Live updates: Ukraine says 137 civilians, soldiers killed
Ukrainian servicemen sit atop armored personnel carriers driving on a road in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a military operation in Ukraine and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to "consequences you have never seen." (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
By The Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says 137 civilians and military personnel have been killed so far in the Russian invasion of his country.
He calls them “heroes” in a video address released early Friday in which he also says hundreds more have been wounded.
Zelenskyy says that despite Russia’s claim it is attacking only military targets, civilian sites also have been struck. In his words: “They’re killing people and turning peaceful cities into military targets. It’s foul and will never be forgiven.”
The president says all border guards on Zmiinyi island in the Odesa region were killed Thursday. Ukraine’s border guard service earlier in the day reported that the island was taken by the Russians.
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president is ordering a full military mobilization to challenge the Russian invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a decree Thursday evening saying the mobilization would last 90 days.
He ordered the military’s General Staff to determine the number of those liable for service and reservists as well as the order of the call-up.
Zelensky gave his Cabinet the job of allocating funds to pay for the mobilization.
BRUSSELS — European Union leaders pledged Thursday to impose tough economic and financial sanctions on Russia, but there is a lack of consensus within the West over cutting the country off the SWIFT financial payment system.
The Belgium-based cooperative is used by more than 11,000 institutions globally. It shuffles money from bank to bank, and removing Russia from it would likely also have an impact on European economies.
Ukraine has requested the move. While the head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said EU sanctions need to include the exclusion of Russia from the scheme, many EU leaders remain unconvinced.
Dutch Prime minister Mark Rutte, for instance, said such a decision would also hurt European economies. Rutte said it should be a last-resort measure that could be decided at a later stage.
“A number of countries are hesitant since it has serious consequences for themselves,” he said.
BUDAPEST, Hungary - Several thousand demonstrators gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Hungary’s capital on Thursday to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demand that Hungary’s government cut its close ties with Moscow.
Waving the flags of Ukraine and the European Union, protesters chanted for peace and an end to the Russian attacks, and demanded that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban pull his country out of its business dealings with Russia.
The demonstration in Budapest was organized by a coalition of six opposition parties that have united to unseat Orban and his ruling Fidesz party in parliamentary elections April 3.
That coalition’s candidate for prime minister, independent conservative Peter Marki-Zay, criticized Orban for his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and urged the prime minister to “take a clear stand on Hungary’s commitment to the European Union and NATO, our allies.”
BRUSSELS — Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said he spent his day “reaching out all over the world” to organize a united front against Russia.
Borrell carried his two phones upon arrival at the urgent meeting of EU leaders held on Thursday evening in Brussels.
He said he called more than 20 countries.
“The African Union, (countries in) Latin America, in Southeast Asia, India, Japan, .... a lot,” he said.
Borrell added that the sanctions he prepared with the EU’s executive arm that were agreed by leaders in retaliation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will start having effect once adopted by the EU Council during a meeting of foreign affairs ministers scheduled Friday.
The EU said sanctions will cover “the financial sector, the energy and transport sectors, dual-use goods as well as export control and export financing, visa policy, additional listings of Russian individuals and new listing criteria.”
PARIS — French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday that sanctions that the European allies are discussing to impose on Russia are “massive and aimed at asphyxiating Russia’s economy”.
Measures that will be taken against Russia are “very massive, very strong and I believe they will be very effective,” Le Drian said in an interview with the French broadcaster TF1.
France is working with allies in NATO and at the United Nations on getting an international consensus to isolate Russia following President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has at least temporarily withdrawn its remaining diplomatic presence from Ukraine.
The department says a core group of essential personnel who had relocated from the capital of Kyiv to the western city of Lviv near the Polish border earlier this month will now work from offices in Poland rather than on Ukrainian territory.
Earlier this week, the department had instructed those diplomats to work in Lviv during daylight hours but to spend their nights in Poland.
The department says they were ordered late Wednesday not to make the commute back to Lviv to work beginning Thursday until further notice.
VIENNA — The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency says it has been informed by Ukraine that “unidentified armed forces” have taken control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant, adding that there had been “no casualties or destruction at the industrial site.”
