It comes as US and UK defence officials said Russian forces were roughly 30 kilometres outside Kyiv as of Saturday, and that an unspecified number of Russian military sabotage groups had entered the capital.
A senior US defence official said Washington estimates that more than 50 per cent of Russia’s combat power arrayed along Ukraine’s borders had entered the country, an increase from Friday’s estimate of one-third of forces having been deployed.
Ukrainian forces were putting up “very determined resistance” to Russia’s invasion, a US defence official said on Saturday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struck a defiant tone on the streets of the capital Kyiv.
As Russian forces continued to pound Kyiv and other cities with artillery and cruise missiles, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fled westwards towards the European Union, clogging major highways and railway lines.
Top Russian security official and ex-president Dmitry Medvedev said military operations would be waged relentlessly until President Vladimir Putin’s goals were achieved, ratcheting up Moscow’s rhetoric.
Mr Medvedev said new sanctions on Russia were a sign of the West’s impotence in the conflict and he hinted at a severing of diplomatic ties, saying it was time to “padlock the embassies”.
The United States has observed more than 250 launches of Russian missiles but said Ukrainian forces had stimied the Russian advance.
Britain’s Defence Ministry echoed the sentiment on Saturday, saying that “the speed of the Russian advance has temporarily slowed likely as a result of acute logistical difficulties and strong Ukrainian resistance.”
The Kremlin countered this and said Mr Putin had ordered troops to stop advancing on Friday but they were moving forwards again on Saturday after Kyiv allegedly refused to negotiate with Russia.
An adviser to Mr Zelenskyy denied that Kyiv had refused negotiations but said Russia had attached unacceptable conditions.
He also said it was untrue that Russia had paused troop movements on Friday.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has fostered good ties with Russia and Ukraine, told Mr Zelenskyy by phone on Saturday that Ankara was making efforts for an immediate ceasefire.
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