– The current death toll includes both Ukrainian soldiers and civilians
KYIV, February 25: Ukraine’s president said on Thursday night that 137 people had been killed, and 316 wounded so far, after Russia launched a full scale invasion on his country by land, sea and air.
The current death toll includes both Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
As night fell for the first time since Vladimir Putin initiated the all-out assault, heavy exchanges of fire were taking place the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast, and Kherson and Odessa in the south, while Kiev said heavy Russian shelling was still underway in the eastern Donetsk region. Moscow’s defence ministry said ground forces had moved in from annexed Crimea, and claimed to have “neutralised” Ukraine’s air defences and destroyed 11 airfields, with Russian troops also seizing an airbase just 25 miles from the capital’s centre. Ukraine’s airforce is thought to have comprised of roughly 200 aircraft.
Russian forces have also reportedly attempted to take control of Ukraine’s Serpent Island, which lies in the Black Sea less than 30 miles from Nato member Romania, while seizing control of the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant – a move the Ukrainian president claimed was “a declaration of war against the whole of Europe”.
Addressing the nation in military uniform, Mr Zelensky suggested the “missile blasts, fighting and the rumble of aircraft” in his country were “the sound of a new iron curtain, which has come down and is closing Russia off from the civilised world”.
“Our national task is to make sure this curtain does not fall across our land,” the president said.
Mr Zelensky moved on Thursday to declare martial law, meaning the military will temporarily take control of Ukraine, and severed all diplomatic ties with Russia. Hours prior to Mr Putin’s invasion, Kiev’s parliament approved a law allowing citizens to bear firearms, while Mr Zelensky called up reservists to the country’s army.
Ukrainian health minister Viktor Lyashko said authorities were repurposing the country’s healthcare facilities to make room for those wounded in the hostilities.
Despite Russia’s claim that “there is no threat to the civilian population”, Moscow’s bombardment was reported to have fatally hit an apartment block near Kharkiv, with some residents in the capital taking to bomb shelters and the city’s subway system.
“Nobody believed that this war would start, and that they would take Kyiv directly” one man waiting out the night in an old Soviet metro station told the Associated Press. “I feel mostly fatigue. None of it feels real.”
Others piled onto trains and into cars and are seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, with steady lines of people laden with backpacks and suitcases forming at border crossings – as aid agencies warned the conflict could trigger a major refugee crisis. – DNA
