28 FEBRUARY

A US official said that Belarus was preparing to send its own soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion, despite previous agreements with Ukraine. The Kyiv Independent relayed an anonymous report by unnamed Belarusian opposition journalists that Belarusian paratroopers were to be deployed, likely either to the Kyiv or Zhytomyr areas.

Fighting took place around Mariupol throughout the night. On the morning of 28 February, the UK defence ministry said that most Russian ground forces remained over 30 km (19 mi) north of Kyiv, having been slowed by Ukrainian resistance at Hostomel Airport. It also said that fighting was taking place near Chernihiv and Kharkiv, but that both cities were under Ukrainian control.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced the capture of Berdiansk and Enerhodar, in addition to the surroundings of Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. Ukraine however denied that it had lost control of the plant. Enerhodar’s mayor Dmitri Orlov denied that the city and the plant had been captured.

The Times reported that the Wagner Group had been redeployed from Africa to Kyiv, with orders to assassinate Zelenskyy during the first days of the Russian invasion. Both the Ukrainian and Russian governments meanwhile accused each other of using human shields.

Arestovych claimed that more than 200 Russian military vehicles had been destroyed or damaged on the highway between Irpin and Zhytomyr by 14:00 EET. Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, stated that nine civilians were killed and 37 were wounded due to Russian shelling on the city during the day. Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the US, accused Russia of using a vacuum bomb.

Talks between Ukrainian and Russian representatives in Gomel, Belarus, ended without a breakthrough.