Russian troops bore down on Ukraine's capital on Friday, with explosions and gunfire sounding in the city as officials warned residents were heading into a "tough night". The European Union and United States, meanwhile, announced sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin personally.
The rare but not unprecedented U.S. move to impose sanctions on a head of state came just a day after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, assaulting by land, sea and air in the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.
Earlier on Friday, EU states and Britain agreed to freeze any of Putin and Lavrov's European assets as Ukraine's leader pleaded for faster and more forceful sanctions to punish Russia's invasion of his country including blacklisting its banks and banning technology imports.
But they have so far stopped short of forcing it out of the SWIFT system for international bank payments, drawing criticism from Kyiv.
In the meantime, the fighting continued on the ground for the second day. In the fog of war, it was unclear how much of Ukraine was still under Ukrainian control and how much or little Russian forces have seized.
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Ukrainian soldiers stand next to a destroyed Russian tank on Thursday
(Photo: Reuters)
British intelligence said that the Russians were advancing on the capital in two columns from where they were stationed outside the city.
Five explosions struck near a major power plant on Kyiv's eastern outskirts, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said. There was no information on what caused them and no electrical outages were immediately reported.
Russia's military said it seized a strategic airport outside Kyiv, allowing it to quickly build up forces to take the capital. It claimed to have already cut the city off from the west, the direction taken by many to escape the invasion, leading to lines of cars snaking toward the Polish border.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov warned that thousands of Russian soldiers will die on Ukrainian soil and called on citizens in Russia to refuse to send their loved ones to fight.
"They will be killed from every window in every Ukrainian town," he said.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the armed forces of Ukraine to topple their government.
"Do not allow neo-Nazis and (Ukrainian radical nationalists) to use your children, wives and elders as human shields," Putin said at a televised meeting with Russia's Security Council. He also referred to the current Ukrainian government as a group of "junkies and neo-Nazis".
But for the second day in a row, protesters took to the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other parts of Russia to decry the invasion of Ukraine, even as authorities sought to suppress the spreading anti war sentiment and project an image of strength and righteousness.
The largest demonstration erupted in St. Petersburg, where several hundred people spontaneously gathered in the city center, chanting "No to war!" as police in full riot gear detained one protester after another.
Demonstrators took to the street in other cities across the world calling for an end to the war.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Friday with his Ukrainian counterpart and condemned reports of mounting civilian deaths, including those of Ukrainian children, due to attacks around Kyiv, a State Department spokesperson said.
"The secretary expressed his outrage at the Kremlin's brutal tactics and underscored continued U.S. support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Spokesperson Ned Price said.
"The secretary also emphasized to (Ukraine) Foreign Minister Kuleba that the United States would continue to provide support to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russian aggression," Price added.
NATO leaders on Friday agreed to send thousands of troops backed by air and naval support to protect allies near Russia and Ukraine in response to the Russian aggression.
Speaking after chairing a NATO summit, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the 30-nation organization will send parts of the NATO Response Force and elements of a quickly deployable spearhead unit to the alliance's eastern flank. It's the first time the force has been used to defend NATO allies.
Stoltenberg did not say how many troops would be deployed.
In New York, the UN Security Council convened to discuss the situation in Ukraine.