By Nathan Hodge, Tim Lister, Ivana Kottasová and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
(CNN) — Ukraine’s President struck a defiant note Thursday after Russia launched an unprecedented military invasion that has already left dozens dead, prompting Western leaders to condemn Moscow and vow unity with Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials said more than 40 soldiers and as many as 10 civilians had been killed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began shortly before dawn. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser in the President’s Office, said a few dozen soldiers had also been injured and “as far as I know, at the moment there are a few civilian deaths — up to 10.”
The first blasts were heard at around 5 a.m. local time Thursday, prompting immediate condemnation from the United States and its allies, which have threatened to enact “full scale” sanctions in response to Russian military aggression.
Russia’s invasion follows weeks of warnings from the United States and other Western powers that an attack against Ukraine was imminent — and weeks of denials by Moscow that it planned any such action.
As air raid sirens rang out across the capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky moved to enact martial law and government ministers accused Moscow of launching a “full scale invasion” that would be resisted.
In a video message on his official Facebook page, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had “already taken on the first blow of the enemy and are resisting.”
“Putin began war against Ukraine, against the entire democratic world. He wants to destroy my country, our country, everything we’ve been building, everything we are living for,” he said.
Heavy traffic could be seen clogging roads heading west out of the city as dawn broke, while further east, near the Russian border, the mayor of Kharkiv urged citizens not to leave their homes.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on his official page that “peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strike” and called the situation “a war of aggression.” And an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, Anton Gerashchenko, told journalists Russia’s “invasion has begun” with “missile strikes on Kyiv.”
CNN teams on the ground heard explosions in and near multiple Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, the second largest city Kharkiv, Odessa, and distant firing from Zaporizhzhiya. Images released by Zelensky’s office showed large explosions to the east of the capital Kyiv with huge columns of smoke rising into the air.
CNN witnessed, through a livestream video, troops atop a column of military vehicles entering Ukraine from a border crossing with Belarus.
In recent weeks, Russia has amassed a significant number of troops, vehicles and tanks in Belarus near the border with Ukraine. The two countries have held joint military exercises across the countries, and near the Belarus-Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told CNN that a “full-fledged large-scale war has begun in Europe.”
“Russia is attacking not just Ukraine, but all the rules of normal life in the modern world. What will be left of the security system on the continent? Zero,” he said. “From the north, east and south, Russian forces went on the offensive against Ukraine. Tanks, planes, diversion groups from Russia.”
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said Thursday that one Russian K-52 helicopter was shot down in the Kyiv region, as well as three other helicopters. It is unclear if the other three were Russian or Ukrainian.
Earlier Thursday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said six Russian planes had been shot down as forces attacked Ukraine. Russian military denied the claims, state news agency TASS reported.
US President Joe Biden issued a statement saying Russia had launched “an unprovoked and unjustified attack” on the Ukrainian people, adding that “the world will hold Russia accountable.”
Biden is expected to spell out a raft of sanctions later Thursday in an address to the nation. The measures could cut off Russia from advanced technology, announce new restrictions on large financial institutions and slap sanctions on additional members of Putin’s inner circle.
Putin vows ‘immediate response’ if countries intervene
Hours before the invasion began, Putin announced a military operation in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which contains Donetsk and Luhansk, the separatist-held regions that Moscow recognized as independent on Monday– in violation of international law.
In the address, broadcast live on Russian national television, Putin urged Ukrainian forces to lay down their arms and go home, saying all responsibility for possible bloodshed would be entirely on the conscience of the Ukrainian government.
“Our plans are not to occupy Ukraine, we do not plan to impose ourselves on anyone,” he said, but threatened “those who may be tempted to intervene” on Ukraine’s behalf.
“Whoever tries to interfere with us, and even more so to create threats to our country, to our people, should know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never experienced in your history,” he said.
The launch of the Russian military operation came even as members of the UN Security Council met in New York to call for a peaceful resolution to the impending crisis.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told foreign journalists Thursday that the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine are among the objectives of Russia’s military action in the country, which he described as a “special operation.”
“Ideally, Ukraine should be liberated, cleansed of Nazis, of pro-Nazi people and ideology,” Peskov said, though he refused to say if that meant regime change in Kyiv. This Russian claim of a need to “denazify” Ukraine is one Putin has touted repeatedly over the years and is entirely baseless.
