UKRAINE’S PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR Zelensky has signed a decree ordering a general mobilisation as his country faces a large-scale invasion by Russian troops.
Conscripts and reservists in all of Ukraine’s regions will be called up, according to the decree published by the Ukrainian presidency, which is to be in effect for 90 days.
Zelensky ordered the General Staff to work out how many servicemen will be called up and in which order.
Zelensky said his country was “left alone” to fight Russia, and that 137 Ukrainians had died during the first day of conflict.
“We have been left alone to defend our state,” Zelensky said. “Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone.”
“Today we have lost 137 of our heroes, our citizens. Military and civilian,” Zelensky said in a video address, adding that another 316 people had been injured.
Zelenksy said “the enemy’s sabotage groups have entered Kyiv” and urged residents to be vigilant and observe curfew rules.
He added that he and his family remained in Ukraine, despite Russia identifying him as “target number one”.
“They want to destroy Ukraine politically by taking down the head of state,” Zelensky said.
Invading Russian forces pressed deep into Ukraine today as deadly battles reached the outskirts of Kyiv. Russian missiles and shelling rained down on Ukrainian cities after President Vladimir Putin unleashed a full-scale ground invasion and air assault, forcing civilians to shelter on metro systems, with 100,000 people displaced.
The United States moved to impose sanctions on Russian elites and banks, but stressed that US forces would not head to eastern Europe to fight in Ukraine, but would instead defend “every inch” of NATO territory.
Zelensky said there was now a “new iron curtain” between Russia and the rest of the world, like in the Cold War.
Ukraine said Russian forces had seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, an area still heavily contaminated with radioactive material after a devastating 1986 accident, prompting the IAEA nuclear watchdog to call for “restraint”.
Witnesses told AFP that Russian paratroopers wrested control of the strategic Gostomel airfield, on the north-western outskirts of Kyiv, after swooping in with helicopters and jets from the direction of Belarus.
“The helicopters came in and then the battles started. They were firing machine guns, grenade launchers,” resident Sergiy Storozhuk said.
‘Better to die’
Western intelligence has said that Russia is seeking to mass “overwhelming force” around the Ukrainian capital and that Moscow has established “complete air superiority” over Ukraine.
Elsewhere, Russian ground forces moved into Ukraine from the north, south and east, forcing many Ukrainians to flee their homes as the sound of bombing reverberated.
Moscow’s defence ministry said its forces had “successfully completed” their objectives for the day, earlier claiming to have destroyed over 70 Ukrainian military targets, including 11 airfields.
Olena Kurilo was among 20 people wounded by flying shards of glass following a blast in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuguiv.
“Never, under any conditions will I submit to Putin. It is better to die,” the 52-year-old teacher said, her face covered in bandages.
US President Joe Biden announced export controls against Russia to cut off more than half of the country’s high-tech imports, alongside sanctions on Russian elites he called “corrupt billionaires”, and banks.
He earlier said the G7 group of wealthy nations had agreed to impose “devastating” economic sanctions.
The EU moved to impose “massive” sanctions on Russia’s energy and finance sectors, while French President Emmanuel Macron called Putin to “demand immediate halt” to the offensive.
Biden once again said additional US forces were not heading to eastern Europe to fight in Ukraine, but would defend “every inch” of NATO territory.
Fall of Chernobyl
Weeks of diplomacy failed to deter Putin, who massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders in what the West said was Europe’s biggest military build-up since World War II.
The city declared an overnight curfew but said underground stations would remain open throughout to serve as bomb shelters.
Zelensky called the attack on Chernobyl “a declaration of war on all of Europe” while 18 people were killed at a military base near the Black Sea port of Odessa in the deadliest single strike reported by Kyiv.
Ukraine also said a military plane with 14 people on board crashed south of Kyiv and that officials were determining how many people died, while a transport plane crashed in Russia killing the crew.
