Ukraine confirms more than 40 soldiers and a dozen civilians killed in the first hours of the Russian attack

More than 40 Ukrainian soldiers and a dozen civilians died in the first hours of the invasion launched by Russia against the neighboring country, an adviser to the president of Ukraine said on Thursday. Ukraine.

“I know that more than 40 soldiers died and several dozen were wounded. There are also a dozen dead civilians,” Oleksiy Arestovich told the press.

Russia began his invasion of Ukraine this Thursday morning, with bombings throughout the country, including the capital, and ground incursions in various parts of the territory that have already caused the first casualties.

The beginning of the invasion was strongly condemned by a large part of the international community and by Kiev, which broke diplomatic relations with Moscow, and promised to defend itself, while requesting international help to force Moscow to respect the peace.

The diplomatic efforts of recent weeks and the imposition of Western sanctions against Russia they were not enough to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had deployed between 150,000 and 200,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders for weeks.

“I have made the decision of a military operation”, declared the president in a televised speech at dawn, assuring that he was not seeking the “occupation”, but “a demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine and the defense of the pro-Russian rebels in the east of the country.

Shortly after, explosions began to be heard in several cities in Ukraine, from Kiev to Kharkov, its second city on the border with Russia, but also in Odesa or Mariúpol, on the shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov.

The bombing warning sirens were activated in the capital, in Odessa and in Lviv (Lviv), where the United States and other countries had moved their embassies.

The Russian army claimed that it was attacking Ukrainian military installations with “high-precision weapons”, claiming that they had destroyed anti-aircraft defense systems and put Ukraine’s air bases “out of service”.

The Russian military also said that separatists from the east are advancing and taking control of territories.

The first casualties

Kiev announced that more than 40 soldiers and a dozen Ukrainian civilians were killed. He also confirmed that there have already been ground incursions by Russian forces to the north, from Russia and Belarus, but also to the south in the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Belarus, an ally of the Kremlin, assured that it was not participating in the operation. .

the ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced a martial law throughout the country, but asked the population not to panic. He also urged the international community to create an “anti-Putin coalition” to force Moscow to respect the peace.

In addition, the president decided to cut diplomatic relations with Russia, which had been maintained despite the annexation of Crimea.

“Ukrainian forces are engaged in fierce fighting. The enemy has suffered significant losses that will be even more significant.” Zelensky also said, promising to “inflict maximum casualties” on the aggressor.

The Ukrainian army claimed to have killed 50 Russian occupiers and shot down five planes and a helicopter in the east of the country.

The Ukrainian authorities closed the airspace to civil aviation for security reasons, while Russia closed maritime transport in the Azov Sea, which connects both countries.

“I packed the bags and fled”

Russia assured that the civilians of Ukraine “have nothing to fear”, but in the Kiev metro, dozens of people were looking for shelter or a way to leave the city by train or road. “I woke up to the noise of the bombs, I prepared the bags and fled,” Maria Kashkoska, 29, told AFP in a state of shock on the subway.

In the middle of the night, the capital’s traffic was rush hour. Vehicles full of families were seeking to leave the city, heading west, as far as possible from the Russian border, located 400 km away.

In Chuguev, near Kharkiv, a woman and her son mourned a man, killed in a missile strike, one of the first victims of the attack.

“I had told him to leave,” the son repeated tirelessly, next to the remains of an old Lada car and the crater caused by the projectile that fell between two five-story buildings.

In his televised message, Putin had urged the Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms and justified his attack by the alleged “genocide” of the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine.

“The saddest day”

The reactions to the beginning of the invasion were immediate. Biden, who called Zelensky to express his “support”, condemned “the unprovoked and unjustified attack by the Russian military forces” and assured that “the world will hold Russia responsible”.

“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” said Biden, who will meet virtually with the G7 leaders on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. GMT.

Emergency meetings of the leaders of the European Union and NATO are also planned. The head of the military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, denounced the “irresponsible and unprovoked attack (…) that puts countless civilian lives at risk.”

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, warned that “Russia will face unprecedented isolation” and promised “the most robust and severe package of sanctions that we have ever adopted.”

China, close to Russia, indicated that it was “closely monitoring” the situation and urged the parties to “moderation”.

The head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, assured that it was “the saddest day” of his mandate.

storm in the markets

After weeks of tension, the situation on the Ukrainian border worsened last week, with an increase in violence in the east of the country, the scene of a war since 2014 between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists that has left more than 14,000 dead.

On Monday, Putin recognized the independence of the breakaway “republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk and questioned the very legitimacy of Ukraine’s existence. A day later, the Russian Parliament gave the green light for the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine.

The invasion has hit international markets. Brent oil topped $100 a barrel for the first time in seven years and stocks around the world plummeted on Thursday.

The Moscow Stock Exchange, which interrupted trading for a few hours, was losing more than 30% and the Russian currency, the ruble, registered its historical low against the dollar before the intervention of the Russian central bank.

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