Russia finally invades Ukraine, first reports of causalities

Russia has launched a barrage of missile, artillery and air attacks on Ukraine early Thursday, triggering the worst security crisis Europe has witnessed in decades. 

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry warned that the capital, Kyiv, was being targeted and urged citizens to go to shelters. Ukraine’s border guard said that it was being shelled from five regions, including from Crimea in the south and Belarus to the north, and that Russian forces had crossed into the country.

As it appeared Russia was preparing to attack, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an emotional address to the nation, saying the war would be “a big disaster”.

“If they try to take our country away from us, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves,” he said

Weeks of intense diplomacy and the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia failed to deter Putin, who had massed between 150,000 and 200,000 troops along the borders of Ukraine.

Russia has demanded an end to NATO’s eastward expansion and said Ukrainian membership of the US-led Atlantic military alliance was unacceptable.

Russia has confirmed it’s targeting military facilities across Ukraine, including airfields and anti-aircraft systems, and claims to have knocked out airbases.

Interfax reported, citing the Ukraine Defense Ministry, that Russia has subdued Ukrainian air defenses and knocked out the country’s military airbases.

The military said Ukrainian border guards were not putting up resistance to Russian forces, according to Interfax.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Thursday that its air strikes on Ukraine were not targeting cities and posed no threat to civilians, the RIA news agency reported.

However, Ukraine said earlier that at least eight people had been killed and nine wounded by Russian shelling. Russia’s defense ministry denied its aircraft or armored vehicles had been destroyed in Ukraine.