Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said his country has been “left alone” to defend itself, as Moscow launched a full scale military offensive that left over 137 Ukrainians dead on the first day.
“They are killing people and turning peaceful cities into military targets,” said the president. “It’s foul and will never be forgiven.”
Slamming western allies, the president said: “Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of Nato membership? Everyone is afraid.”
In a video address, he said 137 “heroes,” including 10 military officers, had been killed and 316 people wounded. Among the dead include all border guards on the Zmiinyi Island in the Odessa region taken over by the Russians.
The president said he remained in the country along with his family, despite being identified by Russia as the top target.
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“The fate of the country depends fully on our army, security forces, all of our defenders,” he said, adding that Russian forces had already entered Kiev.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has also said Kiev “could well be under siege.”
Mr Zelensky, who had earlier cut diplomatic ties with Moscow and declared martial law, appealed to global leaders, saying that “if you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door.”
After enduring land and sea-based missiles, Ukrainian officials confirmed losing control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Alyona Shevstosova, adviser to the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, wrote on Facebook that staff at the Chernobyl plant were “taken hostage” with the White House expressing outrage over the reports.
Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, however, confirmed there have been “no casualties or destruction at the industrial site” where a nuclear reactor at the plant had exploded in 1986, covering Europe with a radioactive cloud.
In unleashing the largest ground war in Europe since the Second World War, Russian president Vladimir Putin ignored global condemnation and sanctions, as he threatened intervening forces of “consequences”.
US president Joe Biden, meanwhile, announced new sanctions against Russia, while lambasting Mr Putin for choosing “this war” and exhibiting a “sinister” view of the world in which nations take what they want by force.
“It was always about naked aggression, about Putin’s desire for empire by any means necessary — by bullying Russia’s neighbours through coercion and corruption, by changing borders by force, and, ultimately, by choosing a war without a cause,” Mr Biden said.
Condemnation has also came from South Korea and Australia, along with other European nations. Russia-friendly leaders, like Hungary’s Viktor Orban, have chosen to distance themselves from Mr Putin.
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Mr Blinken, in an interview CBS News, said Moscow’s intent behind overthrowing the Ukrainian government was to “reconstitute the Soviet empire”.
Additional reporting from the wires