Russian soldiers dressed in Ukraine military uniforms attempt to enter Kyiv in captured vehicles

Soldiers ‘neutralised’ after entering Ukrainian capital, reports say

Russian soldiers dressed in Ukrainian military uniform led a convoy towards Kyiv in captured army vehicles, Kyiv’s deputy defence minister said.

Anna Maliar said Russian military seized Ukrainian army trucks, changed into Ukraine military uniform and were “moving at speed to the centre of Kyiv from the direction of Oboloni” and are “followed by a convoy of Russian military trucks”.

“They will surely be destroyed,” she added in a Facebook post on Friday morning.

Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, where a curfew has been imposed since the Russian attacks began on Thursday (Getty Images)

Within an hour, the minister updated the post to say that there had been no damage and the vehicles have stopped.

Ukrainian reporter Anastasiia Lapatina later said the group of disguised Russian soldiers had been “neutralised”.

The reports came as Russia’s invasion on Ukraine entered its second day, with attacks on the country resuming at 4am local time.

Explosions sounded before dawn on Friday in Kyiv and gunfire was later heard near the government quarter as Western leaders scheduled an emergency meeting and Ukraine's president pleaded for international help to fend off an attack that could topple his democratically elected government and cause massive casualties.

The Ukrainian military said a group of Russian spies and saboteurs had been seen in a district of Kyiv about three miles north of the centre, and police told people not to exit a subway station in the city centre because there was gunfire in the area.

Elsewhere in the capital, soldiers established defensive positions at bridges, and armoured vehicles rolled down the streets, while many residents stood uneasily in doorways of their apartment buildings.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said his country has been “left alone” to defend itself, as Moscow launched a full-scale military offensive that left over 137 Ukrainians, including civilians, dead.

“They are killing people and turning peaceful cities into military targets,” said the president. “It’s foul and will never be forgiven.”