled media” under its name. RT, previously known as Russia Today and widely considered a propaganda outlet, is registered as a foreign agent for the Russian government in the United States.

Russia announced on Friday that it was restricting some access to Facebook, accusing it of “censoring” Russian media outlets.

Residents of Kyiv spent the early hours of Saturday sheltering indoors from street fighting and shelling, but Ukrainian authorities still controlled the capital as of the morning, top officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky started the night with the grim warning that people should prepare for Russia to storm the capital. But as dawn broke, the president posted a video of himself apparently in the capital’s streets to show he remained at his post.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Saturday morning that the night was “difficult” but that there “are no Russian troops in the capital.” He said 35 people, including two children, were wounded overnight.

“Isolated pockets of Russian special forces and paratroopers” were in the city, but the bulk of Russian forces have not entered, James Heappey, a junior British defense minister, said on Sky News.

Movement within the city will be restricted throughout the day because of roadblocks, Klitschko added, urging people to stay in shelters for protection from potential air raids.

“It will be difficult, but we must withstand — with us are the army and the territorial defense,” Klitschko said. “With us is justice.”

“Kyiv, our splendid, peaceful city, survived another night under attacks,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted on Twitter.

MOSCOW — Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday morning that its forces had taken control over Melitopol, a city of about 150,000 people in southern Ukraine, between the annexed Crimean peninsula and Mariupol.

The Ukrainian side has not confirmed the report. The Institute for the Study of War, a research organization, marked Melitopol as occupied by the Russian forces as of late Friday. But James Heappey, Britain’s parliamentary undersecretary of state for the armed forces, said Melitopol is “still in Ukrainian hands.”

Earlier, the Russian military said its troops entered Melitopol “without resistance” and claimed that locals had greeted Russian soldiers.

Footage emerging from Melitopol, however, depicts heavy fighting and gunfire, including at a hospital where fire broke out during a barrage, according to a government official and video of an explosion at the facility.

Russian officials repeatedly claimed that only military infrastructure is being hit, but mounting evidence shows civilian sites have also been targeted.