(KYIV, Ukraine) — As Russian troops closed in on Ukraine’s capital Friday and thousands of refugees continued to flee the country, several Ukrainian officials vowed to remain in Kyiv and fight against the aggression.
A defiant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, surrounded by his advisers and wearing combat fatigues, addressed the country while standing outside his office on the streets of central Kyiv.
“We are all here. Our military are here, as are our people and whole society,” Zelenskyy said in a selfie-style video posted to Facebook Friday. “We’re all here defending our independence and our country. And we’ll go on doing that. Glory to our defenders! Glory to Ukraine.”
Hours later, Zelenskyy warned during a televised address that he believed Russian troops would storm the capital overnight.
“The night will be more difficult than the day,” he said, as the sound of shelling and loud booms from airstrikes could be heard over Kyiv.
“We cannot lose Kyiv,” he said.
Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv and a legendary boxer, also said he will stand and fight for his city alongside his brother Wladimir, also a former heavyweight champion boxer. “I don’t have another choice,” Vitali told “Good Morning Britain” on Thursday.
“Words are followed by missiles and tanks. Destruction and death come upon us. … We will defend ourselves with all our might and fight for freedom and democracy,” Wladimir wrote on Linkedin Thursday.
Several members of Ukraine’s parliament said they were remaining in the city and prepared to defend themselves as Russia’s military continued its attack.
“I’m at the center of Kyiv and I will remain here,” Kira Rudik, the leader of the political party Holos, told CNN Friday.
“I’m a member of parliament and the leader of the party. It is my duty to be here,” she said.
Rudik said she could hear airstrikes as she spoke to CNN, and that she has had to hide in a bomb shelter multiple times since the Russian military launched its attack on Ukraine Thursday morning.
“There is lots of stress and it is not really helping the morale of the people, being under the airstrikes all the time,” she said.
Rudik said she was prepared to “bear arms,” and that she and members of her “crew” had received Kalashnikov assault rifles “so we will be able to resist if Russian forces will come to Kyiv.”
Parliament member Sviatoslav Yurash said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 Friday morning he was “looking at my AK-47 in front of me” as Russian troops closed in on Kyiv.
“We are giving anyone who wants to help Ukraine fight a chance to do that,” he said. “We are arming people who will be taking that fight to the Russians in every way.”
Yurash said the nation of some 40 million people is “not going to just stand idly by,” even as it faces a more powerful military.
“We will fight with everything we have and all the support that the world can provide us,” he said.
A past Ukrainian leader also appeared ready to defend the capital. Former President Petro Poroshenko spoke to CNN Friday from the streets of Kyiv with a Kalashnikov in hand.
He said they didn’t have any heavy artillery, tanks or enough arms for the “long line of people” volunteering to join Ukraine’s civilian territorial defense battalion, but he believed that they could hold out against the Russian aggression “forever.”
“I think that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin never will catch Ukraine … no matter how many soldiers he has, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has,” Poroshenko said. “We Ukrainian are a free people with a great European future.”
The businessman served as president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, when he was defeated by Zelenskyy. Poroshenko returned to Kyiv from Poland last month amid escalating tensions with Russia to face allegations of high treason, which he has denied.
“I will return to Ukraine to fight for Ukraine,” he told reporters last month.
In his latest televised address Friday, Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to “stand firm this night.”
“The fate of Ukraine is at stake right now,” the president said. “Everyone capable of defending — please help our military. Burn down enemy’s tanks and armor with whatever means.”
“The night ahead will be hard, very tough,” he continued. “But there will be dawn after it.”
The warning came as Ukrainian and Russian government officials were working to arrange possible negotiations to end the fighting, a spokesman for Zelenskyy told ABC News.
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell and Fidel Pavlenko contributed to this report.
Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
(VATICAN CITY) — The Vatican press office confirmed that Pope Francis made a visit to the Russian Embassy to the Holy See to express his concern about the fighting in Ukraine on Friday morning.
The Russian Embassy to the Holy See is a short distance outside of Vatican City situated on the road leading into St. Peter’s Square, and this was seen by most as a strong personal papal initiative.
Aside from saying the visit lasted just over an hour, the Vatican provided no further information nor distributed any video or photographs. The pope was seen leaving the embassy building seated in the front seat of a small, white car.
Ambassador Aleksandr Avdeyev, the Russian diplomat at the embassy, told Russian media that “the pope personally wanted to ask about the situation in Donbas and Ukraine” and expressed his great concern about the humanitarian situation and conditions of the population. He reportedly urged for the care of children, the sick and the people who were suffering.
The pope’s surprise and unprecedented visit to the embassy took many Vatican watchers by surprise, as it is normal protocol for ambassadors to come to the Vatican to meet with the pope. However, Pope Francis has in the past dropped in to see people in Vatican offices outside the walls of the tiny state when he has urgent matters he wishes to discuss.
On Thursday, Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said in a video statement released after the start of Russian military operations in Ukraine that although the tragic scenarios everyone feared were becoming reality “there is still time for goodwill, there is still room for negotiation.” He said he hoped those who hold the destiny of the world in their hands would have a “glimmer of conscience.”
Commentators have noted that the pope and the Vatican have been careful about publicly criticizing and naming Russia, some say, so as not to antagonize the Russian Orthodox Church.
On Wednesday at the end of his general audience in the Vatican, Pope Francis called on believers and nonbelievers to pray and fast for peace in Ukraine on Ash Wednesday to combat the “diabolical insistence, the diabolical senselessness of violence,” saying that “once again the peace of all is threatened by partisan interests.”
He appealed to those with political responsibilities to do a serious examination of conscience before God and urged world leaders to “refrain from any action that would cause even more suffering to the people, destabilizing the coexistence between nations and discrediting international law.”
Earlier Friday, the Vatican press office announced the pope would not make his scheduled one-day trip to Florence Sunday and would have to skip the Ash Wednesday ceremony in the Vatican at the start of Lent due to a flare up of knee pain. His doctors have told him he needs a longer period of rest, but that did not seem to stop him making Friday’s surprise visit.
(NEW YORK) — Russia’s military launched a long-feared invasion of Ukraine early Thursday, attacking its ex-Soviet neighbor from multiple directions despite warnings of dire consequences from the United States and the international community.
Thursday’s attacks followed weeks of escalating tensions in the region. In a fiery, hourlong speech on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was recognizing the independence of two Russia-backed separatist areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region: the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for stoking the crisis and reiterated its demands to NATO that Ukraine pledges to never join the transatlantic defense alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 25, 5:23 pm
Zelenskyy warns Russia will try to ‘storm’ Kyiv tonight
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in a televised address moments ago that he believes Russian forces will “storm” the capital of Kyiv overnight.
“The night will be more difficult than the day,” he said, as the sound of shelling and loud booms from airstrikes could be heard over Kyiv.
“We cannot lose Kyiv,” he said.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 5:13 pm
Proposed talks of diplomacy come ‘at the barrel of a gun’: State Dept.
The State Department expressed doubts Friday that Moscow-led efforts to set up talks between Kyiv and the Kremlin in Minsk, Belarus, could yield any meaningful results against the backdrop of an ongoing invasion.
“You’ve heard us say before that over the course of several weeks leading up to the events that we’ve seen recently in Ukraine — the assault on Ukraine, its sovereignty, its territorial integrity, and really, its people — that Moscow engaged in a pretense of diplomacy,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a briefing. “Now, we see Moscow suggesting that diplomacy take place at the barrel of a gun, or as Moscow’s rockets, mortars, artillery, target the Ukrainian people. This is not real diplomacy. Those are not the conditions for real diplomacy.”
Price added that if Putin were serious about diplomacy, “He should immediately stop the bombing campaign against civilians, order the withdrawal of his forces from Ukraine, and indicate very clearly — unambiguously to the world — that Moscow is prepared to de-escalate. We have not seen that yet.”
When pressed on if the U.S. would still support Ukraine entering into such talks, or if the State Department had specifically advised Ukraine against engaging with Russia, Price largely demurred, but said that the countries were “operating in pure lockstep.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Zoha Qamar
Feb 25, 4:13 pm
Ukraine Railway Company adds evacuation trains from Kyiv to western cities
The Ukraine Railway Company said it’s adding a number of evacuation trains running from Kyiv to cities in western Ukraine.
The company said the trains can hold about 10,000 people per day.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Feb 25, 3:52 pm
US to sanction Putin, Lavrov
The U.S. will join the European Union in sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and members of the Russian national security team, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.
BREAKING: U.S. will sanction Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, and members of the Russian national security team, White House press sec. Jen Psaki says.
Sanctions on Putin and Lavrov were announced earlier Friday by the EU and the United Kingdom.
Feb 25, 3:42 pm
Biden ‘commended the brave actions of the Ukrainian people’ during call with Zelensky
President Joe Biden said during his Friday phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he “commended the brave actions of the Ukrainian people” who are defending their country against the Russian military.
On the call Biden said he “also conveyed ongoing economic, humanitarian, and security support being provided by the United States as well as our continued efforts to rally other countries to provide similar assistance.”
Biden, who met with NATO leaders earlier in the day, said in a statement, “Putin has failed in his goal of dividing the West. NATO is as united and resolute as it’s ever been, and NATO will maintain its Open Door to those European states who share our values and who one day may seek to join our Alliance.”