Ukrainian forces said they had killed “around 50 Russian occupiers” while repulsing an attack on a town on the frontline with Moscow-backed rebels, which could not immediately be confirmed by AFP.
In the Ukrainian village of Starognativka near the frontline where separatists have faced off against Kyiv’s forces, official Vladimir Vesyelkin said missiles had rained down since the morning and power was out.
“They are trying to wipe the village off the face of the earth,” he said.
The fighting spooked global financial markets, with stocks plunging and oil prices soaring past $100.
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said the unrest carried “significant economic risk” for the world, but Putin insisted he did not seek to undermine the global economic system.
Three fronts
The push from Belarus towards Kyiv was one of three fronts that Russian forces opened since launching the invasion early today, a US official told AFP, insisting on anonymity.
An invasion force had also moved up from Crimea in the south towards the city of Kherson.
And the third axis of attack was in the northeast, marked by a push from Russia near Belgorod and aimed at capturing the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
“We haven’t seen a conventional move like this, nation state to nation state, since World War II, certainly nothing on this size and scope and scale,” the US official said.
“The heaviest fighting we’ve seen so far is in Kharkiv.”
The attack opened just before dawn early Thursday with a raft of missile launches, including short and medium-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, according to the US official.
Those were launched from both land and ships on the Black Sea, and targeted military infrastructure, including airports, barracks and munitions depots.
The Western intelligence official said Russian air power, with dozens of advanced fight-bombers and scores of attack helicopters, had overwhelmed Ukraine’s defences.
“Those air defences are now effectively eliminated. They no longer have an air force to fly and protect themselves,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“Essentially the Russians now have complete air superiority over Ukraine.”
A principal Russian target was the airfield at Gostomel, less than 20 kilometres from the centre of Kyiv.
Russian paratroopers appeared to seize of the facility, but Ukraine officials later claimed they had driven the Russians out.
The airport, military analysts say, could become a key staging point for the Russians, to fly in more troops in preparation for a siege on Kyiv.
“If Moscow can hold onto it, and continue to achieve air superiority (the latter is very likely), it will most certainly use the airport as an entry point to attack Kyiv,” said Michael Horowitz, a security analyst at consultant Le Beck International, in a tweet.
7,000 US troops to Germany
Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced the United States was sending 7,000 more troops to Europe.
“They will deploy to Germany to reassure NATO Allies, deter Russian aggression and be prepared to support a range of requirements in the region,” a Pentagon official said, adding they are expected to depart “in the coming days.”
The 7,000 brings the number of soldiers sent from the United States to Europe to 12,000.
But President Joe Biden reiterated that while Washington will stand by its NATO allies militarily, no American forces will be sent to fight Russians in Ukraine, which is not a member of the Atlantic alliance.
Demonstrations across Europe
In a televised address, Putin justified the assault as a defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics in eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin earlier said the leaders of the two separatist territories had asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv after Putin recognised their independence on Monday.
A conflict between the separatists and government forces has dragged on since 2014, killing more than 14,000 people on both sides.
NATO said it had activated “defence plans” for allied countries but alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said there was no plan to send NATO forces into Ukraine.
Russia has long demanded that Ukraine be forbidden from ever joining NATO and that US troops pull out from Eastern Europe.
In the Baltics, Lithuania declared a national emergency and Latvia banned three Russian TV channels that were broadcasting in the country, saying they posted a “threat to national security”. The two along with the Czech Republic, also stopped issuing visas to Russians.
Demonstrators took to the streets of European capitals to condemn Russia but a small anti-war protest in Moscow was quickly shut down by police and monitors said over 1,700 people were detained across the country.
The first Ukrainian refugees have begun to trickle into Hungary and Romania while the UN said 100,000 had been displaced by the fighting.
“Anyone who can is fleeing,” said Krisztian Szavla, one of the first refugees who arrived in Hungary Thursday from Ukraine’s western Transcarpathia region.
© – AFP, 2022 with reporting from Adam Daly
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