Ukraine battles Russian forces: LIVE UPDATES

A man holds a poster which reads "No war" as people lay flowers near the place where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down, with the Kremlin Wall, left, the Spaskaya Tower, center, and St. Basil's in the background, in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Denis Kaminev)

Russians are taking to the streets to protest the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

They are taking to the streets, but they get pushed back or arrested nearly as quickly as they come out. Protests are illegal. Police are out in numbers looking for rule breakers. According to reports, 1,500 had been arrested across Russia by sundown on Sunday.

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Ukrainian soldiers inspect a damaged military vehicle after fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The city authorities said that Ukrainian forces engaged in fighting with Russian troops that entered the country's second-largest city on Sunday. (AP Photo/Marienko Andrew)

A senior U.S. intelligence official says Belarus is expected to send troops into Ukraine as soon as Monday to fight alongside Russian forces that invaded Ukraine last week, according to the Associated Press.

Belarus has been providing support for Russia’s war effort, but so far has not taken a direct part in the conflict.

The rouble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the dollar on Monday, according to Reuters.

Safe-haven currencies including the U.S. dollar and yen were in demand after Russian President Vladimir Putin put nuclear-armed forces on high alert on Sunday, the fourth day of the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two.

The rouble dropped to as low as 119 per dollar RUB=EBS, and was last down 28.77% at 118.

A Ukrainian official released footage that appears to show a Ukrainian drone shooting down a Russian missile system. (WATCH IT HERE)

Earlier on Sunday, the armed forces of Ukraine released an updated estimate of Russian losses, including 1 anti-aircraft missile system. The Ukrainian official account also listed 4,300 personnel (killed and wounded), 200 prisoners of war, 46 aircraft, 26 helicopters, 146 tanks, and 706 armored vehicles of various types.

Belarus could send soldiers into Ukraine to support the Russian invasion of the country.

“It’s very clear Minsk is now an extension of the Kremlin,” a Biden administration official told the Washington Post Sunday.

Troops from Belarus could join the fight as soon as Monday, the official said.

The former Miss Grand Ukraine reportedly joined the Ukrainian military and has warned that anyone who crosses the border with the intention of invading will be killed.

Anastasia Lenna, a beauty queen who represented Ukraine in 2015 in the Miss Grand International beauty contest, made the claims on her Instagram, according to the New York Post.

"Everyone who crosses the Ukrainian border with the intent to invade will be killed!" she said in a post on Saturday, which included photo of armed soldiers blocking a road.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the next 24 hours will be crucial in his country's fight against the Russian invasion.

Johnson told Zelenskyy that the UK and NATO allies were going to do everything they could to get military aid into Ukraine, a UK spokesperson told Reuters.

The airspace over Ukraine is still being contested as Ukrainian forces continue to fight back against the Russian invasion, according to a senior U.S. defense official on Sunday.

"That means that the Ukrainians are still using both aircraft, and their own air and missile defense systems, which we believe are still intact and still viable," said the official in an off-camera press briefing released by the Department of Defense. "Though they have been, as I said yesterday, there's been some degradation by the Russians."

Roughly two-thirds of Russian forces located along the border have now been committed inside Ukraine, an increase from 24 hours earlier when about half of those forces were committed inside the country, the official said. 

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Belarus approved a new constitution Sunday to end the country's non-nuclear status.

Just over 65% of those that took part in the vote were in favor of the measure, according to reporting from Reuters. The vote comes after the former Soviet republican served as a launching point for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and would mark the first time the country could host nuclear weapons on its soil since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Russian-led forces have taken control of the historically significant town of Nikolayevka, where Soviet forces broke out during the second world war during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Analysts say Russian forces could now begin to consolidate and make gains that would allow them to push towards the Black Sea.

Bartenders from Evel Pie pour Russian vodka down the drain in downtown Las Vegas.

Bars, restaurants, and liquor stores around America are pouring out their Russian vodka and replacing it with Ukrainian spirits to show support in whatever way they can for the people of Ukraine.

Branden Powers, the owner of Evel Pie in downtown Las Vegas, said they started a promotion for $5 shots of Nemiroff Ukrainian vodka with all proceeds going to the Red Cross. 