“I have ordered the deployment of additional forces to augment our capabilities in Europe to support our NATO Allies,” Biden said. “And I strongly welcome the decision to activate NATO’s defensive plans and elements of the NATO Response Force to strengthen our collective posture, as well as the commitments by our Allies to deploy additional land and air forces to the eastern flank and maritime forces from the High North to the Mediterranean.”
Feb 25, 3:08 pm
Classified all-member House briefing set for Monday
Administration officials will provide a classified in-person briefing on the Ukraine crisis to all House members on Monday evening following their return from recess, a senior Capitol Hill official confirmed to ABC News.
Members have had unclassified virtual briefings throughout the week.
-ABC News’ Mariam Khan
Feb 25, 3:01 pm
Ukrainian cyber agency reports mass phishing attempts
The Computer Emergency Response Team for Ukraine said it has seen mass phishing emails targeting government websites.
“Mass phishing emails have recently been observed targeting private ‘’ and ‘’ accounts of Ukrainian military personnel and related individuals,” the agency said in a Facebook post Friday. “After the account is compromised, the attackers, by the IMAP protocol, get access to all the messages. Later, the attackers use contact details from the victim’s address book to send the phishing emails.”
They attribute the emails to officers of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus.
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
Feb 25, 2:57 pm
Over 50,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled
More than 50,000 Ukrainians have fled their country in less than 48 hours, mostly to to Poland and Moldova, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees tweeted.
The U.S. is coordinating with its European allies and partners who will be on the front lines receiving refugees, a spokesperson for the State Department told ABC News. That includes diplomatic engagements “to ensure neighboring countries keep their borders open to those seeking international protection,” the spokesperson said.
U.N. Relief Chief Martin Griffiths said Friday that over $1 billion will be required for humanitarian efforts over the next three months.
-ABC News’ Cindy Smith, Conor Finnegan
Feb 25, 2:39 pm
EU to sanction Putin, Lavrov: Latvian government
The European Union announced Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will be included on its second round of sanctions, according to the Latvian and French governments.
It’s unclear what, if any, financial impact these asset freezes have on either figure.
Hours before the decision was made, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell diplomat said even these EU sanctions on Putin and Lavrov would “certainly” not be enough.
“We are facing a full-fledged invasion of a country by another. It’s not a special forces operations like Russia pretends us to believe — it’s a fully-fledged invasion with bombing, with killing of civilians, with confrontations among two armies,” he told reporters. “This is the worst thing that has happened in Europe, if I may say, since the end of the Cold War, and nobody knows what’s happening afterwards. Nobody knows which are the real intention of Putin.”
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 25, 2:24 pm
Russia restricts Facebook
Russia is restricting its use of Facebook, according to its parent company, Meta.
Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Meta, said in a statement Friday, “Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling of content posted on Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services.”
“Ordinary Russians are using our apps to express themselves and organize for action,” he continued. “We want them to continue to make their voices heard.”
Feb 25, 2:19 pm
Czech Republic, Poland ban Russian carriers from airspace
Poland and the Czech Republic said Friday they are banning Russian carriers from their airspace.
The United Kingdom on Thursday suspended the foreign carrier permit held by Russian airline Aeroflot.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Feb 25, 1:40 pm
Zelenskyy says, ‘We are all here’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posted a selfie-style video showing himself standing outside the president’s office in central Kyiv Friday night along his defense minister, prime minister and parliamentary leader.
Zelenskyy, in combat fatigues, said to the camera that Ukraine’s army is there and will win.
“We are all here. Our military are here, as are our people and whole society. We’re all here defending our independence and our country. And we’ll go on doing that,” he said.
President Joe Biden held a secure call with Zelenskyy on Friday, according to a White House official.
Feb 25, 1:32 pm
NATO allies must stand ready to do more, NATO SG says
Russia is demanding legally binding agreements to remove troops and infrastructure from NATO allies that joined after 1997, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday.
In addition to the significant sanctions imposed against Russia, NATO allies must stand ready to do more, Stoltenberg said, even if it means “we have to pay a price — because we are in this for the long haul.”
The U.S., Canada and European allies have deployed thousands of more troops to the eastern part of the alliance, Stolentenberg said. Over 100 jets and more than 120 ships are operating on high alert in more than 30 locations, he said.
Feb 25, 1:16 pm
UK’s Boris Johnson announces Putin, Lavrov sanctions
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson will introduce sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on top of the sanctions package announced Thursday, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
The announcement was made during a Friday call with NATO leaders.
“The Prime Minister told the group that a catastrophe was engulfing Ukraine, and President Putin was engaging in a revanchist mission to over-turn post-Cold War order. He warned the group that the Russian President’s ambitions might not stop there and that this was a Euro-Atlantic crisis with global consequences,” the Downing Street spokesperson said.
“The Prime Minister urged leaders to take immediate action against SWIFT to inflict maximum pain on President Putin and his regime,” the spokesperson added.
If Russia was cut off from the SWIFT — the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication international banking system — it would significantly hinder Russia’s participation in global markets.
Feb 25, 12:55 pm
Russia deploying disinformation campaign to damage Ukraine’s morale: US official
A U.S. official alleges that Russia is deploying a disinformation campaign to damage Ukrainians’ morale through false reports about Ukrainian troops surrendering or through planned threats to kill the family members of Ukraine’s military troops.
“We commend the Ukrainian people for showing strength and determination in response to an unprovoked attack by a significantly larger military,” the official said. “We are concerned, however, that Russia plans to discourage them and induce surrender through disinformation.”
Earlier Friday, Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed that more than 150 Ukrainian service members “laid down their arms and surrendered,” even providing names and figures for where they say these surrenders took place.
“After the stabilization of the situation in the combat area, all surrendered Ukrainian servicemen will be released home,” the Ministry of Defense said.
Feb 25, 12:41 pm
NATO activates NATO Response Force
NATO has activated its NATO Response Force, marking the first time the alliance has activated the potentially 40,000-person force for “a deterrence and defence” role, according to a NATO spokesperson. This means that the 8,500 American troops put on heightened alert in late January for this mission could soon be ordered to Europe.
The decision follows a meeting of NATO ministers Friday morning in Brussels.
To be activated, the 30 members of NATO must all agree to activate the force, which is under the command of Gen. Told Wolters, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.
Feb 25, 12:19 pm
Over 50,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled
More than 50,000 Ukrainians have fled their country in less than 48 hours, mostly to Poland and Moldova, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees tweeted.
The U.S. is coordinating with its European allies and partners who will be on the front lines receiving refugees, a spokesperson for the State Department told ABC News. That includes diplomatic engagements “to ensure neighboring countries keep their borders open to those seeking international protection,” the spokesperson said.
Feb 25, 11:54 am
Russians planning multiple simultaneous entrance points into Kyiv: Official
Officials are seeing more signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t interested in a diplomatic solution, a senior U.S. official said.
Russian troops are now resupplied and are planning multiple entrance points into Kyiv that will likely be carried out at once, the official said.
Feb 25, 11:34 am
Chernobyl seeing slightly higher levels of radiation but no threat
After Russian forces seized the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power station, the facilities continue “to operate safely and securely,” Ukraine’s regulatory agency informed the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. Nuclear watchdog said Friday.
There were slightly higher levels of radiation, but they are still “low and remain within the operational range measured in the Exclusion Zone since it was established, and therefore do not pose any danger to the public,” the IAEA said.
One theory why the levels could have ticked up, according to the IAEA, is “heavy military vehicles stirring up soil still contaminated from the 1986 accident.”
The Chernobyl power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, is located about 60 miles north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The Chernobyl exclusion zone begins almost immediately below Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday that Russian troops took full control of the Chernobyl plant area on Thursday.
Feb 25, 11:14 am
Russians going ashore in ‘amphibious assault’
A senior defense official confirms that there is a Russian “amphibious assault” underway along the Ukrainian coast from the Sea of Azov. The attack is to the west of Mariupol, which is a coastal city in southeastern Ukraine.
“Indications are right now that they are putting potentially thousands of naval infantry ashore there,” the official said.
The push toward Kyiv is going slower than the Russians expected as they’re meeting more resistance from Ukrainians than they thought, the official said.
“In general the Russians have lost a little bit of their momentum,” the official said.
The official pointed out that no population centers have been taken and the Russians do not have air superiority over Ukraine as Ukrainian air defenses are still working.
The official said more than 200 ballistic and cruise missiles have been fired at targets in Ukraine, adding some have “impacted civilian residential areas.”
The U.S. assesses that “a third of the combat power ” of the 150,000 Russian troops that were amassed on the border are actually dedicated to the fighting in Ukraine, according to the official.
“They have not they have not committed the majority of their forces inside Ukraine,” the official said.
Fighting is also underway at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and dam on the Dnieper River that controls a lot of electrical power to Crimea and southern Ukraine, the official said, adding that there have been cyberattacks against power plants.
Feb 25, 10:31 am
EU moving toward sanctioning Putin, Lavrov: Top diplomat
The European Union is moving toward sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over Russia’s war against Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat confirmed.
But the decision has not been made and requires unanimous approval by the 27 member states, diplomat Josep Borrell told reporters Friday.
“If there is no surprises and nobody objects — because we require unanimity — yes, Putin and Lavrov will be on the list,” Borrell said.
He said even these EU sanctions on Putin and Lavrov would “certainly” not be enough.
