Explosions erupted in Ukraine's capital on Friday morning, and air raid sirens sounded for the second time, as a top Pentagon officer informed US senators that Russian soldiers had pushed to only 20 kilometres outside Kyiv.

According to a source on the call, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley notified House lawmakers about the freshly positioned Russian forces during an unclassified briefing on Thursday.

According to one individual on the conversation and one senior defense official, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin portrayed the present phase of Russia's military campaign as the tip of the spear, adding that the vast bulk of Russian forces are not yet in Ukraine.

Their findings came after Russia launched attacks on major cities across Ukraine, killing hundreds of people and prompted Ukraine's president to warn that saboteurs had invaded Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a statement that at least 137 people have been murdered and 316 have been injured during the invasion. In a televised address, he subsequently allegedly warned of saboteurs invading the city.

"We also have intelligence that enemy sabotage forces have reached Kyiv," Zelensky stated, adding that "the enemy has designated me as the number one target."

According to Ukrainian officials and the country's emergency services, an apartment building in Kyiv was struck with rubble around the time of Zelensky's video message after an aircraft was shot down.

Explosions and shelling were first heard throughout major towns in Ukraine at 5 a.m. local time on Thursday, only minutes after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced military action in a pre-dawn televised speech from Moscow. He warned that if other countries sought to meddle, they would be met with a Russian retaliation "so terrible that no other nation has ever faced it before."

The Chernobyl nuclear power facility, located north of Kyiv, was taken over by Russian forces on Thursday. The Chernobyl plant was the scene of a 1986 reactor accident that spilled huge amounts of radioactivity into the environment.

"The Russians have taken control of the Chernobyl nuclear power facility," stated Anton Gerashchenko, an interior ministry consultant. The revelation was also confirmed by an assistant in Zelensky's office to The Associated Press. The takeover appeared to be motivated by the necessity to seize a critical site along the invasion path from Belarus to Kyiv and deny it to Ukrainian forces.

A strike on the nuclear waste storage site, according to Gerashchenko, might emit radioactive dust that could coat Ukraine, Belarus, and European Union countries.

In statements televised early Thursday, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to arm themselves in the face of the Russian invasion.

He stated, "We are being assaulted from the south, north, east, and from the air." "In order to safeguard our sovereignty, we are giving away guns and will continue to do so to everyone who asks." Our destiny is in the hands of each one of us."

Later, he gave an order to mobilize the military to "guarantee the state's defense."

"They aim to ruin Ukraine politically by assassinating the president," he explained.

New measures were immediately announced by Western countries. President Joe Biden announced a new wave of penalties against multiple Russian banks, including berbank and VTB, the two largest primarily state-owned banks in the country.

"That means all of their assets in America will be blocked," he explained.

The US also imposed export restrictions on Russia and targeted Putin's inner circle, but the plans fell short of one of the more severe sanctions: cutting Russia off from the Belgian financial messaging system known as SWIFT, which connects over 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries and territories.

"Putin is the aggressor," says the author. Putin selected this conflict. And now he and his nation are going to pay the price," Biden warned.

After Putin pushed some soldiers into Moscow-backed separatist territories in Ukraine's east, the administration retaliated with a limited set of penalties. In addition to the forces already deployed to and redeployed inside Europe in recent days, Biden stated that the US will send more troops to Germany and Poland.

Following a discussion on the situation, the Group of Seven top economic countries lambasted Putin in a united statement, pledging "strong and coordinated economic and financial penalties."

"President Putin has reignited the European continent's conflict." Their statement read, "He has placed himself on the wrong side of history." "Stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and raise your voice against this obvious breach of the fundamental norms of international peace and security," the G7 urged the international community.

NATO claimed the attack was "unjustified and unprovoked" and posed a "severe danger to Euro-Atlantic security," adding that it was sending more troops and marine assets to the "eastern half of the alliance."

Belarus has also been sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom for its role in the invasion. The Treasury Department claimed the Biden administration's sanctions targeted state-owned banks, the country's defense and security industries, and a number of "regime-connected officials and elites." The White House issued a statement saying, "We urge on Belarus to remove its support for Russian aggression in Ukraine."

The number of casualties is increasing.

Ukrainian officials said that cruise or ballistic missiles had hit military control centers near Kyiv as military attacks and clashes raged across the nation. According to NBC News correspondents on the ground, air raid sirens were heard across the city, and explosions were seen and heard there and in neighboring places.

Hundreds of Russian troops, as well as Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, were killed in the conflict, according to Ukrainian sources. Russian forces also targeted airfields, military depots, and Ukraine's infrastructure across the nation with missile assaults and shelling.

