Ukraine

The invasion by land, air and sea began after a pre-dawn TV address where Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine's military lay down its arms.

Since then more than 14,000 people have died in the east in a conflict between the rebels and Ukrainian forces. You can also get in touch in the following ways: Addressing Russians, he said: "I cannot believe this is being done in your name, or that you really want the pariah status it will bring to the Putin regime." Russian tanks were later seen on the outskirts of Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people. The breakaway regions were seized by Russian-backed rebels after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. Then Ukrainian forces said Russian military vehicles had crossed the border near Kharkiv in the north, Luhansk in the east, Russian-annexed Crimea in the south and from Belarus too. Ukraine said it had killed 50 Russian troops and shot down six Russian aircraft, but this has not been verified. Under the defensive alliance's treaty, Nato can be brought together if any member fears their independence or territory is under threat. In the capital Kyiv, home to almost three million people, warning sirens blared out as traffic queued to leave the city and crowds sought shelter in metro stations. Mark, a 27-year-old sales executive, said he was ready to be called up to fight. Moscow first struck Ukraine's military infrastructure and border guard units. Dozens of people have been killed, including about 10 civilians.

Russia has begun a large-scale military attack on Ukraine, its southern neighbour, on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Addressing Russians, he said: "I cannot believe this is being done in your name, or that you really want the pariah status it will bring to the Putin regime." You can also get in touch in the following ways: But clashes have also been taking place around Kyiv and the Black Sea port cities of Odesa and Mariupol. "People were out on the streets last night in this city - they were waving the Ukrainian flag. A British resident of Odesa told the BBC many people were leaving. They were going nowhere," she reported. Ukraine said it had killed 50 Russian troops. Mr Putin said Russia was intervening as an act of self-defence. "I think he wanted to do something and negotiate, and it got worse and worse, and then he saw the weakness," Trump said. There have also been reports of troops landing by sea at the Black Sea port cities of Mariupol and Odesa in the south. He urged Ukrainian soldiers in the combat zone to lay down their weapons and go home, but said clashes were inevitable and "only a question of time". Convoys have also entered the eastern Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, and moved into the Kherson region from Crimea - a territory that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

It is not clear how many Ukrainian soldiers have died during the Russian invasion. But Kyiv reported on Friday that 18 people were killed at a military base ...

For its part, Russia claimed on Sunday that it has hit more than 1,000 Ukrainian military targets since the invasion began. He has also called Ukraine an artificial creation and denied its right to statehood. But it has said that its losses were far lower than those suffered by Ukraine. After weeks of denying plans to invade, Putin justified his actions in a televised address early on Thursday, asserting that the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine – a claim Ukraine and its allies have slammed as false and a pretext for a wider invasion. The Ukrainian military says at least 4,500 Russian soldiers had been killed, and Moscow has acknowledged that Russian soldiers had been killed and wounded. Ukraine says hundreds of people have been killed so far in Russia’s invasion, with fighting widespread across the country and Russian forces advancing on the capital, Kyiv.

Russian forces have launched missile and helicopter attacks around Ukraine, and early signs suggest their goal is to encircle Kyiv.

The mayor of Mariupol said three civilians had been killed there and emergency services in Kharkiv said a boy had been killed after shelling struck an apartment building. Half of Moscow’s air force is also deployed in the region. The local administration in Odesa said 22 people had died in a strike on a military base. “However, it’s high risk because until ground forces link up, the airborne assault forces are deep in Ukrainian territory and dependent on aerial resupply, casualty evacuation and fire support,” he said. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had destroyed 74 “objects of above-ground military infrastructure”, though this could not be confirmed. Shortly after, however, Ukraine’s armed forces chief said Kyiv’s forces were fighting back in a critical early battle.

After air and missile strikes, Russian troops launched attacks from Ukraine's northern border with Belarus, across its eastern frontier and in the south from ...