“We are facing a full-fledged invasion of a country by another. It’s not a special forces operations like Russia pretends us to believe — it’s a fully-fledged invasion with bombing, with killing of civilians, with confrontations among two armies,” he said. “This is the worst thing that has happened in Europe, if I may say, since the end of the Cold War, and nobody knows what’s happening afterwards. Nobody knows which are the real intention of Putin.”
Feb 25, 8:57 am
Russia may be reinforcing, resupplying before moving in on Kyiv
There was an eerie quietness across Kyiv on Friday afternoon, as Russian forces closed in on the Ukrainian capital.
A senior U.S. official told ABC News that he believes the pause around Kyiv was due to the Russian military reinforcing troops and resupplying ammunition and food, and that Russia still wants a stranglehold on the city over the next 24 to 48 hours.
The official also expressed great concern about civilian causalities if Russian forces do move in. While there appeared to be a renewed effort at diplomacy on Friday, the United States believes any noise Russia makes about negotiations is simply stalling, the official said.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz
Feb 25, 8:35 am
Kremlin claims Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality
Russia claimed Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality for his country.
“Zelenskyy stated his readiness to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “From the beginning, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke about how the goal of the operation to the [separatist regions], including a path to the demilitarisation and de-Nazification of Ukraine. But that is actually also an essential component of neutral status.”
Peskov added that Putin is prepared to send a delegation to neighboring Belarus to hold talks with Ukrainian officials in Minsk.
If the Kremlin’s claims are true, it would amount to Zelenskyy surrendering to Russia’s demand that Ukraine pledges to never join NATO.
Earlier Friday, Zelenskyy called on Putin to hold talks “to stop people dying.” But he did not mention neutral status.
The comments came as Russian troops reached the center of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and engaged in fighting with Ukrainian troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 8:35 am
Kremlin claims Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality
Russia claimed Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality for his country.
“Zelenskyy stated his readiness to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “From the beginning, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke about how the goal of the operation to the [separatist regions], including a path to the demilitarisation and de-Nazification of Ukraine. But that is actually also an essential component of neutral status.”
Peskov added that Putin is prepared to send a delegation to neighboring Belarus to hold talks with Ukrainian officials in Minsk.
If the Kremlin’s claims are true, it would amount to Zelenskyy surrendering to Russia’s demand that Ukraine pledges to never join NATO.
Earlier Friday, Zelenskyy called on Putin to hold talks “to stop people dying.” But he did not mention neutral status.
The comments came as Russian troops reached the center of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and engaged in fighting with Ukrainian troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 8:13 am
Russia claims to have blocked Kyiv from west
Russia claimed on Friday afternoon that its forces have blocked Kyiv from the west, which would begin a partial encirclement of the Ukrainian capital.
According to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian forces also have completely blocked the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, about 90 miles north of Kyiv, and now have full control of a key Ukrainian military airport in Hostomel, a town on the edge of the capital. Some 200 Russian helicopters were allegedly used in the attack on the airport.
While ABC News could not independently verify Russia’s claims, the Ukrainian military has acknowledged that it does not have full control of the airport in Hostomel.
The Russian Ministry of Defense alleged that Russian forces are “doing everything possible to prevent civilian casualties” and “will not deliver any strikes on residential areas of Kyiv.” However, fighting is already taking place in residential areas and Ukrainian authorities said homes have been bombed in and around Kyiv.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 7:47 am
Zelenskyy warns Russian invasion is start of ‘war against all Europe’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold negotiations and cease the deadly attacks on his country.
“Fighting is ongoing all over Ukraine. Let’s sit at the table for negotiations to stop people dying,” Zelenskyy said in a televised address Friday afternoon.
But he did not order Ukrainian troops to stop defending their country, instead telling them: “Stand tough. You’re everything we have. You’re everything that is defending us.”
Zelenskyy criticized Europe’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling it too slow and noting divisions. He also issued a dire warning to the rest of Europe.
“It’s not just Russian invasion in Ukraine, it’s the beginning of the war against all Europe, against its unity, all human rights, against all the rules of coexistence on the continent, against European countries’ refusal to change the borders by force,” he said.
-ABC News’ Julia Drozd and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 7:15 am
UN refugee agency estimates 100,000 Ukrainians are displaced
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates some 100,000 Ukrainians have already been forced from their homes due to the ongoing Russian invasion, spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told ABC News on Friday.
Mantoo cautioned that the agency has not confirmed any exact numbers.
“But there clearly has been significant displacement inside the country and some movements towards and across the borders,” she said.
The news was first reported by AFP.
The United States is coordinating with its European allies and partners who will be on the front lines receiving refugees, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State told ABC News. That includes diplomatic engagements “to ensure neighboring countries keep their borders open to those seeking international protection,” the spokesperson said.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 25, 6:42 am
Russia says negotiations will begin after ‘democratic order’ restored
Russia will begin negotiations again once “democratic order” is restored in Ukraine, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said Friday, amid an ongoing invasion of the neighboring country.
“We are ready for negotiations, at any moment, as soon as the Armed Forces of Ukraine respond to the call of our president to cease resistance and lay down their arms. No one intends to attack them,” Lavrov said during a televised meeting in Moscow with pro-Russian separatist leaders from eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov’s comments come as Russian forces attacked Ukrainian troops in Kyiv on Friday morning, as the fighting drew closer to the capital’s city center.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 6:03 am
Russia claims to have disabled 118 Ukrainian military facilities
Russia claimed Friday that its forces have so far disabled 118 elements of Ukraine’s military infrastructure.
“These include 11 military airfields and 13 command and communication posts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
Konashenkov also alleged that more than 150 Ukrainian soldiers have “laid down their arms and surrendered during the fighting.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Feb 25, 5:43 am
Gunfire, explosions heard within Kyiv as fighting draws near
ABC News’ team in Kyiv saw a large explosion and heard intense gunfire in the distance early Friday afternoon.
The crackles of gunfire appeared to be several miles north of the center of the Ukrainian capital, but still well within the city limits.
Ukrainian authorities have told residents in the northern suburb of Obolon to take shelter and prepare for imminent military action. The area is a 10-minute drive from Kyiv’s center.
The capital remains on edge as Russian forces draw near. Earlier, Ukrainian troops were seen hurriedly moving with ammunition to set up positions in the city center as air-raid sirens rang out.
Thousands of people have tried to leave Kyiv and head west to the Polish border, with some spending hours stuck in long traffic jams.
The Ukrainian military said it has distributed 18,000 assault rifles to territorial defense volunteers in the capital. It has also begun handing out weapons to civilians who want to fight and has called on healthy men over the age 60 to join the defense force, if they wish.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 5:11 am
Ukrainian military claims to have killed Russian saboteurs in Kyiv
Ukraine’s military claimed Friday to have killed an advance group of Russian saboteurs disguised as Ukrainian soldiers during a gunfight in the capital, Kyiv.
The Ukrainian military released video purportedly showing the bodies of men in Ukrainian uniforms and a destroyed truck. The fighting allegedly happened in an area only 10 minutes north of the city center.
Russian forces that crossed into Ukraine from the north on Thursday have been trying to advance south toward Kyiv. Fighting was taking place near a town 20 miles north of the entrance to the capital on Friday morning, ABC News has learned.
(NEW YORK) — Russia’s military launched a long-feared invasion of Ukraine early Thursday, attacking its ex-Soviet neighbor from multiple directions despite warnings of dire consequences from the United States and the international community.
Thursday’s attacks followed weeks of escalating tensions in the region. In a fiery, hourlong speech on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was recognizing the independence of two Russia-backed separatist areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region: the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for stoking the crisis and reiterated its demands to NATO that Ukraine pledges to never join the transatlantic defense alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 25, 10:59 am
Russians going ashore in ‘amphibious assault’
A senior defense official confirms that there is a Russian “amphibious assault” underway along the Ukrainian coast from the Sea of Azov. The attack is to the west of Mariupol, which is a coastal city in southeastern Ukraine.
“Indications are right now that they are putting potentially thousands of naval infantry ashore there,” the official said.
Feb 25, 10:31 am
EU moving toward sanctioning Putin, Lavrov: Top diplomat
The European Union is moving toward sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over Russia’s war against Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat confirmed.
But the decision has not been made and requires unanimous approval by the 27 member states, diplomat Josep Borrell told reporters Friday.
“If there is no surprises and nobody objects — because we require unanimity — yes, Putin and Lavrov will be on the list,” Borrell said.
He said even these EU sanctions on Putin and Lavrov would “certainly” not be enough.
“We are facing a full-fledged invasion of a country by another. It’s not a special forces operations like Russia pretends us to believe — it’s a fully-fledged invasion with bombing, with killing of civilians, with confrontations among two armies,” he said. “This is the worst thing that has happened in Europe, if I may say, since the end of the Cold War, and nobody knows what’s happening afterwards. Nobody knows which are the real intention of Putin.”
Feb 25, 8:57 am
Russia may be reinforcing, resupplying before moving in on Kyiv
There was an eerie quietness across Kyiv on Friday afternoon, as Russian forces closed in on the Ukrainian capital.
A senior U.S. official told ABC News that he believes the pause around Kyiv was due to the Russian military reinforcing troops and resupplying ammunition and food, and that Russia still wants a stranglehold on the city over the next 24 to 48 hours.