Since the strikes began, Russia has launched more than 160 missiles, according to a senior US defense official.

CLICK TO UNMUTE

In a Telegram message, Zelensky reiterated his plea for Ukrainian civilians to assist the defense forces, inviting anybody with combat expertise to volunteer.

"The sounds we hear today are not simply missile strikes, explosions, and rockets — they are the sounds of the Iron Curtain collapsing and cutting Russia off from the rest of the civilized world," he explained.

"Unfortunately, many of our warriors have died, and the Russian military has been kidnapped," he stated. "We've taken out a lot of Russian military and aircraft equipment." I'm seeing a lot of Russians who are astonished by what's going on. Some of them began posting on social media about their opposition to the invasion."

Ukraine said that Russia was invading with the assistance of Belarus, where Russian forces had been stationed for months. Tanks and armoured vehicles crossed into Ukraine from Belarus, and ballistic missiles were fired in a southern direction, according to surveillance video posted online by Ukraine's Border Guard Service.

According to Ukrainian officials, battles took place in Hostel, just outside Kyiv, which is home to an international cargo airport, as well as in the districts around Kharkiv in the east and Kherson in the south.

On its websites, the administration also alleged "mass cyberattacks." The government's assertions of losses, clashes, and force movements were not immediately confirmed by NBC News.

                         kraine-Russia region

 

Russia and allied  country

 

territory under Russion  or  pro-russion

sapratist control

 

 

NOTA  member  country 

                              source: Natural Earth

Russia is "making a move on Kyiv," according to a senior US defense source, who added that the US assessment of Putin's activities is that Russia has "every intention of decapitating the government and imposing their own form of administration."

According to the official, Russia's actions imply that the invasion is still in its early stages.

"We haven't been astonished by what they've done so far," the official added. "It's very much in line with expectations."

Retired In an interview on the "TODAY" show, Adm. James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander and NBC News contributor, predicted that Russian forces would attempt to take Zelensky.

Putin's objectives

Putin stated in his broadcast address that he wanted Ukraine to be "demilitarised," claiming that the West had gone too far in trying to bring the nation into the NATO alliance. He also claimed that Nazi components were in Ukraine, which experts thought was untrue.

He's also claimed that Ukraine is committing "genocide" against Russian speakers, an allegation backed up by no evidence and refuted by international observers on the ground.

Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, claimed at a press conference following the incursion that Russia's goal is to "neutralise Ukraine's military might." He clarified that Russia was not discussing invading Ukraine.

Russia's assertions of Ukrainian aggression are based on little evidence, and the US has been warning for months that Moscow is attempting to create a pretext to launch a fight.   

 Traffic is jammed as people leave Kyiv on Thursday.

In Kyiv, there is fear and congestion.

According to live television images and NBC News correspondents in the area, highways out of the 3 million-person metropolis were gridlocked with automobiles as people attempted to evacuate. Long lineups formed at ATMs, grocery stores, and petrol stations.

The mayor imposed a curfew from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and citizens were given refuge in subway stations.

Explosions broke out in the distance in Kharkiv, Ukraine's northeastern city, which is less than 20 miles from the Russian border. Many establishments looked to be shuttered as locals filled up on food and petrol.

Explosions went out in the distance in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, which is fewer than 20 miles from the Russian border, and many establishments seemed to be shuttered as locals filled up on food and gasoline, according to NBC News international reporter Matt Bradley. The mayor added that Russian tanks were stationed along the city's ring road, and that the subway stations were the safest areas for people.

According to Ukraine's Infrastructure Ministry, more than 3,100 Ukrainians have been evacuated from the eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, with further evacuations likely on Thursday.

Russia had encircled Ukraine on three sides with 150,000 troops, as well as air and naval forces, in the run-up to the invasion. For weeks, the buildup, along with Moscow's draconian security demands, sparked fears of an invasion and dire forecasts of civilian and military losses.

Following the start of the battle, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that "the world can and must stop Putin," while Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya addressed his Russian colleague directly at the United Nations, stating, "There is no purgatory for war criminals." They are destined for hell."

The invasion comes eight years after Russia invaded Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and supported pro-Russian rebels in the country's east, a conflict that has claimed the lives of an estimated 14,000 people and is still ongoing. In recent days, shelling has increased, followed by Russia's recognition of the breakaway areas' independence and the deployment of soldiers for so-called peacekeeping missions.

The Kremlin announced on Wednesday that separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine had requested military support to protect against "aggression" from Ukraine.

 

 

 

 

Russia and allied countries

Territory under Russian or pro-Russian

separatist control