Slovakia said that its border with Ukraine was open for “all persons fleeing this war”. The US has warned that as many as 5mn Ukrainians could be displaced. “Vladimir Putin gave extensive explanations of the causes and circumstances of why a decision was taken to launch a special military operation. The leaders had a “serious and frank exchange of views about the Ukraine situation”, the Kremlin said in a readout. The price dropped back to about $99 after the Biden administration announced a raft of sanctions that focused on Russia’s financial sector, rather than its energy industry, which is an important supplier to many western countries. Korsunsky said the Russian vessels had twice demanded the Ukrainians lay down their weapons and surrender or be destroyed. Alarm over the conflict ripped through international markets, with the price of European natural gas contracts jumping as much as 70 per cent to €142 per megawatt hour. Biden said the US and its allies would impose new sanctions in response to Russia’s aggression. Shocked by the ferocity of Russia’s assault, world leaders addressed their nations to condemn what they cast as the most momentous challenge to the postwar order in Europe for 80 years. The Ukrainian president said 137 Ukrainians were killed in Thursday’s fighting. Ukraine’s land forces said Russia fired at peaceful areas of Kyiv but the strike was intercepted. “[Putin] has much larger ambitions than Ukraine,” said Joe Biden, US president. My family is the number-two target.

Analysis: Immediate options seem limited and fraught with risk, but if Putin wants less Nato, he may ultimately end up with more.

Some diplomats are optimistic that, unlike with Syria in 2015, there will not be a political backlash, pointing out many Ukrainians have already been welcomed to Europe. As many as 15,000 Ukrainians already live in Berlin. But autocrats have learned that refugees are weapons of war. It symbolised the degree to which the UN has become utterly compromised. In his speech announcing the invasion, Putin warned outsiders tempted to interfere that there would be “consequences you have never encountered in your history” – a chilling veiled reference to nuclear war. There is only Putin.” Another said: “The only thing that will change Russian public opinion is the mothers of Russia seeing the bodybags.” Keir Giles, also from Chatham House, urged the west to be cautious. The coordinated sanctions in Washington, London, Berlin and Brussels being announced on Thursday are billed as massive, but Putin sits on a $600bn (£450bn) war chest and will benefit from oil prices soaring past $100 a barrel.

We the Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) are appalled by and condemn the large-scale military aggression by the Russian Federation against the territorial ...

We stand united with partners, including NATO, the EU and their member states as well as Ukraine and remain determined to do what is necessary to preserve the integrity of the international-rules base order. We reaffirm that illegally occupied Crimea and the self-declared “people’s republics” are an integral part of Ukraine. In this dark hour our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine. We stand ready to support with humanitarian assistance in order to mitigate the suffering, including for refugees and displaced persons from the Russian aggression. It constitutes a serious violation of international law and a grave breach of the United Nations Charter and all commitments Russia entered in the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris and its commitments in the Budapest Memorandum. We as the G7 are bringing forward severe and coordinated economic and financial sanctions. This unprovoked and completely unjustified attack on the democratic state of Ukraine was preceded by fabricated claims and unfounded allegations. We call on other states not to follow Russia’s illegal decision to recognise the proclaimed independence of these entities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine early Thursday. Follow here for live news updates from the ground in Ukraine.

Following the call, Blinken tweeted a similar statement, highlighting the “importance of a strong collective response to Russian aggression,” adding “Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is a clear violation of the rules-based international order.” “Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar today to discuss Russia’s premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine. Secretary Blinken stressed the importance of a strong collective response to condemn Russia’s invasion and call for an immediate withdrawal and ceasefire,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a readout of the call on Thursday. Also on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone conversation with India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, stressing the importance of a “strong collective response” toward Russia's invasion of Ukraine, an official spokesperson said.

President Zelenskiy calls on Ukrainians to defend country as Russia claims to have neutralised its airbases and air defencesRussia-Ukraine crisis: live ...

Some of the first explosions after Putin announced the operation were heard near Kramatorsk, the headquarters of the Ukrainian army’s operations near the Russian-controlled territories in south-east Ukraine. Russia appeared to be targeting military infrastructure in its early strikes on Thursday morning. Russia has every incentive to move as fast as possible,” wrote Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program. “We have taken the decision to conduct a special military operation,” he said, in what amounted to a declaration of war. But the answer is up to you,” he said. In 2014, Putin ordered undercover Russian soldiers to seize the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow then annexed. The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson said: “I am appalled by the horrific events in Ukraine and I have spoken to President Zelenskiy to discuss next steps. President Putin has chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction by launching this unprovoked attack on Ukraine. The UK and our allies will respond decisively. Zelenskiy used a video address to appeal to the Russian public for help after an attempt to speak to Putin was unsuccessful. “We do not intend to occupy Ukraine,” he said, and he had a chilling warning for other nations. “What we have heard today are not just missile blasts, fighting and the rumble of aircraft,” he said. “Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” said Dmytro Kuleba. “Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes. Zelenskiy also said Ukrainian forces were fighting to prevent Russian troops capturing Chernobyl. It was later reported that the Russians now held the former nuclear plant.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russia could start "a major war in Europe" any day now, and called on Russians to oppose it.

