In Kyiv and in cities throughout Ukraine, air raid sirens blared and folks sought security in bomb shelters and underground prepare stations. In Hostomel, a brief drive away from the capital, movies show Russian Mi-8 helicopters assaulting a army airfield. The Inside Ministry mentioned that Russia had seized management.
In Kramatorsk, a metropolis of 150,000 residents in Ukraine’s jap Donetsk area, the sky lit orange with a number of explosions simply earlier than 5 a.m. The Ukrainian army mentioned that Russian missiles had struck the airport, which is 2,000 ft southeast of the town middle.
About 100 miles north in Kharkiv, a metropolis of 1 million folks close to the Russian border, three residents advised BuzzFeed Information in a sequence of textual content messages that they have been woke up earlier than daybreak by a sequence of blasts.
“We’ll most likely depart the town,” one girl mentioned, asking that her title not be used for safety causes. “Don’t perceive how this will occur within the twenty first century.”
Zelensky mentioned Russian forces even launched an offensive to grab management of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe website. “This can be a declaration of warfare in opposition to the entire of Europe,” he said.
Hours later, Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the pinnacle of the Chernobyl plant, mentioned the Ukrainians had misplaced management of the positioning.
“The situation of the previous Chernobyl nuclear energy plant, confinement, and nuclear waste storage amenities is unknown,” Podoliak mentioned.