Russia has ignored global condemnation to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, unleashing air strikes on cities and military bases in an attack that could rewrite the post-Cold War security order.
Ukraine’s government pleaded for help as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee. Thousands of people went deep underground as night fell, jamming Kyiv’s subway stations.
Scores of Ukrainians, civilians and service members alike, were killed in the first full day of fighting.
“Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted.
Zelenskyy said in a video address that 137 “heroes,” including 10 military officers, had been killed and 316 people wounded. The dead included all border guards on the Zmiinyi Island in the Odesa region, which was taken over by Russians.
He concluded an emotional speech by saying that “the fate of the country depends fully on our army, security forces, all of our defenders.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin ignored cascading new sanctions as he unleashed the largest ground war in Europe since World War II and chillingly referred to his country’s nuclear arsenal. He threatened any country trying to interfere with “consequences you have never seen”.
Ukrainian forces braced for more attacks after enduring a Russian barrage of land- and sea-based missiles, an assault that one senior US defence official said was aimed at seizing key population centres and “decapitating” Ukraine’s government.
US President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, saying Putin “chose this war” and had exhibited a “sinister” view of the world in which nations take what they want by force. Other nations have taken similar measures.
Zelenskyy, who had earlier cut diplomatic ties with Moscow and declared martial law, appealed to global leaders, saying that “if you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door.”
Hours after the invasion began, Russian forces seized control of the now-unused Chernobyl nuclear plant and its surrounding exclusion zone after a fierce battle.
Alyona Shevtsova, adviser to the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, wrote on Facebook that staff members at the Chernobyl plant had been “taken hostage.” The White House said it was “outraged” by reports of the detentions.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence issued an update saying that though the plant was “likely captured,” the country’s forces had halted Russia’s advance toward Chernihiv and that it was unlikely that Russia had achieved its planned Day One military objectives.
The chief of the NATO alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said the “brutal act of war” shattered peace in Europe, joining a chorus of world leaders decrying an attack that could cause massive casualties and topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government. The conflict shook global financial markets: Stocks plunged and oil prices soared amid concerns that heating bills and food prices would skyrocket.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he aimed to cut off Russia from the UK’s financial markets as he announced sanctions, freezing the assets of all large Russian banks and planning to bar Russian companies and the Kremlin from raising money on British markets.
“Now we see him for what he is — a bloodstained aggressor who believes in imperial conquest,” Johnson said of Putin.
Zelenskyy urged the US and West to go further and cut the Russians from the SWIFT system, a key financial network that connects thousands of banks around the world. The White House has been reluctant to immediately cut Russia from SWIFT, worried it could cause enormous economic problems in Europe and elsewhere in the West.
Putin justified his actions in an overnight televised address, asserting the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the US predicted he would make as a pretext for invasion.
By YURAS KARMANAU, JIM HEINTZ, VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and DASHA LITVINOVA (Associated Press) in Kyiv
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