A senior US defence official on Wednesday said Russian troops were "uncoiled and ready to go", with a large-scale invasion possible at any moment. You can also get in touch in the following ways: Ukraine earlier said it was ordering its citizens to leave Russia because "escalating Russian aggression" could limit consular assistance. Russia has been backing a bloody armed rebellion in eastern Ukraine for the past eight years. Such attacks aim to overwhelm websites by flooding a network with fake traffic and preventing it from communicating normally. Western countries have announced a series of sanctions against Russia since it tore up a 2014-15 peace deal for eastern Ukraine and recognised the so-called people's republics of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states. It introduces personal document checks, blocks military reservists from leaving the country, bans mass gatherings and places restrictions on radio communication systems. The 30-day emergency status allows authorities to adopt heightened security measures, including curfews. EU leaders have been invited for an extraordinary summit in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the crisis, while UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the world was facing a "moment of peril" as he called for de-escalation. Result: silence," Mr Zelensky said. Moscow's claims that troops would be sent in for "peacekeeping" operations have been rejected by the UN secretary-general and decried as nonsense by the West. Ukraine's leader said his country was ready for a Russian attack, vowing: "If they [Russia] attack, if they try to take our county - our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children - we will be defending ourselves."

Ukraine says its cities are under attack as Sky News hears explosions in Kyiv and Kharkiv. By Alexa Phillips, news reporter.

Cars stretched for dozens of miles on the highway leading west towards Poland, where Western countries have prepared to receive hundreds of thousands of refugees. The country said it is facing non-stop cyber attacks and has closed its airspace to civilian flights. He warned: "What we have heard today are not just missile blasts, fighting and the rumble of aircraft. A US official said Russian forces were moving on three fronts - from annexed Crimea to Kherson in the south, from Belarus - north of Ukraine - towards Kyiv, and from the northeast to Kharkiv. Ukraine reported troops pouring across the borders with Russia and Belarus from the north and east, and landing on the coasts from the Black Sea in the southwest and Azov Sea in the southeast on Thursday. Ukraine reported troops pouring across the borders with Russia and Belarus from the north and east, and landing on the coasts from the Black Sea in the southwest and Azov Sea in the southeast.

Ukrainian president calls on Russians to consider the cost of war. UKRAINE-LITHUANIA-POLAND-DIPLOMACY. Ukrainian President Volodymyr ...

You know our principles. You know our people. You know what we value.

After reports of explosions near Kyiv, Joe Biden accuses Putin of choosing a 'war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life'

I remain in close contact with our partners and allies in the European Union and Nato to coordinate our response.” “Italy is close to the Ukrainian people and institutions in this dramatic moment. “We will weaken Russia’s economic base and its capacity to modernise. “Sadly, what we have warned against for months has come to pass. “Peace in our continent has been shattered. “The world will hold Russia accountable.” We cannot and will not just look away.” “We do not have Nato troops in Ukraine and we do not have plans to send Nato troops to Ukraine.” He said: “Ukraine is a country that for decades has enjoyed freedom and democracy and the right to choose its own destiny. In addition, we will freeze Russian assets in the EU and stop the access of Russian banks to the European financial market.” “France stands in solidarity with Ukraine. It stands with the Ukrainians and works with its partners and allies to end the war.” “We will continue to provide support and assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”

UN secretary-general pleads with Russia to withdraw troops 'in the name of humanity'

Putin approves 'special military operation' as Russia launches invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea.

“In the name of humanity, bring your troops back to Russia,” he said. “Russia cannot feel safe, develop, and exist with a constant threat emanating from the territory of modern Ukraine.” This is a grave breach of international law & a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now,” he said. The meeting is expected within 24 hours. Future of Europe & the world is at stake. Germany said it was a “shameless breach of international law” while the UK said the attack was “unprovoked, unjust” and it was a “dark day for Ukraine”. The world must act immediately. #NATOAllies will meet to address Russia’s renewed aggression. Analysts said it could be that Russia was beginning with a “shock and awe” attack in the belief that it might mean it could get what it wants without having to mount a larger-scale attack. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. This is a war of aggression.