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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Dozens killed in Russian invasion
Smoke rises from an air defense base in the aftermath of an apparent Russian strike in Mariupol, Ukraine, yesterday. Photo: AP
HELP COMING? NATO said it would activate ‘defense plans’ for allied countries, but its head said the alliance does not have any plan to send troops into Ukraine
/ AFP, KYIV
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, killing dozens and forcing hundreds to flee for their lives in the pro-Western neighbor.
Russian airstrikes hit military facilities across the country and ground forces moved in from the north, south and east, triggering condemnation from Western leaders and warnings of massive sanctions.
Weeks of intense diplomacy failed to deter Putin, who massed more than 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders in what the West said was the biggest military buildup in Europe since World War II.
“I have decided to proceed with a special military operation,” Putin said in a television announcement early yesterday.
Shortly afterward, the first bombardments were heard in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and several other cities, Agence France-Presse correspondents said.
At least 68 people were killed, including both soldiers and civilians, an AFP tally from various Ukrainian official sources showed.
In the deadliest single strike reported by the authorities, 18 people were killed at a military base near the Black Sea port city of Odesa.
Ukraine’s border guards said Russian forces had reached the region around Kyiv.
An AFP reporter in the northern part of the city saw several low-flying helicopters overhead amid reports that an airfield was under attack.
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said a “full-scale invasion” was under way.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared martial law and said Russia was attacking his country’s “military infrastructure,” but urged citizens not to panic and vowed victory.
He accused Russia of acting like “Nazi Germany,” saying it had attacked in a “cowardly and suicidal way.”
Ukrainian forces said they had killed “around 50 Russian occupiers,” while repulsing an attack on a town on the frontline with Moscow-backed rebels, a toll that could not be immediately confirmed by AFP.
Kyiv’s main international airport was hit in the first bombing of the city since World War II and air raid sirens sounded over the capital at the break of dawn.
In the eastern town of Chuguiv, a son wept over the body of his father among the wreckage of a missile strike in a residential area.
“I told him to leave,” the man sobbed repeatedly, next to the twisted ruins of a car.
Within a few hours of Putin’s speech, the Russian Ministry of Defense said it had neutralized Ukrainian military airbases and its air defense systems.
Ukraine said Russian tanks and heavy equipment crossed the border in several northern regions, in the east as well as from the Kremlin-annexed peninsula of Crimea in the south.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the operation would last as long as necessary, saying there were “goals that need to be achieved.”
“Ideally, Ukraine needs to be liberated and cleansed of Nazis,” he told reporters, repeating unfounded claims made by the Kremlin.
In his televised address, Putin justified the assault by claiming the government was overseeing a “genocide” in the east of the country.
The Kremlin earlier said the leaders of two separatist territories in eastern Ukraine had asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv after Putin recognized their independence on Monday.
A conflict between the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics and government forces has dragged on since 2014, killing more than 14,000 people.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Zelenskiy after the Russian assault began to vow US “support” and “assistance.”
He condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces,” and vowed Russia would be held accountable.
Biden was yesterday due to join a virtual meeting of G7 leaders likely to result in more sanctions against Russia.
In Brussels, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said Russia faced “unprecedented isolation” and would be hit with the “harshest sanctions” the bloc has ever imposed.
NATO said it would also hold a virtual summit and activate “defense plans” for allied countries.
However, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said: “We don’t have any plans to send NATO troops into Ukraine.”
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Ukrainian military vehicles move past Independence Square in central Kyiv yesterday. Photo: AFP
Art teacher Sagar Kambli paints a mural in support of Ukraine on a wall outside his art school in Mumbai, India, yesterday. Photo: AP
Olga Lietnieva, a Ukrainian woman on a holiday in Norway, reacts after talking to her aunt in Ukraine, as she participated in a demonstration in front of the Russian embassy in Oslo yesterday. Photo: Reuters