The official also expressed great concern about civilian causalities if Russian forces do move in. While there appeared to be a renewed effort at diplomacy on Friday, the United States believes any noise Russia makes about negotiations is simply stalling, the official said.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz
Feb 25, 8:35 am
Kremlin claims Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality
Russia claimed Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality for his country.
“Zelenskyy stated his readiness to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “From the beginning, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke about how the goal of the operation to the [separatist regions], including a path to the demilitarisation and de-Nazification of Ukraine. But that is actually also an essential component of neutral status.”
Peskov added that Putin is prepared to send a delegation to neighboring Belarus to hold talks with Ukrainian officials in Minsk.
If the Kremlin’s claims are true, it would amount to Zelenskyy surrendering to Russia’s demand that Ukraine pledges to never join NATO.
Earlier Friday, Zelenskyy called on Putin to hold talks “to stop people dying.” But he did not mention neutral status.
The comments came as Russian troops reached the center of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and engaged in fighting with Ukrainian troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 8:35 am
Kremlin claims Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality
Russia claimed Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to discuss neutrality for his country.
“Zelenskyy stated his readiness to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “From the beginning, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke about how the goal of the operation to the [separatist regions], including a path to the demilitarisation and de-Nazification of Ukraine. But that is actually also an essential component of neutral status.”
Peskov added that Putin is prepared to send a delegation to neighboring Belarus to hold talks with Ukrainian officials in Minsk.
If the Kremlin’s claims are true, it would amount to Zelenskyy surrendering to Russia’s demand that Ukraine pledges to never join NATO.
Earlier Friday, Zelenskyy called on Putin to hold talks “to stop people dying.” But he did not mention neutral status.
The comments came as Russian troops reached the center of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and engaged in fighting with Ukrainian troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 8:13 am
Russia claims to have blocked Kyiv from west
Russia claimed on Friday afternoon that its forces have blocked Kyiv from the west, which would begin a partial encirclement of the Ukrainian capital.
According to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian forces also have completely blocked the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, about 90 miles north of Kyiv, and now have full control of a key Ukrainian military airport in Hostomel, a town on the edge of the capital. Some 200 Russian helicopters were allegedly used in the attack on the airport.
While ABC News could not independently verify Russia’s claims, the Ukrainian military has acknowledged that it does not have full control of the airport in Hostomel.
The Russian Ministry of Defense alleged that Russian forces are “doing everything possible to prevent civilian casualties” and “will not deliver any strikes on residential areas of Kyiv.” However, fighting is already taking place in residential areas and Ukrainian authorities said homes have been bombed in and around Kyiv.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 7:47 am
Zelenskyy warns Russian invasion is start of ‘war against all Europe’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold negotiations and cease the deadly attacks on his country.
“Fighting is ongoing all over Ukraine. Let’s sit at the table for negotiations to stop people dying,” Zelenskyy said in a televised address Friday afternoon.
But he did not order Ukrainian troops to stop defending their country, instead telling them: “Stand tough. You’re everything we have. You’re everything that is defending us.”
Zelenskyy criticized Europe’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling it too slow and noting divisions. He also issued a dire warning to the rest of Europe.
“It’s not just Russian invasion in Ukraine, it’s the beginning of the war against all Europe, against its unity, all human rights, against all the rules of coexistence on the continent, against European countries’ refusal to change the borders by force,” he said.
-ABC News’ Julia Drozd and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 7:15 am
UN refugee agency estimates 100,000 Ukrainians are displaced
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates some 100,000 Ukrainians have already been forced from their homes due to the ongoing Russian invasion, spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told ABC News on Friday.
Mantoo cautioned that the agency has not confirmed any exact numbers.
“But there clearly has been significant displacement inside the country and some movements towards and across the borders,” she said.
The news was first reported by AFP.
The United States is coordinating with its European allies and partners who will be on the front lines receiving refugees, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State told ABC News. That includes diplomatic engagements “to ensure neighboring countries keep their borders open to those seeking international protection,” the spokesperson said.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 25, 6:42 am
Russia says negotiations will begin after ‘democratic order’ restored
Russia will begin negotiations again once “democratic order” is restored in Ukraine, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said Friday, amid an ongoing invasion of the neighboring country.
“We are ready for negotiations, at any moment, as soon as the Armed Forces of Ukraine respond to the call of our president to cease resistance and lay down their arms. No one intends to attack them,” Lavrov said during a televised meeting in Moscow with pro-Russian separatist leaders from eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov’s comments come as Russian forces attacked Ukrainian troops in Kyiv on Friday morning, as the fighting drew closer to the capital’s city center.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 6:03 am
Russia claims to have disabled 118 Ukrainian military facilities
Russia claimed Friday that its forces have so far disabled 118 elements of Ukraine’s military infrastructure.
“These include 11 military airfields and 13 command and communication posts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
Konashenkov also alleged that more than 150 Ukrainian soldiers have “laid down their arms and surrendered during the fighting.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Feb 25, 5:43 am
Gunfire, explosions heard within Kyiv as fighting draws near
ABC News’ team in Kyiv saw a large explosion and heard intense gunfire in the distance early Friday afternoon.
The crackles of gunfire appeared to be several miles north of the center of the Ukrainian capital, but still well within the city limits.
Ukrainian authorities have told residents in the northern suburb of Obolon to take shelter and prepare for imminent military action. The area is a 10-minute drive from Kyiv’s center.
The capital remains on edge as Russian forces draw near. Earlier, Ukrainian troops were seen hurriedly moving with ammunition to set up positions in the city center as air-raid sirens rang out.
Thousands of people have tried to leave Kyiv and head west to the Polish border, with some spending hours stuck in long traffic jams.
The Ukrainian military said it has distributed 18,000 assault rifles to territorial defense volunteers in the capital. It has also begun handing out weapons to civilians who want to fight and has called on healthy men over the age 60 to join the defense force, if they wish.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 5:11 am
Ukrainian military claims to have killed Russian saboteurs in Kyiv
Ukraine’s military claimed Friday to have killed an advance group of Russian saboteurs disguised as Ukrainian soldiers during a gunfight in the capital, Kyiv.
The Ukrainian military released video purportedly showing the bodies of men in Ukrainian uniforms and a destroyed truck. The fighting allegedly happened in an area only 10 minutes north of the city center.
Russian forces that crossed into Ukraine from the north on Thursday have been trying to advance south toward Kyiv. Fighting was taking place near a town 20 miles north of the entrance to the capital on Friday morning, ABC News has learned.
(NEW YORK) — For many Ukrainians living in the United States, the early hours of Thursday morning were spent reaching out to family members and watching news developments as Russia crossed the border into Ukraine and began the first attacks on the country.
Oksana Sukhina, a Ukranian immigrant who came to the U.S. two years ago, told ABC News she learned the news of the invasion through a neighborhood watch group chat from back home.
“I saw messages that someone was asking, ‘Oh, what’s that booming?’ and someone responding, ‘Well, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin started the military operation,'” Sukhina told ABC News.
She couldn’t fall asleep that night.
Sukhina, who is a member of the non-profit U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, said that most of her family is back in Ukraine, and though she fears for the safety of her loved ones, she trusts in the Ukrainian army and in NATO forces.
“We hope that this insanity stops. It’s a civilizational attack,” Sukhina told ABC News. “We’re reading some disturbing messages about Russian troops being over on the ground.”
She said her son, who is in the U.S., is even seeking out ways to get back to Ukraine to help.
Alex Ponomarenko, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union region that is now Ukraine, told ABC News that as soon as he heard reports of the invasion, he began reaching out to loved ones.
Because of past aggression from Russia, including the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, many Ukrainians say they had the eerie feeling that something would soon erupt.
“No one was expecting this to happen, but it was always on the table,” Ponomarenko told ABC News in an interview. “My fear is the loss of life.”
Tamara Olexy, executive director of the nonprofit Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, also told ABC News that the invasion isn’t necessarily a surprise, but she still feels shaken by the attacks.
“It was a complete shock that in the 21st century, you can watch a war unfolding right before your eyes,” Olexy said.
Her family in Western Ukraine is safe, she said.
“We’re urging our governments to put in the harshest sanctions possible against Putin, and the Russian regime, and doing whatever we can to get the real truth out about what’s going on in Ukraine,” Olexy added.
Many said they hope Ukraine’s past of resilience and victory will pull the country through.
“Ukrainians are fighting back,” Olexy said. “Ukrainians aren’t going to give up the land easily. This is going to be a very long-drawn-out war … Ukrainians have fought long and hard to gain their independence — or regain their independence, I should say — 30 years ago, and they’re not going to give it up easily.”
Sukhina added, “[Ukraine] has prevailed so far, we will prevail further on.”
Many Ukrainian descendants, immigrants and refugees said they are channeling their initial feelings of pain into action. They’re set on figuring out how best to help their loved ones back home.
The goal is to not only make sure they’re safe now but also to financially and resourcefully support their continued safety. They’re calling on people from around the world, non-Ukrainians and Ukrainians alike, to assist in making sure those in need have the resources necessary.
“We’re ready to assist anyone as much as possible,” Ponomarenko said. “It’s a humanitarian issue. We should be ready to help.”
(NEW YORK) — The streets of several major cities across the globe transformed into seas of blue and yellow Ukrainian flags on Thursday. Protesters are demanding action from their local leaders regarding the Russian invasion into Ukraine, which has already claimed dozens of lives.
In New York City, hundreds of protesters marched to and gathered at Times Square, the Russian Mission and United Nations buildings in support of Ukraine amid the Russian attacks.
