Vladimir Putin’s invasion day: deadly assault on Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has launched his long-feared invasion of Ukraine, unleashing rocket attacks in the capital, Kyiv.
Vladimir Putin has launched his long-feared invasion of Ukraine, unleashing rocket attacks on strategic targets in the capital Kyiv and ordering Russian troops and tanks into the country in defiance of Western leaders’ demands.
The Russian President initiated the war in a televised address, announcing a “special military operation” to defend separatists in the Donbas region.
But the assault went beyond the country’s disputed east, with explosions in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and other major cities, and reports of Russian troops crossing the border from Belarus in the north, and landing in Odessa in the country’s south.
Ukrainians rushed to bomb shelters, while thousands sought to flee the conflict in long lines of traffic.
A furious Joe Biden lashed his Russian counterpart for the “unprovoked and unjustified attack”, warning the world would hold Russia accountable.
“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” the US President said.
“Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way.”
Scott Morrison decried the “brutal, unprovoked” invasion, announcing fresh sanctions on 25 Russians and four entities with military links, and warned that the country’s parliamentarians would soon be added to the list.
“We must ensure there is a cost for this violent, unacceptable, and egregious behaviour,” the Prime Minister said.
Mr Putin, who had massed up to 200,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, said Russian forces would demilitarise but not occupy the country, and urged Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms. He warned other nations to stay out of the fight or risk “such consequences as you have never before experienced in your history”.
As dawn broke in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law and urged civilians not to panic.
Within hours of Mr Putin’s speech, Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed to have disabled all of Ukraine’s air defences and air bases. Kyiv’s main international airport was hit in the first bombing of the city since the Second World War, as air raid sirens sounded over the capital at dawn.
Ukraine’s state emergency service said attacks had been launched against 10 Ukrainian regions, primarily in the east and south of the country.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it was not attacking the cities, but using “high-precision weapons” to attack Ukraine’s military infrastructure, air defence facilities, military airfields and aircraft.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the worst-case scenario was playing out and urged the country to resist the invaders. “Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes,” Mr Kuleba tweeted.
“This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”
Ukrainian airspace was closed to civilian aircraft. Russia also closed its airspace to non-military flights in the southwest of the country.
Mr Putin claimed the attack was a response to “genocide” against those in the Donbas region by “Nazis” in Kyiv, and to 30 years of “cynical lies” by NATO countries on security in eastern Europe. He said Russia could not “tolerate the threat” from modern Ukraine, which had become an “existential threat”.
Moscow claimed to have earlier received a request from separatist leaders for military help against claimed aggression by Kyiv.
The invasion came just hours after Mr Zelensky, speaking in Russian, appealed directly to the Russian people, saying their President was lying to them. He said he tried to call Mr Putin but there was “no answer, only silence”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the “horrific events in Ukraine”, saying Mr Putin had “chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction by launching this unprovoked attack”.
“The UK and our allies will respond decisively,” he tweeted.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Russia’s decision to “wage war on Ukraine”, while Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the attack “shakes the foundation of the international order”.
China’s foreign ministry continued to give cover to its “no limits” strategic partner Russia, denying Moscow had invaded Ukraine. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying rejected a reporter’s use of the word “invasion”, saying it was a description used by foreign journalists. Minutes later, she acknowledged the crisis but only vaguely.
“China did not wish to see what happened in Ukraine today. All countries must have sovereignty, territorial integrity,” Ms Hua said.
She said China hoped Russia and Ukraine would “not shut the door to peace and engage instead in dialogue and consultation and prevent the situation from further escalation” but added the US and its partners were to blame for the crisis. “When the US drove five waves of NATO expansion eastwards all the way to Russia’s doorstep ... did it ever think about the consequences of pushing a big country to the wall?” she said.
Mr Biden said he would meet virtually with G7 leaders to thrash out further sanctions, which are expected to target Russia’s largest banks, ban hi-tech exports to Russia, and possibly expel Russia from the international payments system.
In an emergency UN Security Council meeting, US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned a Russian invasion could displace five million people, triggering a new European refugee crisis.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued an unsuccessful personal plea for Mr Putin to call off the invasion.
In highly charged scenes, Ukraine’s UN ambassador demanded his Russian counterpart guarantee Russia would not “shell and bomb” his country, offering Russia’s ambassador time to go outside and call Mr Putin.
“There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, ambassador,” he said to the Russian seated a few metres away.
NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg condemned Russia‘s military operation as a “reckless and unprovoked attack on Ukraine” that would risk civilian lives. Mr Stoltenberg called on Russia to halt its attack and said NATO allies would “meet to address the consequences of Russia’s aggressive actions.”
Additional reporting: Will Glasgow, AFP
More Coverage
Amid tragedy, Yaari holds on to precious life
Until last week, Yaari Vigder’s world had been a picture of happiness. He lived with his fitness instructor wife and baby boy in the historic port city of Jaffa. A terror attack changed everything.
Nobel winners found tiny genetic switches
Americans Gary Ruvkun and Victor Ambros have won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their groundbreaking discovery of genetic switches that exist across the tree of life.