Kyiv digs in for battle as fighting flares in areas nearby

Ukrainian soldiers bolstered defences around Kyiv on Sunday, digging trenches, blocking roads and liaising with civil defence units as Russian forces bombarded the surrounding areas and attacked towns and villages nearby, Reuters reports. 

While the armed forces and civilian volunteers dug in, thousands of people continued to try to flee the city of 3.4 million as fears of a full assault spread.

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February and has concentrated its heaviest attacks on the south and east of the country, besieging cities including Mariupol and Kharkiv with artillery fire and air strikes and causing extensive damage and casualties.

Kyiv has been spared the worst of the fighting so far, but intense battles have raged in surrounding towns and villages and Russia's defence ministry released footage on Sunday of some of its tracked military vehicles on the move near the capital.

Video provided by Ukraine's armed forces taken on Saturday in the Kyiv region, showed Ukrainian efforts to defend the capital, with piles of sandbags and concrete slabs laid across a main road, while Ukrainian soldiers carefully checked passing cars.

A smaller road was blocked by metal "hedgehog" anti-tank barriers, and machine gun positions had been erected. Molotov cocktails were lined up on the side of the road, as civilians vowed to join the battle to protect Kyiv.

"We are equipped 100%," said an unidentified soldier in the footage. "Positions are prepared, we've fitted them out and we are simply waiting to meet them here ... Victory will be ours."

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" that is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.

In Irpin, a town some 25 kilometres (16 miles) northwest of Kyiv, men, women and children trying to escape armed clashes in the area were forced to take cover when missiles struck nearby, according to Reuters witnesses.

Soldiers and fellow residents helped the elderly hurry to a bus filled with frightened people, some cowering as they waited to be driven to safety.