The Russians were also attacking from other directions, resulting in Kyiv being partly surrounded for quite some time.

And as close the Russians got, the fog of war made it seem like they were even closer. One the night of February 25th - one day into the war - the New York Times had the headline: "RUSSIAN TROOPS ENTER KYIV"[1].

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20220225122446/https://www.nytim...