Ukraine shoots down transport plane carrying ‘150 Russian paratroopers’ trying to storm Kyiv as Putin launches full-scale assault on capital
- President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday night warned his people in an address to the nation that the capital, Kyiv, would be attacked overnight
- For two nights in a row Russia has bombarded Kyiv, but Moscow is expected to begin what it hopes to be a final push in the early hours of Saturday
- Zelensky, speaking from a secret location in the capital, said: ‘Russia will try to break our resistance with all its might. Tonight the enemy will begin storming us’
- He urged Ukrainians to resist, adding that Chernihiv, Symy, Kharkiv, Donbass, and the south could all come under attack
- Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Russian forces are moving towards Kyiv from multiple directions, in an attempt to encircle the city
- Vitali Klitschko, the former world champion heavyweight boxer who is now mayor of Kyiv, said the city faces a ‘difficult night’
- Ukraine’s armed forces said on Friday night that they had shot down south of Kyiv a Russian IL-76 military transport plane carrying Russian paratroopers
- Hours later they claimed to have downed in Donbas a helicopter and Su-25 ground attack jet, using surface-to-air missiles