There was an ominous silence in Kyiv this morning as Ukrainians waited in fear for Russian troops to cross the city in tanks as Americans gathered their belongings to escape for the last time after spending the night in subway shelters.
Footage obtained by DailyMail.com at dawn shows the quiet square where Ukrainians protested their freedom in 2014, after another night of war.
There is still no damage to the city center, but last night air missiles rained down on the suburbs in a horrific sign that Putin was encroaching on the city.
Ukrainians are asked to stay and fight. President Volodomir Zelenski is hiding in a bunker in the city. He told the nation in a video last night that he had learned that he was the number one target for Russian killing squads – his family was the number two target.
There are about 20,000 Americans left in Ukraine who now have to make their way by fleeing by car and bus to neighboring Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary or Moldova.
Twenty-three fled the city yesterday with Project Dynamo, a donor-funded organization led by former US military commander Brian Stern. This morning he returned to Kyiv to pick up another group.
A woman from the first group managed to reach the Romanian border, but told FOX News on Friday that she and others remained there and could not cross unless they bribed police with $ 100.
All Americans in Ukraine were warned to leave in early February, but many ignored the State Department’s council, convinced that Putin’s threats were futile.
Among them is Craig Arendt, a former New York Times fashion photographer who became an entrepreneur who moved to Kyiv last December.
He spoke to DailyMail.com last night from the Maidan metro station in Independence Square, where dozens gathered to flee rockets at night, and then again on Friday morning after fleeing to save his life to take his belongings from a loved one. his apartment and waiting to be picked up by a friend and taken to the Polish border.
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Americans in Ukraine recorded the ominous silence in Independence Square on Friday morning after fleeing the Maidan metro station – where they spent the night – to their apartments to pick up their belongings and wait to be rescued by friends or organizations. The State Department said it would not collect anyone
Independence Square in Kyiv at dawn on Friday morning as Russian troops moved through the city. Ukrainian troops are ready to defend the city which defense experts say could fall by the end of the weekend
Craig Arend, left, at Maidan Metro Station at night. He did not hear any air strikes from the station, which is about 200 feet underground. Ukrainian police locked the doors overnight. Dozens spent the night underground and most were Ukrainians, he said, like this couple, who held each other for consolation.
Russian armor is now advancing on Kyiv from the north and east, with US intelligence saying the plan is to besiege the city, seize an airport and launch paratroopers who will then attack the capital. The goal would be to take over the government and force them to sign a peace treaty that would regain control of the country of Russia or a Russian puppet.
The body of a slain soldier lies on the ground while Ukrainian army soldiers sit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, February 25, 2022. Russia pushes its invasion of Ukraine to the outskirts of the capital after launching air strikes on cities and military bases and sending troops and tanks from three countries
Laying down their lives: Ukrainian soldiers ready to defend the city of Kyiv on Friday morning as Russia advances
Russian troops are sitting in an armored car in Armyansk, Crimea, on February 25 after invading Ukraine.
Subway doors were locked overnight by Ukrainian police and dawn opened after air strikes were halted.
“It was literally, run for your life,” since we got off the subway to the apartment, “Arendt said Friday morning.
“What will they do to me?” If I show them my American passport, am I dead? ‘
“We saw trucks, I don’t know if it’s Russian – it was far away.
“This is the great thing on earth – when will we see the Russian military on the streets? This is everyone’s biggest fear.
“What will they do to me?” If I show them my American passport, am I dead? ‘
There was only one man walking through the usually busy square this morning as Russian troops entered the city and Ukrainian soldiers risked their lives on the roads ready to fire at the first sign of the enemy.
Last night, Arendt explained why he and so many others did not heed the warnings to leave when the State Department issued them.
“We thought it was all out in the American media. “Everyone was a little Chicken for that,” he said.
Arendt was out in restaurants and bars on Wednesday night, hours before the first air strikes. He returned home at about 2 o’clock in the morning. The first sirens rang a few hours later.
