Russian forces invading Ukraine have killed more Ukrainian civilians than soldiers, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Friday.
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"I want this to be heard not only in Kyiv but all over the world," Reznikov said.
Russian strikes hit near airports in the western Ukrainian cities of Ivano-Frankiivsk and Lutsk, far from Russia's main attack targets elsewhere in Ukraine, local authorities reported Friday. Two Ukrainian servicemen were killed and six people wounded in Russian airstrikes Friday on the Lutsk military airfield, according to the head of the surrounding Volyn region, Yuriy Pohulyayko.
The mayor of Ivano-Frankiivsk Ruslan Martsinkiv ordered residents in the neighboring areas to head to shelters after an air raid alert. The mayor of Lutsk also announced an airstrike near the airport.
The strikes were far to the west from the main Russian offensive and could indicate new direction of the war.
Russian forces are continuing their offensive toward Kyiv on Friday from the northwest and east, notably trying to break through Ukrainian defenses from Kukhari, 90 kilometers (56 miles) to the northwest through to Demidov, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Kyiv, the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said in a statement.
The general staff said Russian troops had been halted in efforts to take the northern city of Chernihiv, notably by Ukraine's re-taking of the town of Baklanova Muraviika, which Russian troops could use to move toward Kyiv.
Russian forces are blockading Kharkiv and pushing their offensive in the south around Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown.
Earlier Friday, three airstrikes early in Ukraine's central city of Dnipro killed at least one person, state emergency services said, adding that the strikes were close to a kindergarten and an apartment building.
The strikes came amid preparations by the United States, together with the Group of Seven nations and the European Union, to revoke on Friday Russia's "most favored nation" status over its invasion of Ukraine.
Removing Russia's status of "Permanent Normal Trade Relations" with the United States would significantly escalate pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the largest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Also Friday, the UN Security Council is slated to discuss what Russia claims are "the military biological activities of the US on the territory of Ukraine."
Russia requested the meeting in a tweet Thursday afternoon from its first deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky.
The request came after the Biden administration rejected the accusation, made without evidence by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, that Ukraine was running chemical and biological labs with US support.
Council diplomats confirmed the meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. EST.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied Russia's accusation that Ukraine is preparing to attack with chemical or biological weapons, and he said the accusation itself was a bad sign.
"That worries me very much because we have often been convinced that if you want to know Russia's plans, they are what Russia accuses others of," he said in his nightly address to the nation.
Russia said it uncovered plans to create secret laboratories in Ukraine to produce biological weapons.
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"I am a reasonable person. The president of a reasonable country and reasonable people. I am the father of two children," he said. "And no chemical or any other weapon of mass destruction has been developed on my land. The whole world knows this."
Meanwhile, satellite images showed a Russian military column threatening Kyiv from the north had dispersed to new positions, private US company Maxar Technologies said, possibly in preparation for an assault on the capital.
Images provided by Maxar showed armored units maneuvering in and through towns close to Antonov airport northwest of Kyiv, while other elements further north had repositioned near Lubyanka with towed artillery howitzers in firing positions.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy said that 100,000 people have been evacuated during the past two days from seven cities under Russian blockade in the north and center of the country, including the Kyiv suburbs.
But he said the Russian refusal to allow evacuations from Mariupol, a port city in the south, was "outright terror."
"They have a clear order to hold Mariupol hostage, to mock it, to constantly bomb and shell it," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. He said the Russians began a tank attack right where there was supposed to be a humanitarian corridor.
The city of 430,000 has been without food supplies, running water and electricity for 10 days. Ukrainian officials say about 1,300 people have died, including three in the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital on Wednesday.
