Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “is not going Vladimir Putin’s way”, Boris Johnson said on Saturday night as the Kremlin publicly ordered its forces to “advance from all directions”.
The Prime Minister praised Ukrainians for “putting up a fight”, adding: “We’ve got to do everything we can to change the odds they face.”
His intervention came as James Heappey, the Armed Forces minister, writes for The Telegraph that, after three days of intense fighting, Russia was “well behind its planned timeline” and claims that the Kremlin’s troops have made a series of strategic errors by leaving “well-armed and well-trained Ukrainians to the rear of the Russian front line”.
Putin’s troops were having to bypass “key cities” because of the chaos caused by “dogged Ukrainian resistance”, said Mr Heappey.
The Ukrainian health ministry said on Saturday that at least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, had been killed as a result of the invasion, with street fighting breaking out as Russian troops stormed towards Kyiv.
But some Russian units got lost and others ran out of fuel, as the effectiveness of the resistance appeared to hamper Putin’s plans for a lightning takeover of Kyiv. Ukraine claimed that some 3,500 Russian soldiers had been killed or injured.
As Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s president, promised that Ukrainians would “fight as long as it takes to liberate the country”, Mr Heappey said that early successes by the defending forces had “emboldened the population at large” – evidenced by images of hundreds of civilian volunteers collecting rifles to play their part in the resistance.
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European countries continued to rally to Ukraine’s defence, with Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, on Saturday night joining the ranks of leaders offering lethal military aid to Ukraine. Dropping Germany’s previous refusal to send weapons abroad, Mr Scholz said the country’s army would dispatch 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles “as quickly as possible” to aid Mr Zelensky’s efforts to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
In other developments:
• Mr Zelensky declared that “the anti-war coalition is working”, as the West sent millions of pounds worth of new lethal weapons, and called for Ukraine to be urgently allowed to join the EU;
• Russia appeared to be facing restrictions and a possible ban on its use of the Swift global payments system, as Germany backed “targeted” action amid mounting support for the country to be ejected from the banking mechanism altogether;
• Putin’s troops used cluster munitions – banned by an international treaty Russia refused to sign – on targets seemingly including a blood bank in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine;
• Russian thermobaric rocket launcher was spotted by a US film crew south of Belgorod, Russia, near the Ukrainian border, just a day after Western officials warned of their concern that Putin would use the weapons to cause mass civilian casualties;
• Hospitals in Russia and Belarus were ordered to allocate staff for a deployment, in a sign that the Kremlin was preparing for an influx of casualties;
• Chechnya’s firebrand leader claimed that Chechan forces have seized a military facility in Ukraine;
• Tory MPs and former military chiefs lined up to call for increased defence spending, to prepare for any attempt by Putin to invade Nato allies.
• Buckingham Palace said a diplomatic reception due to be hosted by the Queen on Wednesday had been postponed.
Yesterday, a combination of poor planning and ineffective coordination appeared to leave many Russian troops bogged down, only three days into the invasion. Many units were operating without the protection of air cover.
Putin’s plan still seems to be to target Kyiv, encircle the battle-hardened Ukrainian units in the Donbas to prevent their reinforcement of the capital, and to screen the west of the country to cut off resupply routes. However, casualties are thought to be higher than Russia had expected, with hundreds of tanks and other armoured vehicles destroyed.
Two Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport planes were shot down in separate incidents, according to US officials, and there were reports of invading tanks and armoured vehicles running out of fuel.
An intelligence update from the Ministry of Defence said Russian forces had continued their advance on Kyiv, with the bulk of their forces now about 18 miles from the centre of the city.
However, the MoD noted Russia had yet to gain control of the airspace over Ukraine, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the Russian Air Force.
“Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to put up staunch resistance across the country,” the MoD said.
“Russian casualties are likely to be heavy and greater than anticipated or acknowledged by the Kremlin.”
A statement from the Ukraine military said the first Russian transport plane was shot down on Friday.
Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Heappey states: “After three days of intense fighting, spurred by dogged Ukrainian resistance, Russia is well behind its planned timeline.
“Progress to Kyiv has been much slower than they’d expected, they were unable to take key cities early and now must try to bypass them.
“This leaves pockets of well-armed and well-trained Ukrainians to the rear of the Russian front line, exposing a vulnerable logistics tail – an omen for what awaits Putin.”
Russian soldiers tried to bypass the northern city of Chernihiv, where they were “rebuffed” by the Ukrainian army, in order to attack Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian army.
On Saturday, Mikhail Matveyev, a member of the State Duma, called on the Kremlin to stop the invasion. Andrey Kortunov, an adviser to the Russian foreign ministry, said many officials were “devastated to see what is happening”.
Mr Heappey adds: “The effectiveness of the Ukrainian resistance comes down to one thing – the grit and determination of the Ukrainian people to stand their ground. They still face much more violence and destruction with almost the complete might of the Russian armed forces bearing down on them, but their early success has emboldened the population at large.
“Recruitment centres are now drawing long queues of volunteers wanting to stand up for their country’s freedom. President Putin will have seen this too – if he manages to win the first combat phase, a protracted, bloody, and committed resistance campaign awaits.”
Mr Heappey, a former major in the Rifles, adds that if Putin failed and the Russian people could be shown “how little he cares for them … Putin’s days as president will surely be numbered and so too will those of the kleptocratic elite that surround him. He’ll lose power and he won’t get to choose his successor.”
On Thursday, Putin announced a “special military operation” to eliminate what he claimed was a serious threat in the east of the country. On Saturday, Igor Konashenkov, a Russian army spokesman, said: “After the Ukrainian side rejected the negotiation process, today all units were given orders to develop the advance from all directions in accordance with the operation’s plans.”
In Kyiv, tower blocks were pulverised by tank shells and civilians were manning trenches to repel the invading forces.
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A Russian column that tried to advance from the West, on the highway linking Kyiv to Lviv, was destroyed in night-time fighting inside the capital.
One group of presumed Russian infiltrators, travelling in civilian vehicles, were gunned down by Ukrainian troops as they tried to approach the Ukrainian parliament building, witnesses said.
Ukrainian citizens tried to block Russian tanks from advancing with their own bodies in images reminiscent of Tiananmen Square.
Footage from the north-eastern town of Bakhmach captured shouting men throwing themselves into the pathways of the vehicles with their arms in the air.
At one point a man was seen clinging to the front of a tank, before jumping down on to the ground in front of it, bringing the vehicle to a standstill.
In another act of defiance, an elderly man was captured on camera berating armed Russian invaders in Melitopol, asking “what the f— are you doing here?”
In Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, Russian troops were using tanks, multiple launch rocket systems and cluster munitions against the Ukrainian defences, including in densely populated civilian areas.
