Russia has launched a “full-scale invasion” of Ukraine, with dozens reported useless after cities throughout the nation had been focused with weapons strikes, prompting tens of 1000’s of individuals to flee their properties.
After air raids and missile strikes, Russian troops attacked Ukraine on a number of fronts from Belarus, Russia and Crimea – which Russia annexed in 2014 – early on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ignored international condemnation and cascading new sanctions as he unleashed the biggest floor battle in Europe in many years. In a pre-dawn televised tackle, he threatened any nation making an attempt to intervene with “penalties you may have by no means seen”.
“Putin has simply launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceable Ukrainian cities are underneath strikes,” Ukrainian Overseas Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. “It is a battle of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and can win. The world can and should cease Putin. The time to behave is now.”
Putin has simply launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceable Ukrainian cities are underneath strikes. It is a battle of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and can win. The world can and should cease Putin. The time to behave is now.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 24, 2022
‘New iron curtain’
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a quick nationwide tackle to declare martial legislation all through the nation and known as on all Ukrainian residents who’re able to defend towards Russian forces to return ahead, saying Kyiv will subject weapons to everybody who needs them.
In a video tackle later within the day, he addressed the Ukrainian individuals carrying a army uniform. A “new iron curtain” is falling and shutting Russia off from the “civilised world”, he mentioned, and it’s Ukraine’s process “for that curtain to not fall” on its territory.
The Russian defence ministry mentioned it was concentrating on Ukrainian army infrastructure with precision weapons and claimed its air raids posed no risk to civilians. It later claimed to have destroyed 74 above-ground army infrastructure services, together with 11 aerodromes.
Air raid sirens blared all through the capital, Kyiv, following a bombing assault on the primary worldwide airport on the break of daybreak. All airspace was closed within the nation.
The sound of an explosion on the sting of the capital prompted panic, resulting in crowds assembling at bus stations and lengthy queues forming on the primary site visitors arteries as residents fled by automobile.
The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, informed a information convention that Russian forces had attacked the town’s airport and a village close by.
Ukraine’s Well being Minister Oleh Lyashko mentioned at the very least 57 individuals had been killed and 169 wounded throughout the nation.
After a fierce battle for management of the Chernobyl nuclear energy plant, Russian forces captured the now-defunct web site, in line with an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential workplace.
“It’s unattainable to say the Chernobyl nuclear energy plant is protected after a completely pointless assault by the Russians,” Mykhailo Podolyak mentioned.
The UN refugee company mentioned round 100,000 individuals had fled their properties inside Ukraine and several other thousand extra had left the nation because the invasion started.
Peace in Europe shattered
Russia’s invasion was met with robust worldwide condemnation. The pinnacle of the US-led NATO army alliance mentioned the “brutal act of battle” shattered peace in Europe, becoming a member of a refrain of world leaders who decried the assault
Josep Borrell, the European Union international coverage chief, mentioned the bloc would slap the harshest package deal of sanctions ever applied on Russia.
United States President Joe Biden introduced sanctions concentrating on Russia’s monetary system and expertise sector and authorised the deployment of further US forces to Germany.
“It is a premeditated assault,” Biden informed reporters on the White Home as he unveiled harsh new sanctions coordinated with allies. “Putin is the aggressor. Putin selected this battle. And now he and his nation will bear the results.”
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson known as Putin “a bloodstained aggressor, who believes in imperial conquest” and mentioned Putin has “supplied the absurd pretext that he sought the ‘demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine’”.
Johnson warned that Moscow will now face a “huge package deal of financial sanctions designed in time to hobble the Russian financial system”.
Fabrice Pothier, chief technique officer at consultancy agency Rasmussen International and a former director of coverage planning at NATO, informed Al Jazeera that whereas the US and EU sanctions packages sound spectacular, “this isn’t sufficient to cease Putin from following his twisted imaginative and prescient”.
“Putin … needs to rebuild Russia’s empire,” Pothier informed Al Jazeera.
Ukraine has appealed for worldwide help and help. Vasyl Bodnar, the Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey, informed a information convention that Kyiv had requested Ankara to shut the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to Russian warships.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Russia’s assault as a “heavy blow” to regional peace and known as for a decision of the disaster by means of dialogue.
Oleksandr Balanutsa, the Ukrainian ambassador to Kuwait, informed Al Jazeera that his nation is “asking for assist, we’re crying for assist”.
“We want greater than phrases; we want help at the moment,” he mentioned.