The city is home to the largest Ukrainian community in the U.S., with more than 150,000 Ukrainians residing across the region.
In Washington, D.C., protesters marched to the White House, as well as to the Russian embassy, to demand action from President Joe Biden. According to Washington ABC affiliate WJLA, a demonstrator painted the word “murder” on the sidewalk in front of the embassy building.
Protests also took place in Chicago.
In London, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office and the Russian Embassy carrying Ukrainian flags. Russians, Ukrainians and other protesters joined together in calls against the military invasion.
Berlin’s most famous landmark, The Brandenburg Gate, was lit in the yellow and blue colors of Ukraine in support of the country under siege. Thousands also marched through the city’s streets in support of Ukrainians.
In Paris, the City Hall was also lit up in support of Ukraine. Marches also took place throughout the city.
In Moscow, anti-war protesters spoke out against their own country, as Russian military forces continued to lay siege to their neighboring country. More than a thousand protesters were arrested in a sign of the totalitarian nature of Russia’s government. Protests also broke out in Saint Petersburg.
Protests also took place in Spain, Lebanon, Austria, The Netherlands, Poland and more.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hold a joint press conference following a meeting in Kiev on October 31, 2019. – SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Ukraine is not a member of NATO, though the international security alliance has been a key player in its ongoing conflict with Russia, which escalated to a full-scale invasion by Russian forces Thursday.
Since the United States helped form NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in 1949 to counter Soviet aggression in Europe, the alliance has grown to 30 member countries, including three former Soviet republics — the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
In 2008, NATO appeared to open the door to membership to two more former Soviet republics when its heads of government declared that Georgia and Ukraine “will become members of NATO.”
Neither have formally received a pathway to eventual membership, with corruption concerns and a lack of consensus among members seen in part as holding back Ukraine’s invitation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that Ukraine never join the alliance as he seeks to limit NATO’s presence in Eastern Europe.
Putin’s military operation has prompted NATO allies, worried about further escalation, to issue sanctions meant to impact the Russian economy, bolster troops along the alliance’s Eastern flank and repeatedly warn that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all.
In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, President Joe Biden announced that NATO will convene a summit Friday to “affirm our solidarity and to map out the next steps we will take to further strengthen all aspects of our NATO alliance.”
Biden said repeatedly said the U.S. won’t be sending troops to engage with Russia in Ukraine, though he has recently authorized the deployment of ground and air forces in Europe to support NATO’s eastern flank allies — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania — in response to Russian aggression. Following Thursday’s attack on Ukraine, Biden said he has authorized additional forces to deploy to Germany as part of NATO’s response. According to a senior Defense Department official, 7,000 service members will be deployed to Germany in the coming days.
“Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine but to defend our NATO allies and reassure those allies in the East,” Biden said during an address Thursday. “As I made crystal clear, the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power.”
Article 5 commitments
During a video address days before he announced a military operation in Ukraine, Putin linked the current crisis directly to Russia’s NATO demands, which include a guarantee that NATO stop expanding to the East and pull back its infrastructure from Eastern European countries that joined after the Cold War. He accused the U.S. and NATO of ignoring Russia’s demands and blamed the West for the current crisis in Ukraine.
The potential impact of the Ukraine conflict on U.S. interests is considered “significant,” by the Council on Foreign Relations, which said in part that the conflict “risks further deterioration of U.S.-Russia relations and greater escalation if Russia expands its presence in Ukraine or into NATO countries.”
“I think we shouldn’t get fixated only on Ukraine,” Doug Lute, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and ABC News contributor, told ABC News Live following Putin’s speech. “[Putin’s] ambitions beyond that are to essentially rewind the clock 30 years and reverse the progress made in Western Europe, certainly Central and Eastern Europe, and if possible, break the ties between the United States and its European allies.”
Were the conflict to go beyond Ukraine and impact NATO members, that could lead the organization to invoke its mutual self-defense clause — what’s known as Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which states that “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” If one ally is attacked, the others will respond with necessary action, including armed force, “to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”
The first and only time NATO invoked Article 5 was in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, in support of the U.S. On Thursday, Biden said the U.S. and its NATO allies “will meet our Article 5 commitments” if necessary in response to Russian aggression, though they are seeking to deescalate the conflict through increased sanctions.
“If [Putin] did move into NATO countries, we will be involved,” Biden told reporters. “The only thing that I am convinced of is — if we don’t stop now, he’ll be emboldened. If we don’t move against him now with these significant sanctions, he will be emboldened.”
U.S. officials see Article 5 as another deterrent for any further Russian aggression.
“Is it a possibility that Putin goes beyond Ukraine? Sure, it’s a possibility, but there’s something very powerful standing in the way of that — that’s something we call Article 5 of NATO,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with ABC’s David Muir on Thursday. “The president’s been very clear that we will defend every inch of NATO territory. I think that’s the most powerful deterrent against President Putin going beyond Ukraine.”
Cyberattack question
One “gray area” around NATO’s Article 5 response is Russian cyberattacks and their impacts beyond Ukraine, according to U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who oversees the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“The real deal is if they suddenly decide to shut down all the power in Ukraine, chances are that may shut down the power in eastern Poland, where American and NATO troops are located,” Warner told reporters Thursday. “If they shut down the hospital systems in Poland, and people die because you can’t operate, we are suddenly outside of the hypothetical realm of what could constitute what’s called an Article 5 violation, where if you attack one NATO nation, you attack all 30 NATO nations. And these hypotheticals become a reality.”
If Russia responds to NATO allies’ sanctions with cyberattacks, “we are again going into uncharted territory,” he said.
Last year, NATO said the alliance would consider whether to invoke Article 5 in response to a cyberattack “on a case-by-case basis.”
When asked by ABC White House correspondent MaryAlice Parks on Thursday if the White House thought a cyberattack against a NATO member would trigger an Article 5 response, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that’d be a “point of discussion.”
“That, again, is up to the NATO alliance to determine, but obviously a cyberattack does constitute an attack, so that would certainly be a point of discussion among the NATO members,” she said.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Russia’s military launched a long-feared invasion of Ukraine early Thursday, attacking its ex-Soviet neighbor from multiple directions despite warnings of dire consequences from the United States and the international community.
Thursday’s attacks followed weeks of escalating tensions in the region. In a fiery, hourlong speech on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was recognizing the independence of two Russia-backed separatist areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region: the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for stoking the crisis and reiterated its demands to NATO that Ukraine pledges to never join the transatlantic defense alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 25, 6:42 am
Russia says negotiations will begin after ‘democratic order’ restored
Russia will begin negotiations again once “democratic order” is restored in Ukraine, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said Friday, amid an ongoing invasion of the neighboring country.
“We are ready for negotiations, at any moment, as soon as the Armed Forces of Ukraine respond to the call of our president to cease resistance and lay down their arms. No one intends to attack them,” Lavrov said during a televised meeting in Moscow with pro-Russian separatist leaders from eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov’s comments come as Russian forces attacked Ukrainian troops in Kyiv on Friday morning, as the fighting drew closer to the capital’s city center.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 6:03 am
Russia claims to have disabled 118 Ukrainian military facilities
Russia claimed Friday that its forces have so far disabled 118 elements of Ukraine’s military infrastructure.
“These include 11 military airfields and 13 command and communication posts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
Konashenkov also alleged that more than 150 Ukrainian soldiers have “laid down their arms and surrendered during the fighting.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Feb 25, 5:43 am
Gunfire, explosions heard within Kyiv as fighting draws near
ABC News’ team in Kyiv saw a large explosion and heard intense gunfire in the distance early Friday afternoon.
The crackles of gunfire appeared to be several miles north of the center of the Ukrainian capital, but still well within the city limits.
Ukrainian authorities have told residents in the northern suburb of Obolon to take shelter and prepare for imminent military action. The area is a 10-minute drive from Kyiv’s center.
The capital remains on edge as Russian forces draw near. Earlier, Ukrainian troops were seen hurriedly moving with ammunition to set up positions in the city center as air-raid sirens rang out.
Thousands of people have tried to leave Kyiv and head west to the Polish border, with some spending hours stuck in long traffic jams.
The Ukrainian military said it has distributed 18,000 assault rifles to territorial defense volunteers in the capital. It has also begun handing out weapons to civilians who want to fight and has called on healthy men over the age 60 to join the defense force, if they wish.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 25, 5:11 am
Ukrainian military claims to have killed Russian saboteurs in Kyiv
Ukraine’s military claimed Friday to have killed an advance group of Russian saboteurs disguised as Ukrainian soldiers during a gunfight in the capital, Kyiv.
The Ukrainian military released video purportedly showing the bodies of men in Ukrainian uniforms and a destroyed truck. The fighting allegedly happened in an area only 10 minutes north of the city center.
Russian forces that crossed into Ukraine from the north on Thursday have been trying to advance south toward Kyiv. Fighting was taking place near a town 20 miles north of the entrance to the capital on Friday morning, ABC News has learned.
(PRIPYAT, Ukraine) — As Russian troops continue to inch their way through its invasion of Ukraine, a secondary catastrophe to the fighting between the ex-Soviet neighbors is possible: another nuclear reaction at Chernobyl.
