Ukrainian forces repelled a Russian try to grab Kharkov, the city governor said on Sundayfollowing heavy fighting and street battles with advancing Russian troops.

Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said Ukrainian soldiers were now “cleaning up” the eastern city. He said the Russian soldiers came in groups of five to ten and dumped their equipment in the middle of the road.

“The control of Kharkiv is entirely ours!” Synyehubov published on facebook. “A thorough cleansing of the city of the enemy is underway. The Russian enemy is absolutely demoralized.

Earlier, the governor said that Russian light military vehicles had crept “into the city”, including central areas. They arrived in the northern suburbs at 8 a.m., he said. He urged all civilians to stay indoors. “Citizens of Kharkiv, do not leave the shelter, do not use transport,” he said.

Videos circulating on social media showed images of Russian troops moving through residential areas and past Soviet-era apartment buildings. Foot soldiers used armored vehicles as cover. Their vehicles were marked with the Z, the symbol of the four-day Russian invasion.

But other footage suggests the Ukrainian military inflicted casualties. There were pictures of a destroyed Russian column and images of a firefight in the southeast of the city. A group of Russian soldiers took refuge in an empty school, number 88, according to witnesses, near the Traktornyi Zavod metro station.

Ukrainian soldiers armed with Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers sheltered behind a wall and trees, come out to open fire. Fighting was reported around Shevchenko Avenue. In another part of town, local fighters walked around destroyed Russian vehicles, inspecting the damage and recovering military equipment.

The attempted Russian operation to seize Kharkiv followed a night of heavy shelling. At least one multi-story building was hit. Residents said the attacks were “massive and indiscriminate”, with one missile landing in a children’s playground next to a swing.

Artem Volodymyrovich, a 31-year-old English teacher, said Russian units advanced from the north. They passed Peremoha metro station, the last stop on the city’s green line, and headed towards the centre, he told the Guardian, speaking from a basement shelter.

“Russian diversionary groups have entered Kharkiv. Gunshots are heard. Our army is still in the city. The Ukrainians are still in control, the volunteers are working, the mayor is in charge and we are fighting back,” he said at 11 a.m. local time.

Volodymyrovich said he was hiding in a basement with 30 people, mostly women, children and the elderly. One of the group was an electrician who had fixed the power supply, allowing people to charge their phones. It was his third night at a shelter, he said.

“The shelling was very violent. The subway stopped working on Thursday afternoon and is now used as a bomb shelter. The trains were opened. People sleep in them because there is not enough space on the platforms.

The city would defeat the occupying Russian forces, he predicted. “I think so. We are at home. People are fighting for their own homes, their families, their loved ones. This is an invasion for them, a defense for us.

He added: “I am not a soldier. But if I have to, I’ll take a fucking machine gun before I die like this and sit inside to be shot, if they storm the basement. Better to die with your arms in your hands.

Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, who posted videos of the battle on his Telegram channel, said the Russian military had gone too far. “Kharkiv will become a Ukrainian Stalingrad for the Russians,” he wrote.

It was too early to say on Sunday whether Moscow would stage another attempt to capture Kharkiv – or give up. The brutal shelling of a city of 1.4 million people showed that Russia was now deliberately bombing civilians in suburban areas, residents said.

In one online addressUkrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskiy described last night as brutal: “More shooting, more shelling of residential areas and civilian infrastructure,” he said.

He added: “Today, there is not a single thing in the country that the occupiers do not consider an acceptable target. They fight against everyone. They fight against all living beings – against kindergartens, against residential buildings and even against ambulances.

He said Russian forces were “firing rockets and missiles at entire neighborhoods of the city in which there is and never was any military infrastructure. “Vasylkiv, Kyiv, Chernigiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and many other cities in Ukraine live in conditions that were last seen on our lands during World War II,” he said.