Speaking in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described Russia’s attack on Ukraine as a “brutal act of war” and said it put “countless innocent lives” at risk.
“Peace on our continent has been shattered. We now have war in Europe, on the scale and of the type we thought belonged to history,” he said. “NATO allies condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms. It is a blatant violation of international law, an act of aggression against a sovereign independent and peaceful country.”
NATO will increase land, sea and air forces on its eastern flank, the security alliance said in a statement.
What’s happening on the ground
Ukraine’s borders were reportedly under attack from Russian forces to the north in Belarus and the south from Crimea, according to the Ukrainian State Border Service.
Russian troops had attacked border units, patrol border and checkpoints with “artillery, heavy equipment and small arms,” the border service said.
The Russian military claimed Ukraine’s border service “did not provide any resistance” and claimed to have “suppressed” Ukraine’s air defenses. CNN was not able to immediately verify either of those claims.
Gerashchenko, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser, tweeted that troops had landed in the southern city of Odessa and were crossing the border in Kharkiv, located in the country’s northeast. In a post on his Facebook page, he also said control centers such as airfields and military headquarters were being hit by shelling in Kyiv and Kharkiv, and that there was artillery fire along the border.
The Russian military released a statement Thursday claiming it was not targeting Ukrainian cities, saying “the civilian population is not at risk.”
“The Russian Armed Forces are not launching any missile or artillery strikes on the cities of Ukraine. High-precision weapons destroy military infrastructure: military airfields, aviation, air defense facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the statement read.
But despite the Russian military’s claims that civilians wouldn’t be targeted, many chose to leave the capital. Kyiv residents had previously been told to stay at home and pack a bag with necessities, in case they needed to leave abruptly.
Witnesses told CNN that subway stations had become improvised bunkers and were full of people, with supplies organized in groups.
Across the city, red arrows painted on walls indicate the locations of the nearest bomb shelters. The city first put them up after the war broke out in the east of the country in 2014, but they were recently repainted.
Before Putin’s address, Russia issued a notice banning civil aircraft from flight routes bordering northeastern Ukraine. Separately, Ukrainian aviation authorities issued a notice restricting Ukrainian airspace in the regions around Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Odessa and Simferopol.
European aviation regulators warned civilian aircraft were at “high risk” near the Ukrainian border. “Air operators are reminded that this is now an active conflict zone,” said the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, known as EASA.
Leaders condemn Russian action
Western leaders were united in their swift and strong condemnation of Russia’s military action.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to “weaken Russia’s economic base and its capacity to modernize” following its “barbaric attack” against Ukraine. “We will freeze Russian assets in the European Union and stop the access of Russian banks to European financial markets,” she said.
Russian stocks plunged Thursday, with the country’s main index dropping 45% before recovering some losses. The ruble briefly crashed to a record low against the US dollar.
“There is no justification for any of this — this is Putin’s war,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters in Berlin. “In attacking Ukraine, the Russian President Putin is blatantly infringing on international law,” he said, adding that it is a “terrible day for Ukraine and a very dark day for Europe.”
Scholz called on Putin “to immediately stop the military attack” and withdraw Russian troops from Ukraine. The “Russian leadership will pay a bitter price,” he said. Germany has pledged support to its neighboring countries, including Poland, in the event that Ukrainians flee as a result of the Russian action.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a televised address that Putin had “attacked a friendly country without any provocation, and without any credible excuse.” Britain and its allies “will slap a “massive package of economic sanctions” on Moscow, he said.
Italy described Russia’s attack on Ukraine as “unjustified and unjustifiable.” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Italy was working with “European and NATO allies to respond immediately, with unity and determination.”
“These are among the darkest hours for Europe since the end of World War II. A major nuclear power has attacked a neighbor country and is threatening reprisals of any other states that may come to rescue,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Brussels.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Russia’s military action in Ukraine as “unacceptable,” adding: “This step, which we see as contrary to international law, is a blow to the regional stability and peace.”
China, however, declined to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine, instead repeating calls for parties to “exercise restraint” and accusing the United States of “fueling fire” in the tensions.
The-CNN-Wire
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