KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Europe was plunged into its deepest crisis in decades on Thursday as Russia defied international law and threats of devastating economic sanctions by staging a deadly large-scale attack invasion of ukrainethreatening the safety of millions and sending citizens across the country rushing for refuge as missiles fell from the sky.
The Russian attack began early in the morning and took place by land, air and sea. Shelling and explosions hit all parts of the country, well beyond the front lines in eastern Ukraine, signifying a dramatic escalation of the 2014 Russian invasion.
“We woke up to a radically different world,” Emine Dzheppar, Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister, told BuzzFeed News.
The Russian military claimed to have destroyed more than 80 Ukrainian military sites, including 11 airfields, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. Report From Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed his country on Thursday evening, swapping his suit and tie for a military uniform. He said at least 137 Ukrainians had been killed so far in the Russian invasion, including civilians and military personnel.
Zelensky ordered a full military mobilization, calling up all conscripts and reservists in order to combat Russia’s actions, which he compared to those of the Soviet Union, describing the invasion as the “sound of the new iron curtain that falls and closes Russia to the civilized countries”. world.”
“Our task is that this curtain does not fall on Ukrainian territory,” Zelensky said.