Russia invades Ukraine in Europe's 'darkest hours' since WWII
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[February 24, 2022]
By Natalia Zinets and Aleksandar Vasovic
KYIV/OUTSIDE MARIUPOL, Ukraine (Reuters)
-Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Thursday, assaulting by land, sea and
air in the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since
World War Two.
Missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities. Ukraine reported columns of
troops pouring across its borders from Russia and Belarus, and landing
on the coast from the Black and Azov seas.
Explosions were heard before dawn and throughout the morning in the
capital Kyiv, a city of 3 million people. Gunfire rattled, sirens
blared, and the highway out of the city choked with traffic as residents
fled.
The assault brought a calamatous end to weeks of fruitless diplomatic
efforts by Western leaders to avert war, their worst fears about Russian
President Vladimir Putin's ambitions realised.
"Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany
did in the WW2 years," tweeted Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
"Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself
& won't give up its freedom no matter what Moscow thinks."
Calling on Ukrainians to defend their country, he said arms would be
given to anyone prepared to fight. He also urged Russians to take to the
streets to protest against their government's actions.
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U.S. President Joe Biden said he was praying for Ukrainian victims of an
"unprovoked and unjustified attack". EU foreign affairs chief Josep
Borrell said: "These are among the darkest hours of Europe since the
Second World War."
RUSSIAN BOMBING
A resident of Kharkiv, the closest big city to the Russian border, said
windows in apartment blocks were shaking from constant blasts.
Outside the southern port of Mariupol, near a frontline held by
Russian-backed separatists, a Ukrainian armoured column headed along the
road, with soldiers seated atop turrets smiling and flashing victory
signs to cars which honked their horns in support.
In Mangush and Berdyansk towns, people queued for cash and gasoline.
Civilians from Mariupol packed bags.
"We are going into hiding," one woman said.
Ukrainian officials said Russian helicopters attacked Gostomel, a
military airport near Kyiv, and Ukraine downed three of them. Ukrainian
border officials said the Russians were trying to penetrate Kyiv region
and the Zhytomyr region on the Belarusian border, and they were using
Grad rockets.
Initial unconfirmed reports of casualties included Ukrainian civilians
killed by Russian bombardment and border guards defending the frontier.
Regional authorities of Ukraine's southern Odessa region said 18 people
were killed in a missile attack. At least six people were killed in
Brovary, a town near Kyiv, authorities there said.
Ukraine's military said it had destroyed four Russian tanks on a road
near Kharkiv, killed 50 troops near a town in Luhansk region and downed
six Russian warplanes in the east.
Russia denied reports its aircraft or armoured vehicles had been
destroyed. Russian-backed separatists claimed to have downed two
Ukrainian planes.
'UNPROVOKED AND UNJUSTIFIED'
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In an early-morning declaration of war, Putin said he had ordered "a
special military operation" to protect people, including Russian
citizens, subjected to "genocide" in Ukraine - an accusation the West
calls absurd propaganda.
"And for this we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification
of Ukraine," Putin said. "Russia cannot feel safe, develop, and exist
with a constant threat emanating from the territory of modern
Ukraine...All responsibility for bloodshed will be on the conscience of
the ruling regime in Ukraine."
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![](../images/022422PIX/news_L21.jpg)
A view shows the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service site damaged
by shelling in Kyiv region, Ukraine, in this handout picture
released February 24, 2022. Press service of the Ukrainian State
Border Guard Service/Handout via REUTERS
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/24/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png) Biden has ruled out sending U.S.
troops to defend Ukraine but he and other Western leaders promised
tough financial sanctions.
"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,"
Biden said.
Russia is one of the world's biggest energy producers, and both it
and Ukraine are among the top exporters of grain. The prospect of
war and sanctions threatens economies around the world already
facing supply disruption as they emerge from the pandemic.
Stocks and bond yields plunged; the dollar and gold soared. Brent
oil surged past $100/barrel for the first time since 2014. [MKTS/GLOB]
A democratic country of 44 million people, Ukraine is Europe's
biggest country by area after Russia itself. It voted overwhelmingly
for independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, and aims to
join NATO and the European Union, aspirations that infuriate Moscow.
Putin, who denied for months he was planning an invasion, has called
Ukraine an artificial construct carved from Russia by its enemies, a
characterisation Ukrainians see as an attempt to erase their more
than 1,000-year-old history. While many Ukrainians, particularly in
the east, speak Russian as a native language, virtually all identify
as a separate nationality.
Three hours after Putin gave his order, Russia's defence ministry
said it had taken out military infrastructure at Ukrainian air bases
and degraded its air defences.
Earlier, Ukrainian media reported that military command centres in
Kyiv and Kharkiv had been struck by missiles, while Russian troops
had landed at Odessa and Mariupol. A Reuters witness later heard
three blasts in Mariupol.
Russia announced it was shutting all shipping in the Azov Sea.
Russia controls the strait leading into the sea where Ukraine has
ports including Mariupol. Ukraine appealed to Turkey to bar Russian
ships from the straits connecting the Black Sea to the
Mediterranean.
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'WE'RE AFRAID'
Queues of people waited to withdraw money and buy supplies of food
and water in Kyiv. Traffic going out of the city towards the Polish
border was jammed. Western countries have prepared for the
likelihood of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing an
assault.
Cars stretched back for dozens of kilometres (miles) on the highway
to the western city of Lviv, Reuters witnesses said.
"We're afraid of bombardments," said Oxana, stuck in her car with
her three-year-old daughter on the backseat. "This is so scary."
World leaders expressed near universal outrage at the invasion, with
China, which signed a friendship treaty with Russia three weeks ago,
a notable exception. Beijing reiterated a call for all parties to
exercise restraint and rejected a description of Russia's action as
an invasion.
(Reporting by Reuters bureausWriting by Peter GraffEditing by Angus
MacSwan)
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