Ukraine’s president vows to stay put as Russian invaders approach

Russia launched its invasion by land, air, and sea on Thursday following a declaration of war by President Vladimir Putin. An estimated 100,000 people fled as explosions and gunfire rocked major cities. Dozens have been reported killed.

US and Ukrainian officials say Russia aims to capture Kyiv and topple the government, which Putin regards as a puppet of the United States. Russian troops seized the Chernobyl former nuclear power plant north of Kyiv as they advanced along the shortest route to Kyiv from Belarus to the north.

“[The] enemy has marked me down as the number one target,” Zelenskiy warned in a video message. “My family is the number two target. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state.”

“I will stay in the capital. My family is also in Ukraine.”

Mr. Putin says Russia is carrying out “a special military operation” to stop the Ukrainian government from committing genocide against its own people — an accusation the West calls baseless. He also says Ukraine is an illegitimate state whose lands historically belong to Russia.

Asked if he was worried about Zelenskiy’s safety, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS: “To the best of my knowledge, President Zelenskiy remains in Ukraine at his post, and of course, we’re concerned for the safety of all of our friends in Ukraine —  government officials and others.”

SANCTIONS BUILD 

A democratic nation of 44 million people, Ukraine is Europe’s biggest country by area after Russia itself. It voted for independence at the fall of the Soviet Union and has recently stepped up efforts to join the NATO military alliance and the European Union, aspirations that infuriate Moscow.

Mr. Putin denied for months that he was planning an invasion, even as the United States warned an attack was looming and shared satellite images of Russian forces massing on Ukraine’s borders.

The United States, Britain, Japan, Canada, Australia, and the European Union unveiled more sanctions on Moscow on top of penalties earlier this week, including a move by Germany to halt an $11 billion gas pipeline from Russia.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described the bloc’s measures as “the harshest package of sanctions we have ever implemented.”

China came under pressure over its refusal to call Russia’s assault an invasion.

US President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House, said: “Any nation that countenances Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association.” He declined to comment directly on China’s position.

Russia is one of the world’s biggest energy producers, and both it and Ukraine are among the top exporters of grain. War and sanctions will disrupt economies around the world already facing a crisis as they emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.

MILITARY ADVANCES 

Mr. Zelenskiy said on Friday that 137 military personnel and civilians had been killed in the fighting, with hundreds wounded. Ukrainian officials had earlier reported at least 70 people killed.

Ukrainian forces downed an aircraft over Kyiv early on Friday, which then crashed into a residential building and set it on fire, said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister. It was unclear if the aircraft was manned.

Washington and other NATO members have sent military aid to Ukraine but there is no move to send troops for fear of sparking a wider European conflict.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine needed “more weapons to continue fighting … the amount of tanks, armored vehicles, airplanes, helicopters that Russia threw on Ukraine is unimaginable”.

Some 90 km (60 miles) north of Kyiv, Chernobyl was taken over by forces without identifying marks who disarmed a Ukrainian military unit guarding the station, Ukraine’s state nuclear regulator said.

It said there had been no casualties, that nothing had been destroyed, and that radiation levels were unchanged. It informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had lost control of the plant.

With heavy fighting being reported on multiple fronts, the United Nations Security Council will vote on Friday on a draft resolution that would condemn Russia’s invasion and require Moscow’s immediate withdrawal.

However, Moscow can veto the measure, and it was unclear how China would vote.

The invasion has drawn protests in the United States, Europe, and within Russia itself, where authorities detained hundreds of demonstrators who took to the streets on Thursday.

Dmitry Muratov, a Russian newspaper editor who won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, told the BBC in an interview that Feb. 24, the day of the invasion, would go down as the day “Russia’s future was taken away from it.”

“Our peace-loving Russian people will now feel the hatred of the world because we are starting a third world war in the center of Europe.” —  Natalia Zinets/Reuters