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Fighting broke out in the Ukrainian capital on Friday. Soldiers and residents begin to organize the city’s resistance and prepare for a siege.
Little by little, the war seeps into the interstices of the city of Kiev. First there was the sound. The high-pitched one of the alarm sirens; the dull sound of missile explosions; that, crystalline, of broken windows. The anguished silence, too, of the deserted streets of certain districts of the Ukrainian capital. On Friday morning, residents of the distant suburbs of Kiev heard the firing of automatic weapons. Fighting was reported in Hostomel, Vorzel and Bucha, residential areas located about ten kilometers northwest of the city center. The most intense battle seems to have taken place in the north, in Obolon, one of the biggest districts of the capital.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister warned residents: “The Russians are in Obolon. We ask citizens to inform us of enemy movements, make Molotov cocktails, neutralize the occupants.” One witness notably described to Release how a group of six to eight Russian soldiers arrived “in the area of Zoe-Gaidai Street” aboard trucks stolen from the Ukrainian army. According to his account, the Ukrainian National Guard, familiar with the scene, lured the Russian fighters into a trap to surround them, before opening fire. “Fighting took place in Kiev all day, but the Russian saboteurs who had infiltrated have already been eliminated. The Ukrainian army is now entering the city with heavy equipment to protect…