Ukrainian officials reported rocket strikes in Kyiv in the early hours of Friday as Russian forces close in on the capital city, after unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that could rewrite the global post-Cold War security order, according to AP News.
Explosions sounded before dawn in Kyiv as Western leaders scheduled an emergency meeting and Ukraine’s president pleaded for international help. The nature of the explosions was not immediately clear, but the blasts came amid signs that the capital and largest Ukrainian city was increasingly threatened following a day of fighting that left more than 100 Ukrainians dead.
“Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv,” tweeted Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, drawing comparisons with World War II.
“Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one,” added Kuleba.
The strikes come roughly 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale bombardment and invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, calling on the country to disarm and drop its ambitions to join NATO, Politico repots
The assault prompted swift condemnation from Western leaders, and the U.S., U.K. and European Union announced further sanctions against Moscow, targeting oligarchs, banks and other sectors.
Ukraine’s government confirmed 137 deaths and more than 300 injured. Kyiv also reported that Russian troops had seized the radioactive site of the former Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
“The nature of the military invasion indicates that the main purpose of the Kremlin regime is to block Kyiv, create a land corridor to the occupied Crimean peninsula and a self-proclaimed Transnistria,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a note.
A senior U.S. Defense Department official told reporters on Thursday that Russia intends to “decapitate” the democratic government in Kyiv. Putin’s forces are “making a move on Kyiv,” the official said, “basically decapitating the government and installing their own method of governance.”
On Thursday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who remains in the capital, ordered full military mobilization and published a decree forbidding Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country.
In an address just after 11 p.m., he said Russian “saboteurs” had entered Kyiv and vowed not to flee despite having become a target. He questioned the West’s resolve and said: “Who is ready to fight with us? Honestly, I don’t see anyone … They say they are with us but they are not ready to take us in the [NATO] military alliance. All of them are afraid.”