On Thursday afternoon, Russian armed forces entered the deserted exclusion zone around the Chernobyl power plant, where the world’s worst nuclear accident took place in 1986. By night, Russian forces had taken full control of the area, including the plant itself, according to Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
The heavy fighting inside the “exclusion zone,” a vast and empty land surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant that includes the ghost city of Pripyat, is causing concern that it could spark another nuclear disaster. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano is watching the situation with “grave concern, appealing for “maximum restraint” amid the conflict to avoid putting the nuclear facility at risk.
“It is of vital importance that the safe and secure operations of the nuclear facilities in that zone should not be affected or disrupted in any way,” Mariano said in a statement.
On April 26, 1986, reactor No. 4 at the power plant, about 65 miles north of the capital Kyiv, exploded, spewing enormous amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere and causing more than 100,000 people in a 1,000-square-mile radius to evacuate.
The destroyed reactor itself was sealed in 2019 under a $2 billion arch-shaped shelter, a stadium-sized metal structure that was built over it to contain, but the other three untouched reactors remain “fully exposed,” said Tim Mousseau, a professor of biological sciences at the University of South Carolina who has been studying Chernobyl for more than 20 years.
“There are more than 5 million pounds of spent nuclear fuel, also uranium and plutonium and a few other nasty isotopes, sitting in the cooling ponds of the the three reactors that didn’t blow up in 1986,” Mousseau said.
The fighting represents an “existential threat” to the environment, Mousseau told ABC News.
Should missiles hit the structure over reactor No. 4, where “quite a bit” of radioactive material is left, or the facility where the spent nuclear fuel that accumulated over the decades of operation there is stored, it would cause large amounts of radioactive nuclear dust to spread throughout the region, Mousseau said.
“If this storage area were to be hit with any kind of any kind of missile, this could release vast quantities of highly radioactive material would spread far and wide, potentially causing an even larger disaster than the 1986 disaster,” he said.
In addition, the area surrounding the power plant is “absolutely the most radioactive place on the planet,” Mousseau said. That, combined with the “tinderbox” conditions left by severe forest fires in recent years, could allow a fast-sweeping wildfires to spew radio nuclides back into the atmosphere and “spread it again far and wide,” Mousseau said.
Russian forces in Chernobyl prove an additional worrying sign for Ukraine, as they are now about an hour’s drive from the capital. Russian special forces have also managed to keep hold of a key military airport just 20 miles from the very center of Kyiv, despite fierce fighting.
“Unfortunately, we are obliged to inform that as things stand the Chernobyl Zone, the so-called ‘Exclusion Zone’ and all the Chernobyl nuclear power station have been taken under the control of the Russian armed groups,” Shmyhal told UNIAN, Ukraine’s main news wire.
Russia’s decision to enter Ukraine through such a vulnerable region as Chernobyl could be emblematic of additional escalation to come, Mousseau said, describing the situation facing the disaster site as “the worst nightmare come true.”
“No one in their right mind would want to engage in warfare in that region for fear of unleashing potentially the largest nuclear disaster ever,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that Ukrainian troops were fighting and “giving their lives” to avoid another 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
“This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe,” Zelenskyy wrote of the occupation.
U.S. officials had predicted before the invasion that Russia would use special forces to land into the capital before forces from Belarus, which borders the northern side of the exclusion zone, would sweep down rapidly in an effort to back Russia’s lightning strike to seize the city.
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell, Cindy Smith and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
Russian occupation forces are trying to seize the #Chornobyl_NPP. Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated. Reported this to @SwedishPM. This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe.
(NEW YORK) — Russia’s military launched a long-feared invasion of Ukraine early Thursday, attacking its ex-Soviet neighbor from multiple directions despite warnings of dire consequences from the United States and the international community.
Thursday’s attacks followed weeks of escalating tensions in the region. In a fiery, hourlong speech on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was recognizing the independence of two Russia-backed separatist areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region: the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for stoking the crisis and reiterated its demands to NATO that Ukraine pledges to never join the transatlantic defense alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 24, 4:02 pm
US believes Russia has launched more than 160 missiles
The U.S. believes Russia has launched more than 160 missiles, mostly short-range ballistic missiles, but some medium-range and cruise missiles, as well, a senior defense official told reporters.
The official said the U.S. believes Russian troops have gotten closer to Kyiv.
“We also have seen indications since we last talked of additional airborne troops into Kharkiv” in northeast Ukraine, the official said in a briefing. “And our assessment is still that there’s active fighting going on there.”
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Feb 24, 3:53 pm
Putin spoke with France’s president by phone: Kremlin
France set up a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron during which they had a serious discussion on Ukraine, the Kremlin press service reported.
“Vladimir Putin gave an exhaustive explanation of the reasons and circumstances for the decision to conduct a special military operation,” the report said.
Feb 24, 3:50 pm
Biden to participate in virtual NATO conference Friday
President Joe Biden will participate in a NATO conference virtually from the Situation Room beginning at 9 a.m. ET Friday, a White House official confirmed.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will offer public opening remarks and a press conference after the meeting.
Feb 24, 2:58 pm
US sanctions Belarus for role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The U.S. is not only sanctioning Russia, but sanctioning 24 Belarusian officials, business people, defense agencies and firms, state-owned companies, and banks and financial institutions for “Belarus’s support for, and facilitation of” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
“The Lukashenka regime has continued to erode democracy in Belarus and has become increasingly subservient to Russia in the process,” the Treasury Department claimed.
The targets include two state-owned banks which the department says are “among the most important banks in Belarus.” Along with sanctioning Russia’s banks, which are very involved in Belarus’s economy, “a significant portion of the Belarusian financial sector is now subject to U.S. sanctions,” the department said.
The other major target is Belarus’ defense industry, with defense firms, defense business leaders, the defense secretary and the State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus all hit.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 24, 2:44 pm
FAA banning US airlines from operating over Ukraine, Belarus, parts of western Russia
The Federal Aviation Administration said it’s now prohibiting U.S. airlines from operating over Ukraine, Belarus and parts of western Russia.
Previously the FAA was only prohibiting U.S. airlines from operating over eastern Ukraine.
This ban does not apply to the military.
-ABC News’ Mina Kaji, Amanda Maile
Feb 24, 2:58 pm
US sanctions Belarus for role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The U.S. is not only sanctioning Russia, but sanctioning 24 Belarusian officials, business people, defense agencies and firms, state-owned companies, and banks and financial institutions for “Belarus’s support for, and facilitation of” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
“The Lukashenka regime has continued to erode democracy in Belarus and has become increasingly subservient to Russia in the process,” the Treasury Department claimed.
The targets include two state-owned banks which the department says are “among the most important banks in Belarus.” Along with sanctioning Russia’s banks, which are very involved in Belarus’s economy, “a significant portion of the Belarusian financial sector is now subject to U.S. sanctions,” the department said.
The other major target is Belarus’ defense industry, with defense firms, defense business leaders, the defense secretary and the State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus all hit.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 24, 2:44 pm
FAA banning US airlines from operating over Ukraine, Belarus, parts of western Russia
The Federal Aviation Administration said it’s now prohibiting U.S. airlines from operating over Ukraine, Belarus and parts of western Russia.
Previously the FAA was only prohibiting U.S. airlines from operating over eastern Ukraine.
This ban does not apply to the military.
-ABC News’ Mina Kaji, Amanda Maile
Feb 24, 2:18 pm
7,000 more US troops deploying to Europe to reassure NATO allies
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, at the direction of the president, has ordered 7,000 more U.S. troops to Germany “to reassure NATO Allies, deter Russian aggression and be prepared to support a range of requirements,” a senior defense official said.
The troops are expected to deploy in the coming days, the official said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Feb 24, 2:16 pm
Biden authorizes ‘additional strong sanctions’ against Russia
President Joe Biden on Thursday authorized “additional strong sanctions” against Russia.
“This is going to impose severe cost on the Russian economy both immediately and overtime,” Biden said in an address. “We have purposefully designed these sanctions to maximize the long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies.”
Biden said he and the other G-7 leaders are in agreement and vowed to “limit Russia’s ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen to be part of the global economy.”
BREAKING: Pres. Biden authorizes “additional strong sanctions” against Russia.
“We have purposefully designed these sanctions to maximize the long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies.” https://t.co/1c4zPiKUgapic.twitter.com/cmyi5dGEIg
Biden said the administration was imposing sanctions on four more major banks, meaning “every asset they have in America will be frozen,” he said.
“This includes VTB, the second largest bank in Russia, which has $250 billion in assets,” he said.
Biden said they’re adding names to the list of Russian elites and family members the U.S. is sanctioning, as well.
“Between our actions and those of our allies and partners, we estimate that we’ll cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports,” Biden said. “We’ll strike a blow to their ability to continue to modernize their military. It will degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program. It will hurt their ability to build ships, reducing their ability to compete economically. And it will be a major hit to Putin’s long-term strategic ambitions.”.
Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine was premeditated and had been planned for months.
“For weeks we have been warning that this would happen, and now, it’s unfolding largely as we predicted,” he said.
“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said.
Feb 24, 2:08 pm
US official says this is ‘initial phases of a large-scale invasion’
There are movements of Russian military and special forces coming into Ukraine from many directions, according to the officials: from the northeast via Russia; from the south via Moscow-annexed Crimea; and from the north via both Belarus and Russia.
U.S. intelligence believe these three axes were “designed to take key population centers” and that the early moves from the north toward Kyiv indicate an intention to remove the Ukrainian government, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters at the Pentagon.