Arend on Friday afternoon in his apartment, left, waiting to be collected by a friend and driven to Poland. The eerily quiet square at 3.30pm on Friday as Russian troops advanced through the city
Inside the Maidan metro station last night, where dozens of people, mostly Ukrainians, spent the night and will again tonight
“This morning was the most shocking day of my life. I had a meeting last night, I came home at 2 in the morning. I got out of the taxi, this man walking with roses came to me and said “what is this building, I showed him”.
“He said then that he was a soldier of Ukraine. “I said, ‘Do you think Russia will really invade Kyiv,’ and he said yes?”
Cristina Kubecka, who is on the border with Romania, says the only way to get through it is to bribe the police for $ 100 a person.
“I was distrustful. Literally an hour later the air sirens turn on. ‘
The subway was cold, uncomfortable, and full of mostly Ukrainians, whom Arend feared had nowhere else to go. Many were alone, while those in pairs gathered for warmth and comfort.
He and his friends chose not to flee at the first sign of conflict for fear of running out of gas on the road. At each station there are declining gas supplies and winding pipelines from cars.
None of his American friends there are surprised or emotional that he has been abandoned by the State Department, he said.
“I was neutral. Honestly, I do not trust the government. Part of the reason I stayed was that Biden’s approval rating was at a record low and inflation was the highest ever. He will not be the first president to go to war to improve or distract from his approval rating.
“Among my friends on earth – there is really no sense of abandonment. This is more panic. It’s just a constant state of confusion and uncertainty and not knowing what to do next. People are tired, frustrated and angry. They are angry with Putin. There is a 100 percent sense of “the man has lost his mind.” He is a sociopath.
“It simply came to our notice then. Can you imagine? “I was on a date, drinking and eating a few hours ago, and that changed overnight,” he said.
Among people in the group of evacuees are American-Ukrainian business men and women and their families. None of them thought Putin would ever actually invade, and were stunned to wake up to airstrikes this morning
American evacuees being rescued from Ukraine today on buses arranged by Project Dynamo, a volunteer group set up by ex Army Lieutenant Bryan Stern. Among the group were three kids who smiled from the backseat of the bus as Russian fighter jets flew overhead
An Ukrainian military medic approaches the bodies of Russian servicemen wearing a Ukrainian army uniforms lying beside and inside a vehicle after they were shot during a skirmish in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv
Ukrainian soldiers take position next to a highway a bridge during an exchange of gunfire inside the city of Kyiv
Soldiers tasked with defending Kyiv from advancing Russian troops take up positions underneath a highway into the city
Ukrainian soldiers take up positions in downtown Kyiv as the prepare to defend the capital from Russian attackers
President Joe Biden condemned Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine and announced a series of new sanctions against Russian financial institutions, which he said would have a “serious” effect on the nation’s economy.
It is unclear exactly where Russian troops are in Kyiv, but fighting was reported in the early hours of the morning in the Obolon district, about six miles from the city center.
Russian troops are believed to have arrived from the northwest after being pushed out by Chernobyl, which was captured late yesterday.
More Russian troops and armor are advancing on the capital from Konotop, to the east, bypassing the city of Chernihiv, where they encounter heavy Ukrainian resistance.
Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said today would be “the hardest day” of the war.
Once Kyiv is surrounded, US intelligence believes the plan will be for Russian special forces to move and take over an airport – possibly Sikorsky or Borispol – which will then be used to fly a much larger force of up to 10,000 paratroopers. who will attack capital.
The paratroopers’ job will be to enter the city, find Zelensky, his ministers and parliamentarians before forcing them to sign a peace deal restoring control of the country back to Russia or a Moscow-backed puppet regime – effectively ending the war without Putin’s ground forces must fulfill the difficult and bloody task of capturing and occupying the entire country.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has been criticized for outright saying “no one” expects sanctions imposed on Russia “to prevent the invasion” of Ukraine.
He made candid remarks during a press conference Thursday afternoon on the situation in Eastern Europe.
Reporters were quick to take on the president’s task of what appeared to be a changing stance on whether sanctions, economic or otherwise, were effective in any way.
“No one expected sanctions to stop something from happening,” Biden said, a reversal of what he had said before.
“It may take time, and we need to show determination so that he knows what lies ahead and the people of Russia know what he has brought them, that’s what it’s all about.”