The Council of Europe has suspended Russia from the continent's human rights organisation because of its invasion of Ukraine, reports AP as quoted by PTI.

The 47-nation council announced Friday that Russia was suspended with immediate effect from the organisation's Committee of Ministers and parliamentary assembly on Friday as a result of the Russian Federation's armed attack on Ukraine.

The Strasbourg-based organisation, which was founded in 1949, said Russia remained a member and continued to be bound by relevant human rights conventions.

Russian missiles pounded Kyiv on Friday, families cowered in shelters and authorities told residents to prepare Molotov cocktails to defend Ukraine's capital as fighting was reported in the outskirts of the city.

Moscow said it had captured the Hostomel airfield northwest of the capital - a vital staging post for an assault on Kyiv that has been fought over since Russian paratroopers landed there in the first hours of the war. This could not be confirmed and the Ukrainian authorities reported heavy fighting there.

"Shots and explosions are ringing out in some neighbourhoods. Saboteurs have already entered Kyiv," said the city's mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitchko. "The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us."

A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a three-pronged invasion of Ukraine from the north, east and south, air raid sirens again wailed over the city of 3 million people. Some residents sheltered in underground metro stations.

Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted that there had been heavy fighting with people killed at the entrance to the eastern cities of Chernihiv and Melitopol, as well as at Hostomel. Windows were blasted out of a 10-storey apartment block near Kyiv's main airport. A two-metre crater showed where a shell had struck before dawn.

"How can we be living through this in our time? Putin should burn in hell along with his whole family," said Oxana Gulenko, sweeping broken glass from her room.

Hundreds of people were crowded into a cramped bomb shelter beneath a building after a televised warning of air strikes. "How can you wage a war against peaceful people?" said Viktoria, 35, as her children aged 5 and 7 slept in their winter coats. Alla, 40 said: "The kids were scared, they were crying and asking 'Mom, will we all die?'"

Witnesses said loud explosions could also be heard in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, close to Russia's border, and air raid sirens sounded over Lviv in the west. Authorities reported heavy fighting in the eastern city of Sumy.

Britain's defence ministry said in an intelligence update that Russian armoured forces had opened up a new route of advance towards the capital after failing to capture Chernihiv, and most troops remained more than 50km (31 miles) from Kyiv city centre.

Meanwhile Putin asked the Ukrainian army to oust the nation's leadership who according to him are "terrorists" and "a gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis", reports ndtv.com.

"It seems like it will be easier for us to agree with you than this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis," he saidin reference to Zelensky, who is Jewish.

Ukraine earlier said it wanted peace and was ready for talks with Russia, including on neutral status regarding NATO, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters on Friday amid reports that over 1000 Russian soldiers have been killed. Zelenskyy signed a decree Thursday on the general mobilization of the population in the wake of Russia's invasion.

Conscripts and reservists will be called up over the next 90 days to "ensure the defense of the state, maintaining combat and mobilization readiness," an entry on the Ukrainian presidency's website said.

"We have been left alone to defend our state," Zelenskyy said in a video address to the nation after midnight. "Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don't see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid," he added.

The Ukrainian leader vowed to continue fighting, saying that "a new iron curtain" was falling between Russia and the West.

With inputs from Reuters