US intelligence officials are concerned the Ukrainian capital could fall to Russia within days

Germany’s Defense Ministry on Friday said it has expanded its support of NATO’s air-policing mission in Romania.

”We have already stepped up Air Policing in Romania to secure the airspace on NATO’s south eastern flank – to up to six Eurofighters by the end of March,” the defense ministry tweeted, adding ”in mixed operations with Italy they will perform armed protection flights as ‘Quick Reaction Alert.’”

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that Germany intended to expand its support of the Romania mission and also to comply with further requests from the alliance.

Earlier this month, Germany sent three combat aircraft to participate in the NATO mission to protect Romanian airspace. Germany also recently deployed 350 additional troops to Lithuania as part of its NATO engagement — in addition to its 550 troops that are part of the German-led NATO combat unit.

In a new video message on Friday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky again called for direct talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Speaking in Russian, Zelensky said: “I would like to address the President of the Russian Federation once again. There is fighting all over Ukraine now. Let’s sit down at the negotiation table to stop the people’s deaths.”

Zelensky returned to the theme of international sanctions against Russia, which he wants to be much tougher.

Zelensky also made a direct appeal to the people of Europe. 

“Go out, go out on the squares. Demand the end of this war. It is your right. When bombs fall in Kyiv, this is happening in Europe and not just in Ukraine. When missiles kill our people it is killing of all, all Europeans.”

“Call your governments for Ukraine to receive more, more financial and military assistance. because this help is the help for you, for Europe.”

“This is not just Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is the beginning of the war in Europe,” he said.

Russia willing to negotiate, says Chinese state media: In a phone call Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin said Russia is “willing to conduct high-level negotiations” with Ukraine, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Putin said the US and NATO have “long ignored Russia’s reasonable security concerns and repeatedly reneged on their commitments,” and their “continuous advance of military deployment eastward” has “challenged Russia’s strategic bottom line,” CCTV reported.

Xi said that China “decides its position based on the merits of the Ukraine issue itself” and that China supports Russia and Ukraine resolving their issue through negotiation, the report added.

It also said “China is willing to work with all parties in the international community to advocate a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security concept.”

Many Kyiv residents have fled their homes as the Russian army appears to be closing in on the Ukrainian capital.

Maryna, who lives in the city, has been sheltering in a subway station since Thursday.

“There are a lot of families with kids and animals here. We are not that far from [the district of] Obolon, where sabotage and reconnaissance forces recently landed. That’s why I’m here,” she told CNN in a message.

Maryna — who brought her cat Hermes to the shelter with her — marveled at how calm everyone there was. She said there was enough food and water for everyone and people were in good spirits.

“Children are playing ball, someone is sleeping, someone is reading the news. No panic. I rarely see such kind-hearted people that Ukrainians turn into in the face of danger,” she said.

Formula One announced on Friday it will not race in Russia this year, after the country launched an invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian Grand Prix, which joined the calendar in 2014, was scheduled for September 25 at Sochi’s Olympic Park, but F1 organizers said it was “impossible” to hold the race in the “current circumstances.”

The UN is “gravely concerned” about the situation in Ukraine, and is receiving increasing reports of civilian casualties, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani said Friday.

“Civilians are terrified of further escalation, with many attempting to flee their homes and others taking shelter where possible,” Shamdasani said, adding that “the military action by the Russian Federation clearly violates international law. It puts at risk countless lives and it must be immediately halted.”

The High Commissioner, she said, has stressed that “states that fail to take all reasonable measures to settle their international disputes by peaceful means fall short of complying with their obligation to protect the right to life.”

The UN Human Rights office said it is also “disturbed by the multiple arbitrary arrests of demonstrators in Russia who were protesting against war yesterday. We understand more than 1,800 protesters were arrested. It is unclear whether some have now been released,” Shamdasani said.

She added that detaining individuals for exercising their rights to freedom of expression or of peaceful assembly constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of liberty and called for the protesters’ immediate release.

Some background: Ukraine has already seen thousands of casualties from the long-running conflict with Russia. War broke out in 2014 after Russian-backed rebels seized government buildings in towns and cities across eastern Ukraine. More than 14,000 people have died in the conflict in Donbas since 2014. Ukraine says 1.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes, with most staying in the areas of Donbas that remain under Ukrainian control and about 200,000 resettling in the wider Kyiv region.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that “nobody is going to attack the people of Ukraine,” despite the continuation of strikes by Russian forces on Friday, telling CNN that there will be “no strikes on civilian infrastructure.”