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi called for “maximum restraint” to avoid actions that could put Ukraine’s nuclear facilities at risk.
“In line with its mandate, the IAEA is closely monitoring developments in Ukraine with a special focus on the safety and security of its nuclear power plants and other nuclear-related facilities,” he said in a statement.
WASHINGTON — U.S. aviation regulators widened the area of eastern Europe and Russia where U.S. airlines and pilots are barred because of the conflict.
In a new directive Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration prohibited U.S. airlines from flying over any part of Ukraine or Belarus and the western part of Russia.
Earlier restrictions had barred U.S. airlines from flying over the eastern part of Ukraine. The restrictions cover both passenger and cargo flights, but not military ones.
MOSCOW — A Russian military plane crashed in the country’s Voronezh region that borders with Ukraine, the Russian military said Thursday night.
The An-26 plane was carrying out a planned flight transporting military equipment and crashed because of technical failure, military officials said, adding that the plane’s entire crew died in the crash.
They didn’t specify how many crew members were on board of the plane.
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden says the sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine will not disrupt the global oil and natural gas markets.
Biden says, “Our sanctions package is specifically designed to allow energy payments to continue.”
The president announced a series of sanctions at a White House speech Thursday. The sanctions include restrictions on exports to Russia and sanctions on Russian banks and state-controlled companies.
Biden also says that U.S. oil and gas companies should not exploit the geopolitical risks to hike their prices and raise their profits.
A key concern has been preserving Russian oil and natural gas exports, which are vital sources for Europe and other countries. Financial markets already view the Russian invasion in Ukraine as straining energy supplies with the soon to expire futures contract for Brent crude increasing more than 5% to top $100 a barrel.
UNITED NATIONS -- Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations has asked the president of the 193-member General Assembly to prepare for an emergency session in the coming days in light of Russia’s military aggression.
Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya tweeted Thursday that the meeting should be held under the so-called “Uniting for Peace” resolution. The resolution gives the General Assembly the power to call emergency meetings to consider matters of international peace and security when the Security Council is unable to act because of the lack of unanimity among its five veto-wielding permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.
The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote Friday on a resolution condemning Russia in the strongest terms possible for attacking Ukraine and demanding the immediate withdrawal of all its forces — knowing that Russia will veto the legally binding measure, according to a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
ROME — Addressing fellow G-7 leaders, Italian Premier Mario Draghi warned that the crisis over Ukraine “could last for a long time, we must be prepared.”
He thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for sharing intelligence in recent weeks. He also had praise Thursday evening for the European Commission for putting what he called “a good proposal of sanctions on the table.”
Italy is “completely aligned with France, Germany and the European Union” on sanctions, he said.
“We must be united, firm, decisive and we must re-affirm in every possible moment our full support to Ukraine,’’ Draghi said in his G-7 remarks, according to the premier’s office.
JERUSALEM — Israeli police say they arrested four people suspected of scrawling anti-Putin graffiti on the gate of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv during a protest.
Several hundred people staged a demonstration outside the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv on Thursday over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Another smaller protest was held outside the Russian consulate in the northern port city of Haifa.
Israel is home to a large population of immigrants former Soviet Union and their descendants who arrived in the 1990s and 2000s.
Israel maintains good relations with both Ukraine and Russia and has tried to avoid involvement in the conflict. Earlier on Thursday Israel’s foreign minister condemned Russia’s invasion.
UNITED NATIONS — Repeating a plea for Russia to halt its invasion of Ukraine, the U.N. chief said Thursday the world body was freeing up $20 million for urgent humanitarian needs in the country.
“Stop the military operation. Bring the troops back to Russia,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at U.N. headquarters. He called the offensive wrong and unacceptable, but not irreversible.
“It’s not too late to save this generation from the scourge of war,” Guterres said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the assault is meant to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting the government for nearly eight years. The U.S., however, said ahead of time that Russia would try to justify an invasion by falsely claiming that the rebel-held areas were under attack.
The U.N. said Thursday it was relocating some of its roughly 1,500 staffers in Ukraine. However, Guterres reiterated that the U.N. will continue providing aid to people in the country, “regardless of who or where they are.”
