- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- 8 dead in Israeli strike, source says Hezbollah commander killed
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
- Stock markets fall after Fed-fuelled rally
- Top Hezbollah commander 'killed' in Israel strike
- Poland charges Russian over attack on Navalny ally: prosecutors
- Man City have rest 'advantage' in Arsenal showdown: Guardiola
- Maresca has 'no doubt' in Jackson as Chelsea's number nine
- EU chief announces 35 bn euro loan plan for Ukraine before winter
- From TikTok to Hollywood, the irresistible rise of Italy's Khaby Lame
- Verstappen punished for swearing in Singapore press conference
- Sri Lanka lead by 202 in first New Zealand Test
- Brook 'not too fussed' by England's batting in heavy Australia loss
- India's Ashwin 'happy' to embrace pressure
- A modern 'Trojan Horse': two days of mayhem in Lebanon
- Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN
- Man Utd appoint Foster + Partners to develop Old Trafford 'masterplan'
- Israel-Hezbollah exchanges intensify on Lebanon border
- French mayor sorry for 'no one died' remark over mass rape trial
- Mohamed Al-Fayed, outsider shunned by British high society
CMSC | 0.04% | 25.13 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.16% | 25.05 | $ | |
GSK | -1.86% | 40.86 | $ | |
SCS | -3.26% | 12.89 | $ | |
RIO | -2.37% | 63.67 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
NGG | 1.15% | 69.63 | $ | |
BTI | -0.39% | 37.425 | $ | |
AZN | -0.72% | 78.335 | $ | |
BCC | -1.93% | 141.95 | $ | |
BP | -0.14% | 32.715 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0% | 6.95 | $ | |
JRI | -0.53% | 13.329 | $ | |
BCE | -0.89% | 34.88 | $ | |
RELX | -0.32% | 47.975 | $ | |
VOD | -0.65% | 9.995 | $ |
Kyiv civilians huddle in cellars as Russian forces attack
As a street battle with invading Russian forces raged overhead, Kyiv resident Yulia Snitko spent the night cowering in the basement of her apartment block praying for her unborn baby.
Eight months pregnant and with her bulging belly showing through her clothes, she was terrified that each blast or volley of gunfire from an attack on a nearby military facility could send her into labour.
"I'm trying to stay as calm as possible to not cause a premature birth," the 32-year-old told AFP on Saturday morning in the Soviet-era bomb shelter.
"At night it was more than one hour of huge explosions, it was very stressful. When I realised what was happening, I was trembling, totally shaking for five minutes."
Around her, families huddled together on the cardboard boxes and camping mats they were using as makeshift beds.
On the streets above it was a bright sunny day, but only a handful of civilians were brave enough to queue for emergency food supplies, as Kyiv has been transformed within days into a war zone.
Tanks manoeuvred along the streets as the city, home to three million people, braced for an all-out assault by Russian forces pushing towards it.
The burnt-out wreckage of a Ukrainian military truck still smouldered in the middle of the grand Soviet-era Victory Avenue and soldiers cleared away debris.
Nearby, a Ukrainian soldier commanded an elderly volunteer as he hastily dug a trench in preparation for fresh attacks.
Several servicemen said Russian forces a few kilometres away had been firing barrages of rockets indiscriminately from their feared Grad systems.
The sounds of explosions rumbled in the distance.
- 'We are not afraid!' -
Suddenly the wail of an air raid siren sounded and the civilians on the street sprinted for the nearest shelter.
City authorities blamed Russian "sabotage groups" for the attacks in the city overnight and said Moscow's regular forces were fighting to break in.
Missiles pounded multiple locations around the capital.
One rocket blasted a gaping hole across several floors of an apartment block not far from the city centre sending rubble spewing onto the street below.
Teacher Irina Butyak, 38, has spent two days in the basement of her apartment block sheltering together with some 20 people.
As air raid sirens blared directly overhead, some tried to sleep on mattresses on the ground, some sat on stools chatting.
"We have train tickets for western Ukraine for tomorrow. I don't think we will make the train," she told AFP.
Buses have stopped running and Kyiv's metro has been turned into a giant bomb shelter.
"We'll sit here until we can get to the train station," she said.
She was still struggling to digest the nightmare unfolding around her as the city plunged into violence.
"We thought something like this might happen but we were hoping until the end that it wouldn't," she said.
"We were hoping that common sense and common decency would prevail. Well, it didn't."
"This Hitler is trying to seize power," he said.
"We are not afraid! If you knew how many young people have already stood up and taken their machine guns! I am 68 years old, but I will take any gun tomorrow and will shoot."
T.Bondarenko--BTB