“I will stress: read what Putin said. No strikes on civilian infrastructure, no strikes on the personnel of the Ukrainian army, on their dormitories, or other places not connected to the military facilities. The statistics that we have confirm this,” Lavrov said.

“Nobody is going to somehow degrade the Ukrainian Armed Forces. We are talking about preventing Neo-Nazis and those promoting genocide from ruling this country,” he continued.

“The current regime in Kyiv is under two external control mechanisms. First, the West and the US. And second, neo-Nazis,” he said, repeating baseless claims that have been repeatedly rejected by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A Russian military airfield near the Ukrainian border has been struck by at least one missile, according to geolocated social media video and images.

It’s unclear who carried out the attack: neither the Ukrainian nor Russian governments have commented.

The videos appears to show a long-range missile hitting the airfield and several fires in the runway, which is in Millerovo, Russia, about 10 miles from the Ukraine border.

Komsomolskaya Pravda, a local newspaper, reported that a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile hit the military facility on Friday 25, citing a source in the law enforcement agencies of the region. 

Another media outlet, the Rostov Gazeta, reported Millerovo was attacked by armed formations of the Ukrainian army. It also reported an unspecified number of wounded. 

Millerovo is part of the Southern Military District and it houses the 31st guards fighter aviation regiment which has two squadrons of Su-30SM.

German lawmakers criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz for not cutting Russia off from the vital high-security payment network, SWIFT, in the European Union’s latest round of sanctions on Moscow.

German Parliament member Norbert Röttgen, from the Christian Democrats party, said on Twitter that cutting Russia from SWIFT is the ”sharpest sword” for sanctions, adding that: ”The SWIFT exclusion of Russia must not fail now because of Germany!”

This sentiment was shared with other German politicians. ”Russia must now be cut from SWIFT!” German Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht wrote on Twitter Thursday, adding ”If Germany prevents this key sanction, the way will be prepared for Putin to expand his war in #Europe.”

Germany is Russia’s biggest gas customer and has tried to keep the Nord Stream 2 pipeline out of global politics. On Tuesday, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz halted the Nord Stream 2 approval process over the Ukraine crisis.

Thousands protest: Meanwhile, thousands of people took to the streets of Berlin on Thursday night in a show of support for Ukraine, with many carrying Ukrainian flags, CNN’s team in the city reports.

Police said that around 2,500 people — among them some Ukrainian expatriates living in Germany — gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, which was lit in Ukraine’s national colors for a second night in a row.

Around 1,500 people also gathered outside Germany’s Chancellery.

Around 150 protesters also gathered outside the Russian Embassy, police said.

Crowds also gathered in other German cities including Potsdam, Leipzig and Munich in a show of support as Moscow began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine Thursday.

The Russian government has said that people who are against the country’s invasion of Ukraine “do not have the right to organize protest actions” without seeking permission first.

“Under the law, without following the appropriate procedures, these citizens do not have the right to organize protest actions in order to express their point of view,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a conference call with foreign journalists. 

Hundreds of protesters were detained by police on Thursday during anti-war demonstrations, with Russian riot police dispersing people via loudspeakers in Moscow, according to CNN teams in the city.

Under Russian law, large demonstrations require protesters apply for a permit, which has to be submitted no more than 15 but no less than 10 days before the event. Heavy fines — and in some cases even prison time — can be imposed on those who protest without a permit.

Individuals are allowed to stage solo “single pickets,” but it is not unheard of for people to be detained for those as well.

“There are single pickets, but such… well, I would not say mass events… but events with the participation of a certain number of people – they are simply not allowed by law. And therefore, certain measures were taken against them,” Peskov added. 

Peskov conceded that there are Russians who are against what the Kremlin continues to describe as a “special operation,” and that the government needs to “better explain [its motives] to these citizens.” He also suggested there are more Russians in favor of the invasion than against. 

“The President hears everyone’s opinion and understands the proportions of those who have a different point of view and those who are sympathetic to such necessary operations,” Peskov said.