Patrons of Evel Pie in Las Vegas were also buying bottles of Russian Standard vodka for $300 this weekend, but only so that it could be poured in a drain outside the restaurant.

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U.S. stock futures tumbled on Sunday as investors continue to monitor the developments between Russia and Ukraine and after U.S. and foreign allies agreed to remove select Russian banks from SWIFT, the global financial system, curbing access to banks in over 200 countries. 

Dow futures fell nearly 600 points or 1.5%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq Futures traded lower by nearly 3% a piece. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing "poker" with the U.S. and other European allies while waging a war against Ukraine, according to one expert.

Retired CIA Senior Clandestine Services Officer Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital that the profile of Putin has changed drastically over the past two weeks, and argues that Putin isn't playing "chess" anymore, he's playing "poker" with innocent civilians being killed.

"The profile of Vladimir Putin from today is not the one that we would have written two weeks ago, or two years ago. And so if we thought about Vladimir Putin as a coldly calculated chess player, which I frankly thought he was, and I thought he was going to extort a deal out of us and never go to war against Ukraine because it would be too prohibitively costly in terms of spilled blood," Hoffman said. "But that's not the guy we're dealing with now. So it's almost like we've seen a transition from a chess player to a poker player."

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The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board will remove Russian spirts from Fine Wine & Good Spirits store shelves "as a show of solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine," according to an announcement Sunday.

The move comes two days after the board said that they were not planning to take action against Russian products.

"For the first time in decades, it has called for an Emergency Special Session in the General Assembly," U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said of the Security Council Sunday. "The Council members who supported this resolution recognize that this is no ordinary moment."

The Russian ruble fell almost 20% against the dollar in early trading Wednesday, hitting a new record low for the currency as international sanctions aim to punish Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell Fontelles published an op-ed in the Guardian outlining the reasons the bloc will send weapons to Ukraine.

"What Putin is doing is not only a grave violation of international law, it is a violation of the basic principles of human coexistence," he said. "With his choice to bring war back to Europe, we see the return of the 'law of the jungle' where might makes right. The target is not only Ukraine, but the security of Europe and the whole international rules-based order, based on the UN system and international law."

"With this war on Ukraine, the world will never be the same again. It is now, more than ever, the time for societies and alliances to come together to build our future on trust, justice and freedom. It is the moment to stand up and to speak out. Might does not make right. Never did. Never will."

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko told the Associated Press that the city cannot evacuate civilians because “all ways are blocked.” 

“Right now, we are encircled,” Klitschko said, adding that the city is “at the border of a humanitarian catastrophe.” 

“Right now, we have electricity, right now we have water and heating in our houses,” he said. “But the infrastructure is destroyed to deliver the food and medication.” 

“That’s why the message for everyone is: Support Ukraine together ... We are strong,” he said.

“Every Ukrainian is proud to be independent, proud to be Ukrainian, and we are proud to have our own country.” 

UPDATE: Klitschko later posted a video correcting reports and saying it was "disinformation."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen announced Sunday the European Union will ban all Russian-owned aircraft from its airspace and all Russian state media.

"They won’t be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU, including the private jets of oligarchs," von der Leyen tweeted.

She specifically named Russia Today and Sputnik and their subsidiaries as the chief targets of the media ban.

"We are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe," she added.

Oil giant BP announced Sunday it will drop its stake in Russian energy company Rosneft – the latest private severance of relations with Russia as the global superpower invades neighboring Ukraine.

BP, which has held a 19.75% stake in Rosneft since 2013, also said its chief executive, Bernard Looney, will resign from the Russian firm's board, effective immediately. Bob Dudley, a former BP executive, will also resign from Rosneft's board.

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House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., explained on Sunday the two reasons he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he described as "reckless, evil and dangerous," has raised the alert status for his nuclear forces to "special regime of combat duty" as Russia continues to invade Ukraine.

McCarthy told "Sunday Morning Futures" that he believes one reason is "because this war is not going well" and Putin is "being painted into a corner and he wants to be a stronger hand to try to negotiate a way out." He went on to argue that the second reason is because Putin is "unstable." 

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Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko told Russian media outlets Sunday that he believed sanctions from the West have started pushing Russia towards wider conflict.

