Russia launched a military operation on Ukraine, shortly after President Vladimir Putin spoke to his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko early on Thursday morning (at 0200 GMT). Russian soldiers crossed into Ukraine from several directions soon after Putin's announcement.
Now, Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs, has given details about the start of the invasion. He told Ukraine24 that missiles struck military control centres, airfields and military depots in capital Kyiv, Kharkov and Dnipro (in eastern and northeastern regions). There was artillery shelling on the border, he further said about the Ukraine crisis.
In the city of Nizhyn, in the Chernihiv region, the command and control centre of the State Emergency Service was fired upon. As a result of the shelling, three rescuers were wounded, said Gerashchenko.
An evacuation operation was soon ordered in Cherkasy region.
The civil defence authorities began sounding the sirens as soon as the shelling of military infrastructure began, reported Ukraine24. The train services are, however, running normally so far, according to state-owned Ukrainian Railways.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the imposition of martial law throughout Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in a Twitter post, called Russia's move a war of aggression. “Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now."
US President Joe Biden, reacting to an invasion the United States had been predicting for weeks, said his prayers were with the people of Ukraine "as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack", while promising tough sanctions in response.
Russia has demanded an end to NATO's eastward expansion and Putin, in a televised address on state TV, repeated his position that Ukrainian membership of the US-led Atlantic military alliance was unacceptable.
He said he had authorised military action after Russia had been left with no choice but to defend itself against what he said were threats from modern Ukraine, a democratic state of 44 million people.
Shelling had intensified since Monday when Putin recognised eastern separatist regions as independent and ordered the deployment of what he called peacekeepers, a move the West called the start of the invasion.
