Protesters gather around the world to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin and his attack on Ukraine as fighting continued to escalate.
A woman clears debris at a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where a military shell allegedly hit, on February 25, 2022. Photo: AFP or licensors
From Washington, DC to Wellington, angry protesters condemned the largest military action between European nations in decades.
Read more: Wellington protesters - ""We are here to support our families who are dying now and it's terrible."
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has posted a self-shot video of himself on Twitter walking around the streets of Kyiv in an apparent effort to combat rumours that he has called on the army to surrender to Russian troops.
"There's a lot of fake information online that I call on our army to lay down arms, and that there's evacuation," he said against a backdrop of Kyiv's Gorodetsky House.
"I'm here. We won't lay down our arms. We will defend our state."
Russian and Ukrainian forces clashed in the Ukrainian capital on Saturday as authorities urged citizens to help defend the city from advancing Russian forces in the worst European security crisis in decades.
Ukraine's military command said areas near the cities of Sumy, Poltava and Mariupol were hit by air strikes on Friday, with Russian Kalibr cruise missiles launched at the country from the Black Sea.
But even as the fighting grew more intense, the Russian and Ukrainian governments signalled an openness to negotiations, offering the first glimmer of hope for diplomacy since Putin launched the invasion on Thursday.
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- Reuters/BBC/RNZ