“Now there is a lot of talk against the banking sector, gas, oil, SWIFT,” Lukashenko said. “It’s worse than war. This is pushing Russia into a third world war.”

“We need to be restrained here so as not to get into trouble,” Lukashenko added. “Because nuclear war is the end of everything.”

Russian media outlet TASS has reported claims that Ukrainian soldiers have used chemical weapons in the suburbs of Kyiv.

The reports specifically claim the use of phosphorus.

“Unable to stop the offensive of the Russian forces, the Ukrainian army has begun to use phosphorus munitions on a massive scale near the Gostomel airdrome in Kiev’s suburbs,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the media on Sunday. They fire 122-millimeter shells with D-30 howitzers and missiles for BM-21 Grad multiple launchers of Soviet manufacture.”

Russian investigators have said they will open a probe into the matter, the report adds.

Japan has decided to join the United States and European allies in removing selected Russian banks from the SWIFT international financial messaging system, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Sunday.

Japan will also freeze assets of President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials, while sending $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Kishida told reporters.

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A senior U.S. defense official told Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin that there is no reason to doubt validity of reports that Putin has put his nuclear forces on an elevated alert status.

“We believe this is not only an unnecessary step to take but an escalatory one … that could make things much more dangerous,” the official said. “We have no reason to doubt the validity of this order but how it’s manifested itself is not completely clear yet.” 

The official stressed that the Pentagon is “confident” it has the ability to defend “the Homeland, allies and partners” with “tough strategic deterrence.”

But the Pentagon is still working to “assess what this action … actually means in tangible terms.”

The start of sanctions on SWIFT may leave Americans in Russia stranded as their credit cards may not work. 

Fox News correspondent Amy Kellogg reported that the U.S. embassy warned Americans to expect their credit cards not to work after the sanctions start.

She said her cards still worked as of today. The increasing isolation of Russia is causing the American community to worry about access to money and flights out, Kellogg added. 

An NBC correspondent in Moscow also reported that his hotel asked him settle his bill early over concerns that his credit cards wouldn’t work after SWIFT sanctions started. 

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russian President Vladmir Putin appears "erratic" and is "descending" into something she’s never personally seen before. 

"He was always calculating and cold. But this is different. He seems erratic. There is an ever-deepening, delusional rendering of history, it was always a kind of victimology about what had happened to them, but now it goes back to blaming Lenin for the foundation of Kyiv … in Ukraine," Rice said on "Fox News Sunday." 

Rice has met with Putin at least a half a dozen times across her career and said he is "descending into something I haven’t personally seen before."

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Turkey has declared that Russia’s actions in Ukraine constitute a war and will act accordingly, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Sunday.

Cavusoglu invoked the Montreux Convention, which dates back to 1936 and gives Turkey the ability to regulate the transit of naval warships between the Dardanelles Straits into the Black Sea.

Zelenskyy had claimed Saturday that Turkey had agreed to do this, but Turkish officials immediately pushed back saying they had not yet taken a decision on the matter.

Fox News correspondent Bryan Llenas reports the latest on the Ukrainian refugee crisis as Ukraine fights invading Russian forces.

Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan is on the ground in Kyiv reporting that the Ukrainian government and military is “still in control” as Russia's invasion continues for the fourth day.

Former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman discusses the Russian invasion and the importance of energy independence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to chair a Security Council meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the alert status for his nuclear forces to "special regime of combat duty" as Russia and Ukraine battle for the fourth day. 

Putin ordered the Russian defense minister and the chief of the military's General Staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a "special regime of combat duty." The move signals tensions could boil over into a nuclear war. 

"He is right now threatening a nuclear escalation," said former DIA intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler. "This a veiled threat – or maybe such a veiled threat - he just met with his chief of general staff and minister of defense. He is escalating the conflict into the nuclear domain in order to de-escalate – that is topple Kyiv’s regime quickly."

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Ukraine's defense budget isn't enough to go "toe-to-toe with the Russians," but it is more than sufficient to wage a guerrilla campaign, Daniel Hoffman, a former Moscow station chief for the CIA, told FOX Business.

Ukraine's $6 billion defense budget is about one-tenth of Russia's, according to recent data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Saturday that the U.S. will further bolster Ukraine's defense with $350 million more in aid. 