BRUSSELS — Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said European Union leaders need to adopt sanctions that will be strong enough to impact the Russian economy and the country’s military industrial complex.
“We don’t need sanctions that bark, we need sanctions that bite,” De Croo said upon his arrival at an urgent meeting of EU leaders in Brussels to discuss a new package of measures targeting Russia.
De Croo said the main goal of the sanctions should be to make it hard for Russian financial institutions to access international markets.
Asked whether Russia should be expelled from the Swift payment system financial system that moves money from bank to bank around the world, De Croo said he is open for discussions on that topic.
OTTAWA, Ontario — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he spoke with President Zelenskyy and says Canada is imposing more severe sanctions.
The sanctions will target 58 people and entities connected to Russia, including members of that country’s elite and their families, the paramilitary organization known as the Wagner Group and major Russian banks.
The measures, announced Thursday after Trudeau attended a virtual G-7 meeting, will also affect members of the Russian Security Council, including key cabinet ministers.
Canada is also cancelling existing export permits for Russia and will not issue new ones.
Trudeau also says the federal government will be prioritizing immigration applications for Ukrainians who want to come to Canada and is launching a dedicated telephone line for anyone who has any urgent questions about immigrating from Ukraine.
KYIV, Ukraine — An adviser to Ukrainian president says that Ukraine has lost control over the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant after a fierce battle.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the condition of the plant’s facilities, a confinement shelter and storage of nuclear waste is unknown.
A nuclear reactor in then-Soviet Ukraine exploded in April 1986, spewing radioactive waste across Europe in the world’s worst nuclear disaster. The exploded reactor has been covered by a protective shelter to prevent radiation leak and the entire plant has been decommissioned.
Podolyak said that after “absolutely senseless attack of the Russians in this direction, it is impossible to say that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe.”
He charged that Russia may mount provocations there and described the situation as “one of the most serious threats to Europe today.”
NEW DELHI, India — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin late Thursday night and appealed for an “immediate cessation of violence,” his office said in a statement.
Modi called for efforts to return to diplomatic discussions, saying the “differences between Russia and the NATO group can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue.”
Modi also expressed concern over Indian citizens in Ukraine - officials earlier in the day said some 4,000 out of the 20,000 Indian nationals had been evacuated with efforts on to bring the rest back home.
The conversation between the two leaders comes hours after the Ukraine envoy in New Delhi urged Modi to contact Putin, saying the country “has a special relationship with Russia and New Delhi can play a more active role in controlling the situation.”
WARSAW — Some of the first refugees from Ukraine have arrived in European Union member Poland by road and rail.
A scheduled train from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine arrived Thursday afternoon in the Polish town of Przemysl, near Ukraine’s western border, carrying a few hundred passengers.
The passengers of various ages, arriving with bags and backpacks, told The Associated Press they were fleeing war. Some live in Poland and were returning urgently from visits to their homeland.
The chief of Poland’s border guards, Gen. Tomasz Praga, said there was a visible increase in the number of people wanting to cross into Poland.
Officials said Poland has prepared at least eight centers with food, medical care and places to rest.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that “innocent people are being killed” in Ukraine and appealed to the Poles to extend every possible assistance to the Ukrainians who have found themselves in need of help.
NAIROBI, Kenya — The African Union chair is urging an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine “to preserve the world from the consequences of planetary conflict.”
The statement by Senegal President Macky Sall and AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat also calls on Russia to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and international law, expressing “extreme concern at the very serious and dangerous situation.”
Few among Africa’s 54 countries have publicly reacted to the invasion.
PRISTINA, Kosovo - Kosovo leaders on Thursday rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim of similarities with Ukraine’s eastern rebel provinces.
Kosovo’s president, prime minister and other senior ministers issued a joint statement denouncing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“The massive and unprovoked attack against Ukraine’s cities and villages is one of the most dangerous hits made to the architecture of the international security built after World War II,” said the statement.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008 after a bloody conflict with Serbia years earlier left more than 10,000 people dead and triggered a NATO intervention. Pristina’s government is recognized by the United States and most EU nations, but Belgrade has refused to recognize its independence and relies on support from Russia and China in its bid to retain claims on the territory.