“What we’re seeing are initial phases of a large-scale invasion,” the official said.
The initial attack included an estimate of more than 100 Russian-launched missiles — mostly short-range ballistic missiles but also some medium-range ones — and about 75 fixed-wing heavy and medium bombers. So far, the targets are mostly Ukrainian military infrastructure and air defense systems, the official said, adding that U.S. intelligence does not yet have a good sense of total damages or casualties.
The official could not give an exact estimate of how many Russian troops have crossed into Ukraine thus far but said that, at this early stage, it is certainly a minority of the 150,000 troops that were massed near the borders.
U.S. intelligence have seen indications that Ukrainian troops “are resisting and fighting back,” the official said. Some fighting has been seen around the airport in Kyiv. But the heaviest fighting is currently occurring in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, some 300 miles east of Kyiv, according to the official.
“We have not seen the Russians thus far move into the western part of Ukraine,” the official said. “We don’t know exactly where things are going to unfold.”
The U.S. official said Russia has conducted “ground incursion from Belarus to the northwest of Kyiv, and we have seen at least some indications of air assault incursions into Kharkiv.”
“So missile, long range fires, and then there has been some insertion of troops both from the air and on the ground in the north,” the official summarized.
“We haven’t seen a conventional move like this, nation state to nation state [in Europe], since World War II,” the official said, “It has every potential to be very bloody, very costly and very impactful on European security writ large.”
The official said he did not have a number on casualties.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Feb 24, 1:45 pm
Chernobyl taken by Russian forces, Ukraine says
Russian troops have reportedly taken full control of the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power station, including the plant itself, according to Ukraine’s prime minister.
“Unfortunately, we are obliged to inform that as things stand the Chernobyl Zone, the so-called ‘Exclusion Zone’ and all the Chernobyl nuclear power station have been taken under the control of the Russian armed groups,” prime minister Denis Schmygal told UNIAN, Ukraine’s main news wire.
The Chernobyl power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, is located about 60 miles north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The Chernobyl exclusion zone begins almost immediately below Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 24, 1:36 pm
US intelligence says this is ‘initial phases of a large-scale invasion’
There are movements of Russian military and special forces coming into Ukraine from every direction, according to the officials: from the northeast via Russia; from the south via Moscow-annexed Crimea and the pro-Russian separatist areas in Ukraine’s Donbas region Crimea; and from the north via both Belarus and Russia.
U.S. intelligence believe these three axes were “designed to take key population centers” and that the early moves from the north toward Kyiv indicate an intention to remove the Ukrainian government, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters at the Pentagon.
“What we’re seeing are initial phases of a large-scale invasion,” the official said.
The initial attack included an estimate of more than 100 Russian-launched missiles — mostly short-range ballistic missiles but also some medium-range ones — and about 75 fixed-wing heavy and medium bombers. So far, the targets are mostly Ukrainian military infrastructure and air defense systems, the official said, adding that U.S. intelligence does not yet have a good sense of total damages or casualties.
The official could not give an exact estimate of how many Russian troops have crossed into Ukraine thus far but said that, at this early stage, it is certainly a minority of the 150,000 troops that were massed near the borders.
U.S. intelligence have seen indications that Ukrainian troops “are resisting and fighting back,” the official said. Some fighting has been seen around the airport in Kyiv. But the heaviest fighting is currently occurring in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, some 300 miles east of Kyiv, according to the official.
“We have not seen the Russians thus far move into the western part of Ukraine,” the official said. “We don’t know exactly where things are going to unfold.”
The U.S. official said Russia has conducted “ground incursion from Belarus to the northwest of Kyiv, and we have seen at least some indications of air assault incursions into Kharkiv.”
“So missile, long range fires, and then there has been some insertion of troops both from the air and on the ground in the north,” the official summarized.
“We haven’t seen a conventional move like this, nation state to nation state [in Europe], since World War II,” the official said, “It has every potential to be very bloody, very costly and very impactful on European security writ large.”
The official said he did not have a number on casualties.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Feb 24, 1:13 pm
Ukraine loses control of key airport on edge of Kyiv: Ukraine official
Ukraine has lost control of a key military airport that is located less than 20 miles from the center of the capital Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s deputy interior minister.
Russian special forces landed at the Hostomel airport just on the edge of Kyiv earlier Thursday and after fierce fighting the base remains in Russian hands, deputy minister Anton Gerashchenko said.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 24, 12:47 pm
UK announces new package of sanctions
The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has announced a new package of sanctions in the House of Commons targeting over 100 Russian entities and individuals.
Johnson said this would totally exclude Russian banks from the U.K. financial system, adding, “oligarchs in London will have nowhere to hide.”
He vowed, “We will continue on a relentless mission to squeeze Russia from the global economy” as Putin seeks to “redraw the map of Europe in blood.”
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Feb 24, 12:34 pm
All US diplomats in Poland
All U.S. diplomats from the mission to Ukraine are in Poland and will remain there, with no plans to travel to Ukraine for now, the State Department confirmed.
“We will continually assess the security situation to determine when it may be safe for U.S. government personnel to return to Ukraine to conduct diplomacy on the ground and provide in-person consular services,” a State Department spokesperson told ABC News.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 24, 12:26 pm
UN Security Council to vote Friday on resolution condemning Russia, calling for withdrawal
The U.S. and its allies and partners on the United Nations Security Council are circulating a draft resolution that would condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and impose “legally binding” obligations for Moscow to “immediately, unconditionally, and completely” withdraw its forces, a senior U.S. administration official said.
The U.S. fully expects Russia to veto the resolution during a vote Friday, but the official said the world must act to hold Russia accountable.
The U.S. mission, led by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, is beginning “urgent diplomacy” now with every Security Council member to lobby support for this resolution, the official said, declining to comment on whether they think they can win support from veto-wielding China or partners like India and the United Arab Emirates who Thursday night did not condemn Russia.
While Russia may successfully block this resolution, the senior administration official said they would take action at the U.N. General Assembly, too, where Russia doesn’t have a veto and all 193 members get a vote.
The official provided a brief preview of the resolution itself, saying it “would impose legally binding Chapter 7 obligations on Russia in response to its aggression against Ukraine” and “condemns in the strongest terms possible Russia’s aggression, invasion, and violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. It reaffirms the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and it requires the Russian Federation immediately, completely, and unconditionally to withdraw its forces.”
It also calls for unhindered humanitarian assistance to those in need in Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 24, 12:17 pm
Ukraine’s president address nation on latest with Russian invasion
On Thursday Ukrainians heard “not just rocket explosions, battles, the roar of aircraft,” but the “sound of a new Iron Curtain lowering and closing Russia away from the civilized world,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation.
He said Ukraine has had “losses” and has captured Russian soldiers.
In eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, where Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was recognizing the independence of two Russia-backed separatist areas, Ukraine’s military is “doing great,” Zelenskyy said.
Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine “is very difficult,” he said, adding, “The most problematic situation today is in the south — our troops are fighting fierce battles in the suburbs of [the southern city of] Kherson. The enemy is pushing out of the occupied Crimea, trying to advance towards Melitopol [a city in southeast Ukraine].”
“In the north of the country, the enemy is slowly advancing in the Chernihiv region, but there are forces to hold it,” he said.
Zelenskyy said, “Ukraine did not choose the path of war — but Ukraine offers to return to peace.”
He said Ukrainians can help by joining the armed forces, saying, “Any citizen with combat experience will now be useful. It is up to you and all of us whether the enemy will be able to advance further into the territory of our independent state.”
Others can contributed by donating blood, he said, while politicians and community leaders should help “ensure normal life on the ground as much as possible.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Feb 24, 12:05 pm
G-7 leaders bringing ‘severe’ coordinated sanctions
The leaders of the G-7 countries — the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — condemned Russia’s attack in a joint statement, vowing to bring “severe and coordinated economic and financial sanctions.”
The statement followed the leaders’ Thursday morning meeting.
The group called on the Russians “to immediately de-escalate and to withdraw its forces from Ukraine,” adding, “We also condemn the involvement of Belarus in this aggression against Ukraine and call on Belarus to abide by its international obligations.”
The G-7 leaders asked the leaders of other nations to also come forwarding condemning the violence.
The leaders said they condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin recognizing the independence of two Russia-backed separatist areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region — the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk — and urged “other states not to follow Russia’s illegal decision to recognise the proclaimed independence of these entities.”
“We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders and territorial waters as well as the right of any sovereign state to determine its own future and security arrangements,” the G-7 leaders said.
They continued: “We condemn President Putin for his consistent refusal to engage in a diplomatic process to address questions pertaining to European security, despite our repeated offers. We stand united with partners, including NATO, the EU and their member states as well as Ukraine and remain determined to do what is necessary to preserve the integrity of the rules-based international order. In this regard, we are also closely monitoring global oil and gas market conditions, including in the context of Russia’s further military aggression against Ukraine. We support consistent and constructive engagement and coordination among major energy producers and consumers toward our collective interest in the stability of global energy supplies, and stand ready to act as needed to address potential disruptions.”
Feb 24, 11:09 am
Overnight curfew issued in Kyiv
An overnight curfew will be imposed in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Residents must stay home between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., with only workers involved in critical infrastructure and services allowed out.