Hoffman applauded the extra support but said these funds should have "provided all this stuff earlier to deter Russia" adding that "timing matters." 

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Sunday morning that the nation's government has completed its application to the International Court of Justice – the highest legal authority of the United Nations.

Zelenskyy stated that he hoped the court would hold Russia responsible for its invasion of Ukraine and its alleged misinformation campaign to justify its aggressive assault.

The International Court of Justice is, on paper, one of the most powerful courts of international law in the world. It holds jurisdiction over all member states of the United Nations and can be utilized to arbitrate disputes between non-member nations when requested.

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Ukrainian soldiers handle equipment outside Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Marienko)

Ukraine forces continued defending the capital of Kyiv on the fourth day of fighting with Russia, while Russian forces penetrated Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and blew up a natural gas pipeline.

"The Russian enemy's light vehicles have broken into Kharkiv, including the city centre," regional Governor Oleh Sinegubov said, according to Reuters. "Ukraine's armed forces are destroying the enemy. We ask civilians not to go out."

Russian troops reportedly blew up the gas pipeline on Sunday , a Ukrainian state agency said. Videos published by adviser to the Ukraine interior minister, Anton Herashchenko, shows tanks moving through the eastern Ukraine city. 

At least 64 civilians have been killed since Russia entered Ukraine last week, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported Saturday. The office added that the number is likely "considerably higher."

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Police detain a demonstrator during an action against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

While Russia's war on Ukraine encounters more resistance than expected on the battlefield, the Russian government detained more than 3,000 domestic protesters for pushing back against it at home.

According to the human rights group OVD-Info, Russian security forces detained 3,093 people between Thursday when the anti-war protests began in its cities and early Sunday morning. Crowds in Moscow and St. Petersburg gathered in the streets last week, with some chanting "no war." 

The arrests come as Russian leaders continue to be frustrated by slower-than-expected gains in their invasion of Ukraine, according to American officials. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the nation in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. (Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been suspended as honorary president to the International Judo Federation (IJF) – his most senior official position in world sports – due to his invasion of Ukraine, the sport’s governing body announced Sunday. 

"In light of the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine, the International Judo Federation announces the suspension of Mr Vladimir Putin's status as Honorary President and Ambassador of the International Judo Federation," the IJF said in a statement. 

The 69-year-old Russian president holds a blackbelt in judo. 

The judo federation is rare among Olympic sports bodies for using the word “war” to describe Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which Putin ordered Thursday. Others have used phrases such as “escalation of conflict.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, walks under a camouflage net in a trench as he visits the war-hit Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Dec. 6, 2021. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)

After four days of Russia invading his nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he's growing frustrated with an apparent lack of international action — so he’s seeking his own team of supporters, he announced.

Zelenskyy hopes to draw volunteers who will "defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine," Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Those interested in helping should seek their own countries' respective diplomatic offices, he encouraged.

"Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too," Kuleba added.

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U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called on Russian military leaders to “think very carefully” before carrying out President Vladimir Putin’s orders to continue fighting in Ukraine, suggesting they could face an international tribunal for “committing his crimes.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy  on Sunday called for Russia to lose its voting power as a member of the U.N. Security Council, alleging its attack on his country, which started last week, amounted to "criminal actions" that bore "signs of genocide," according to a report.

"This is terror," Zelenskyy said in a video message, referring to the military invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which spread across Ukraine in recent days to include targets in Kyiv, the capital, and Kharkiv, the nation's second-largest city, among other locations.

"They are going to bomb our Ukrainian cities even more, they are going to kill our children even more subtly," he added, according to Reuters. "This is the evil that has come to our land and must be destroyed."

"Russia's criminal actions against Ukraine bear signs of genocide," he added, according to the report.

Also on Sunday, Zelenskyy said he was ready for talks with Russia – but rejected its offer of holding the negotiations in Belarus, claiming the country was a staging area for Russia's invasion last week.

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A view shows a residential building damaged by recent shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine February 26, 2022. (Reuters/Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy)

Fighting got underway Sunday in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, after Russian forces stormed in from the outskirts, according to reports.

The Kharkiv offensive combined with overnight strikes in Kyiv and other parts of the country to broaden the Russian invasion that began Thursday, the reports said.