“Dictator Putin’s effort to refer to the Kosovo case and draw parallel are totally unstable, abusive and an attempt to camouflage the lack of any base or reason for the barbarous attack of its forces against a sovereign state,” said the statement.
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would aim to cut Russia off from the U.K.’s financial markets as he announced a new set of sanctions in response to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions include freezing the assets of all major Russian banks, including VTB Bank, the nation’s second-biggest bank, Johnson said Thursday. Britain also plans to bar Russian companies and the Russian government from raising money on U.K. markets.
Britain will also ban the export of a wide range of high-tech products, including semiconductors, to Russia and bar the nation’s flagship airline, Aeroflot, from landing at U.K. airports.
The slate of sanctions comes days after Johnson was criticized for acting too cautiously in response to Russian aggression earlier this week.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.K., Vadym Prystaiko, earlier called on world leaders to ban trade in Russian oil and gas and block foreign investment in the country.
MOSCOW — The Russian Defense Ministry has formally confirmed that its forces have moved into Ukraine from Crimea.
Until Thursday's statement Russia had said only that it unleashed a barrage of air and missile strikes on Ukrainian air bases, air defense batteries and other military facilities.
The ministry said it has destroyed a total of 83 Ukrainian military facilities. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov confirmed that Russian ground troops advanced toward the city of Kherson northwest of the Crimea peninsula.
Kherson sits on water reservoir used in the past to provide the bulk of fresh water for Crimea until Ukraine cut it with a dam in 2017 in response to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Konashenkov said Thursday's move allows the resumption of the water supply to Crimea.
BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has made a televised address to the nation condemning the Russian attack on Ukraine sharply and vowed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not win.”
Scholz said Thursday evening that “we will not accept this violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty by Russia” and vowed to imply severe sanction together with Germany’s allies.
Regarding the military attack on Ukraine, Scholz stressed that Putin “is on his own. It was not the Russian people who decided to go to war. He alone bears full responsibility for it. This war is Putin’s war.”
The chancellor said that “Putin should not underestimate NATO’s determination to defend all its members. That applies explicitly to our NATO partners in the Baltic States, in Poland and in Romania, in Bulgaria and in Slovakia. Without ifs and buts. Germany and its allies know how to protect themselves.”
UNITED NATIONS -- A senior U.S. official says the U.N. Security Council is expected to vote Friday on a resolution condemning Russia in the strongest terms possible for attacking Ukraine and demanding the immediate withdrawal of all its forces — knowing that Russia will veto the legally binding measure.
The United States believes it is very important to put the resolution to a vote to underscore Russia’s international isolation, and emphasizes that the veto will be followed quickly by a resolution in the 193-member U.N. General Assembly where there are no vetoes, the official said Thursday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
“This is a first step in how the U.N. responds to this premeditated war of choice that Russia has chosen to take, and we will see action in the General Assembly in the coming days,” he said, adding that it is part of a much broader, coordinated response that includes steps the Biden administration and its allies are taking.
The resolution is drafted under Article 7 of the U.N. Charter, which can be enforced militarily, according to the official.
By Edith M. Lederer
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says he was “forced” to order a military action in Ukraine because of the Western refusal to heed Russian security demands.
Speaking at a Kremlin meeting with businesspeople Thursday, Putin said the military action was a “forced measure” that stemmed from rising security risks for Russia.
He said that he was surprised by the West’s “intransigence” regarding Moscow’s security demands. “I was surprised that didn’t move a millimeter on any issue,” he said. “They have left us no chance to act differently.”
Turning to Western sanctions, he said “Russia remains part of the global economy and isn’t going to hurt the system that it is part of as long as it remains there.”
“Our partners should realize that and not set a goal to push us out of the system,” he said in an apparent warning to the West.
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensnkyy has urged Moscow to end hostilities, adding that Russian airborne troops have been checked outside Kyiv.
“It wasn’t Ukraine that chose the path of war, but Ukraine is offering to go back to the path of peace,” he said Thursday.
He said a Russian airborne force in Hostomel airport outside Kyiv, which has a big runway, has been stopped and is being destroyed.
