Staff Reporter
THE Ukraine is under Russian attack.
Russian forces fired missiles at several cities in Ukraine and landed troops on its coast on Thursday after President Vladimir Putin authorised what he called a special military operation in the east, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter: “Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes. 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.”
Shortly after Putin spoke in a televised address on Russian state TV, explosions could be heard in the pre-dawn quiet of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, according to Reuters.
The Interfax news agency said gunfire rattled near the capital’s main airport, and sirens were heard over the city.
America’s President Joe Biden warned of a “catastrophic loss of life”, saying the people of Ukraine suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack. Biden promised tough sanctions in response.
The Guardian reports Russian state media have spent the morning praising the military operation in Ukraine, calling it a military intervention in Donbas, while largely ignoring missile strikes on infrastructure and some cities throughout the country.
Many ordinary Russians were expressing shock at the attack but some reporters and managers at state-run channels were enjoying the moment.
A reporter at one state media agency told the Guardian: “Unfortunately all I’ve heard this morning is pride.”
Margarita Simonyan, the head of RT (formerly Russia Today), tweeted: “This is a standard parade rehearsal. Except this year we have decided to hold the parade in Kyiv.”
According to the Moscow Times, the head of the Ukrainian military said Thursday he had received orders from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to repel a Russian invasion of his country.
“The supreme commander the Armed Forces of Ukraine gave orders to inflict maximum losses against the aggressor,” Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Major General Valeriy Zaluzhny said.
Russia’s ground forces have crossed into Ukraine from several directions, Ukraine’s border guard service said.
Russian tanks and other heavy equipment crossed the frontier in several northern regions, as well as from the Kremlin-annexed peninsula of Crimea in the south, the agency said.
It said one of its servicemen died in a shelling attack along the Crimean border, the first officially confirmed military death of the Russian invasion, the Moscow Times reported.