Kharkiv, located about 480 miles east of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, lies just a little more than 12 miles from the Russian border.

The city’s population is about 1.4 million, or about half the size of Kyiv, the BBC reported.

Russian troops began approaching Kharkiv on Thursday, when the invasion into Ukraine got underway, but remained outside the city until Sunday, The Associated Press reported.

Oleh Sinehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said Ukrainian fighters were engaged against Russians inside the city, and civilians were being asked to stay in their homes, the AP reported.

Videos posted on social media showed Russian military vehicles on the streets of Kharkiv and showed at least one residential building heavily damaged by shelling.

An elderly woman was killed at the site but about 60 other residents were said to be unharmed after taking refuge in the basement, the BBC reported.

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Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, left, attends a meeting in the City Hall in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Former Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko has been spotted among citizens in Kyiv wearing battle armor, a video online shows.

In the video, Poroshenko said the situation in Ukraine remains dire as Russia sieges the capital. 

"We are in the center of Kyiv, we are here to protect Ukraine," said Poroshenko, who is seen wearing a bullet-proof vest. He said Russian forces were a "little bit more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from here."

"This is very difficult to explain. What does it mean in the 21st century, in the middle of Europe, to be awakened by the Russian missile attack, by Russian airborne attack?" he added.

The former president also thanked the international community for supporting Ukraine in the war noting it serves as "a great demonstration that Ukraine and its people are not alone."

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Canadian officials say the country's skies remain open for Russian airliners to fly through, according to a report.

Several European countries, meanwhile, have shut their airspace in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Globe and Mail of Canada reported.

"At this time, Canada’s airspace remains open to Russian carriers. However, the department is actively monitoring the current situation and working closely with key allies, including the United States," Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s office said in a statement.

Russian carrier Aeroflot passes through Canadian airspace several times a day on the way to the U.S. and other destinations.

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Ukraine gained its own Tiananmen Square-style "Tank Man" on Saturday when a defiant Ukrainian appeared to confront a Russian military convoy in the northeastern town of Bakhmach. 

A video shows the man jumping onto the tank as it continues forward then kneeling in front of it as it comes to a stop. Other bystanders appeared to pull the man from the front of the tank as they yelled at the convoy. 

The scene was reminiscent of one in 1989 in Beijing's Tiananmen Square , when an unidentified Chinese man stood in front of a line of tanks with nothing but grocery bags in his hands as China's military cracked down on protesters at the time. 

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The mayor of Kyiv has extended a curfew for all citizens of Ukraine's capital city as Russian forces continued their siege, according to reports.

The revised curfew calls for all residents to remain in their homes from 5 p.m. until 8 a.m., and will apply until at least Monday morning, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced, Reuters reported.

Klitschko previously announced a curfew order for residents to remain at home between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., as the city faced missile strikes and the threat of looming Russian tanks.

The change comes after a Russian missile strike struck a civilian oil depot outside Kyiv early Sunday morning, Ukrainian officials said.

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A suspected Russian missile strike exploded at a civilian oil depot outside Kyiv early Sunday morning local time, Ukrainian officials said, near the start of the fourth day of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine."

A missile attack launched on the oil depot in Vasilkov near Kyiv," Ukrainian MP Anna Purtova told Fox News around 2 a.m. in the region. 

She described it as an "ecological catastrophe." She also called on the U.S. and European Union to implement a no-fly zone over Ukrainian airspace. 

She also provided video from the scene that showed clouds of smoke billowing upward. The clouds of smoke were so thick they blocked out some of the light from the burning fuel.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, monitoring developments in Ukraine from his "lair in the Urals," is "furious" and "fuming" that his military’s invasion of the smaller country to the south hasn’t gone more smoothly, claims a European Union official who says he has reviewed a Ukrainian intelligence report.

Riho Terras, a former defense chief in Estonia and member of the European Parliament, detailed the contents of the documents in a Twitter thread Saturday.

"He thought that the whole war would be easy and everything would be done in 1-4 days," Terras wrote.

Instead, Ukrainian military members – and civilians arming themselves with guns and Molotov cocktails – have been working to fend off Russian forces who have been entering Ukraine from several directions since Thursday.

Fox News has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the intel report, which Terras included in his Twitter post.

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