The Ukrainian leader said many Russian warplanes and armored vehicles were destroyed but didn’t give numbers. He also said an unspecified number of Russian troops was captured.
He said a difficult situation is developing in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city just over 20 kilometers from the Russian border. In the north the Russians are slowly advancing toward Chernihiv, Zelenskyy said.
He appealed to global leaders, saying that “if you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer strong assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door.”
BERLIN — Group of Seven leaders have strongly condemned Russia's attack on Ukraine.
The German government, which currently heads the G7, put out a joint statement after a virtual leaders’ meeting Thursday, vowing to bring “forward severe and coordinated economic and financial sanctions.”
It called “on all partners and members of the international community to condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms, to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and raise their voice against this blatant violation of the fundamental principles of international peace and security.”
HELSINKI — Baltic NATO members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have received the first batches of U.S. military troops and equipment promised this week by U.S. President Joe Biden in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.
An undisclosed number of U.S. F-35 fighters landed Thursday afternoon at NATO’s air base in Amari, near Estonia’s capital Tallinn, Estonian media reported. F-35 fighters were reported to have arrived also at NATO’s air base in Lithuania.
On Wednesday evening, the first 40 American soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade arrived in Latvia, Latvian media reported.
A senior U.S. defense official says Thursday's attack by Russia appears to be the first phase in what will likely be a multiple phased, large-scale invasion.
The official said it began around 9:30 p.m. U.S. eastern time, with land- and sea-based missile launches. The official said that roughly more than 100 missiles, primarily short-range ballistic missiles, but also medium-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles and sea-launched missiles, were launched in the first few hours of the attack.
The official said the Russians are moving on three axes: From Crimea to Kherson, from Belarus toward Kyiv, and from the northeast to Kharkiv.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it’s not clear how many Russian troops are in Ukraine now, and the main targets of the air assault have been barracks, ammunition warehouses, and 10 airfields. The official said Russian ground forces began to move in to Ukraine from Belarus around 5 a.m. Eastern time.
By Lolita C. Baldor in Washington D.C.
LONDON — Hundreds of protesters have gathered in London to urge Britain and other democracies to step up action against Russia.
Ukrainians living in the U.K. and activists gathered outside Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street office Thursday, singing the Ukrainian national anthem.
Natalia Ravlyuk, who helped organize the protest, said they wanted the “toughest sanctions and total isolation of Russia now.”
“We ... feel betrayed by democratic states because we have been talking about this war for eight years,” she said. “They just need to wake up and stop Putin now.”
Earlier dozens of protesters also gathered outside the Russian embassy in London.
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations migration agency says it's ready to respond to emerging humanitarian needs in Ukraine.
Antonio Vitorino, director general of the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, said: “IOM ... is committed to staying and delivering vital assistance to the people of Ukraine.”
“Eight years of conflict in Ukraine have displaced over 1.4 million people who now rely on assistance to meet their daily needs,” he said in a statement. “This escalation will only deepen the humanitarian needs and compound the suffering of millions of families.”
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BUCHAREST, Romania — The interior ministry in Moldova, which shares a long border with Ukraine, says the country has set up two temporary centers to manage an influx of refugees.
The ministry said the centers, in Palanca and Ocnita in northern Moldova, are meant to “provide basic humanitarian, legal and food assistance to immigrants” for a period of 72 hours.
It said that the border has “been crossed by 6,937 people, of which 3,000 are Ukrainian citizens,” but didn't specify over what period.
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BOSTON — Ukraine’s cybersecurity service has reported continuing cyberattacks and said cellular networks were saturated with voice calls, suggesting people used text-messaging.
A distributed-denial-of-service attack that knocked some government websites offline Wednesday continued and there were sporadic internet outages across the country, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for the U.S. network management firm Kentik Inc.
Measures to blunt the attacks were having some success, however, as major government websites including the defense and interior ministries were reachable Thursday.
Madory said Ukraine’s internet was “under severe stress presently.” Some cybersecurity experts said prior to the invasion that it might be in the Kremlin’s intelligence -- and information war -- interests not to try to take down Ukraine’s internet during a military attack.
Ukraine’s cybersecurity service published a list on its Telegram channel of known “active disinformation” channels to avoid.