Kyiv’s metro is also now being used as a bomb shelter.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 24, 10:19 am
Biden expected to announce new sanctions at 12:30
President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak at 12:30 p.m. ET, when he’s expected to announce new sanctions against Russia, the White House said.
-ABC News’ Mary Bruce
Feb 24, 10:09 am
Russian forces enter Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukrainian official says
Ukraine’s deputy interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, warned on Thursday afternoon that Russian and Belarusian troops have entered the deserted exclusion zone around the Chernobyl power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, located about 60 miles north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv
In a statement posted on his official Facebook page, Gerashchenko said Ukrainian forces are putting up an intense resistance. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone begins almost immediately below Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
Gerashchenko expressed concerns that artillery could hit the reactor if fighting were to approach it, causing radioactive nuclear dust to spread over the region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces “are trying to seize” the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
“Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,” Zelenskyy said in a post on his official Twitter account Thursday. “This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 24, 10:04 am
Russia claims it’s destroyed 74 Ukrainian military facilities
Russian airstrikes have destroyed 74 ground targets belonging to the Ukrainian military thus far, including 11 airfields, three command centers and a naval base, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said Thursday.
Some 18 radio-locating stations for anti-aircraft missile systems were also destroyed, according to Konashenkov.
However, Konashenkov noted that the strikes are not being carried out against social facilities at Ukrainian military garrisons, such as homes, residential buildings and barracks, in order to avoid casualties among servicemen and their families.
Meanwhile, he said a Russian assault aircraft crashed due to a “pilot error” in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
“The pilot safely ejected and is at his military garrison now,” Konashenkov added.
Pro-Russian separatist militias in Donbas continue a counteroffensive on the Ukrainian Armed Forces with fire support from the Russian army, according to Konashenkov.
-ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova
Feb 24, 9:15 am
Biden convenes National Security Council
U.S. President Joe Biden met with the National Security Council on Thursday morning in the Situation Room to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine, according to a White House official.
Biden was already scheduled this week to participate in a virtual meeting of the G7 leaders to discuss the ongoing situation as well as priorities of the German G7 presidency year.
In the early afternoon Thursday, Biden will address the nation directly on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and announce “further consequences” that the United States and its allies will impose on Russia “for its unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine,” according to the White House.
Feb 24, 8:33 am
US troops in Poland will be deployed to border checkpoints with Ukraine, source says
U.S. Army soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division in Poland will be deployed to the checkpoints at the border with Ukraine to help with a possible surge in the flow of traffic, a military source with direct knowledge told ABC News on Thursday.
Their new mission is a change from their previous one of solely to “deter and assure,” as a full-scale Russian invasion is now underway in neighboring Ukraine.
With Ukraine’s airspace shut down, the source said they expect traffic at border checkpoints to increase significantly, including citizens of NATO member states. However, estimates on the number of potential refugees was unclear.
There are currently 5,200 U.S. troops currently in Poland, with another 300 en route from Germany. Although they are on slightly higher alert, there was no expectation of any engagement with the Russian forces attacking Ukraine.
Feb 24, 8:05 am
At least five killed in Ukrainian military aircraft crash, officials say
A Ukrainian military aircraft carrying 14 people crashed in the Kyiv region on Thursday, killing at least five of them, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The crash sparked a fire that has since been extinguished. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, the ministry said in a statement posted to its official Facebook page.
Feb 24, 7:52 am
US oil tops $100 a barrel
U.S. crude oil prices topped $100 a barrel on Thursday morning, sending gasoline prices to an average of $3.54 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures plunged. Dow futures were down more than 700 points ahead of the opening bell.
The developments came amid ongoing attacks on Ukraine by Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer.
Feb 24, 7:31 am
Ukraine temporarily disconnects from Russian, Belarusian energy systems
Ukraine’s energy system has temporarily cut itself off from the power grids of neighboring Russia and Belarus, according to Ukrainian transmission system operator Ukrenergo.
Ukrenergo said in a statement Thursday that the country’s system is now functioning independently and will continue to do so for the coming days as it tests for a future connection to the European network of transmission system operators.
The European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, took to Twitter to say the “controlled disconnection” was “perfect timing” and that the system is “operating autonomously under normal conditions.”
“The assets of the main network are currently functioning without interruptions,” Maasikas tweeted.
Feb 24, 6:52 am
At least 40 killed, several dozen injured in Ukraine, official says
At least 40 people have been killed Thursday in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Arestovich told ABC News that several dozen others have been injured so far.
Feb 24, 6:37 am
Russia says it’s establishing military censorship of media
Russia appears to be establishing military censorship of media coverage of its invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
The Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, or Roskomnadzor, warned Thursday that all Russian media outlets are required to use information exclusively from official Russian sources while covering the military operations in eastern Ukraine.
“Roskomnadzor informs media outlets and information resources that they are required to use information received exclusively from official Russian sources in their materials and reports covering the special operation in the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics,” the agency said in a statement.
Roskomnadzor warned that publishing knowingly false information will result in an administrative fine of up to 5 million rubles (about $60,000).
“The number of unverified and untrue reports published by media outlets and other online information resources has considerably grown in recent hours,” the agency added.
Feb 24, 6:04 am
Russia tells Ukraine it’s ‘never been an enemy’
Russia’s parliament speaker claimed Thursday that the “sole purpose” of the country’s invasion of Ukraine “is to secure peace,” saying “Russia has never been an enemy.”
“I am calling on Ukrainian citizens: We have always deemed you to be a fraternal people. The sole purpose of what our country is doing is to secure peace,” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a statement. “We are asking you to step aside and do not take part in any mobilization campaigns proposed by the Kyiv authorities. They are not independent, all orders come from Washington and Brussels.”
Volodin also urged Ukrainian Armed Forces to lay down their weapons, saying the orders given from Kyiv are criminal and serve the interests of NATO and the United States. He noted that Russia and Ukraine share history, culture and religion.
Feb 24, 5:41 am
Russia attacking Ukraine from north, east, south, Zelenskyy says
Russian forces are attacking Ukraine “from the north, east and south,” according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Our soldiers are heavily fighting, the aggressor suffered heavy losses,” Zelenskyy said in an address to the Ukrainian public from Kyiv on Thursday morning. “We have wounded soldiers.”
He added that the Ukrainian military “is giving and will give weapons to everyone who is able to defend out country.”
The Ukrainian president also announced that his country has “cut diplomatic ties with Russia.”
“Ukraine is defending its freedom,” he said. “Citizens of Russia will choose today their own way. Time for you to come out and protest this war with Ukraine.”
Just hours before Russia launched the early morning invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbor, a senior Pentagon official told ABC News: “You are likely in the last few hours of peace on the European continent for a long time to come. Be careful.”
Feb 24, 4:49 am
Three Ukrainian border guards are first reported deaths from Russian attack
At least three Ukrainian border guards were killed near the southern port city of Skadovsk on Thursday morning after a commandant’s headquarters was shelled by a Russian helicopter, according to Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service.
They are the first reported deaths after Russia launched military operations in Ukraine early Thursday.
An unknown number of personnel were also wounded, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said in a statement on its official Facebook page, noting that the border guards in the area were still fighting.
Feb 24, 3:26 am
EU urges Russia to ‘immediately cease’ attack on Ukraine
Leaders of the European Union are urging Russia to “immediately cease” its attack on Ukraine, saying “such use of force and coercion has no place in the 21st century.”
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia’s unprecedented military aggression against Ukraine,” European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement Thursday. “By its unprovoked and unjustified military actions, Russia is grossly violating international law and undermining European and global security and stability. We call on Russia to immediately cease the hostilities, withdraw its military from Ukraine and fully respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.”
They noted that EU leaders will meet later Thursday “to discuss the crisis and further restrictive measures that will impose massive and severe consequences on Russia for its action.” They said von der Leyen “will outline a further sanctions package being finalized by the European Commission and which the Council will swiftly adopt.”
In on-camera statements Thursday, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, pledged to “adopt a stronger package, the harshest package of sanctions we have ever implemented.”
Von der Leyen added that the EU “will not let President Putin tear down the security architecture that has given Europe peace and stability over the past decades.”
“Ukraine will prevail,” she said.
Feb 24, 2:41 am
Pro-Russian separatists claim to be taking territories in eastern Ukraine
Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region claimed Thursday that their forces are taking over Ukrainian government-controlled territories amid a Russian invasion.
Ivan Filiponenko, a representative of the military department of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, said in a statement that militia units have begun “artillery preparation and an operation to liberate the temporarily occupied territories.”
Meanwhile, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russia’s Interfax news agency that “forces are delivering strikes on positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces along the entire line of contact, using all weapons that are available to them.”
Separatist leaders want to control all of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Donbas. But they currently only have about a third, with the rest controlled by Ukraine.
Feb 24, 2:03 am
Russia claims to have neutralized some of Ukraine’s military infrastructure
Russia claimed Thursday to have neutralized some of Ukraine’s military infrastructure amid an attack on the country.
“The military infrastructure of air bases of Ukraine’s Armed Forces has been rendered inoperable,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. “Air defense systems of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been suppressed.”
The Russian defense ministry further alleged that Ukrainian forces on the border “are offering no resistance to Russian units.”
Meanwhile, a statement from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed that five Russian planes and a helicopter had been shot down.
“Reports of foreign media on a Russian aircraft allegedly downed on the Ukrainian territory have nothing to do with the reality,” the Russian defense ministry said Thursday.
ABC News could not independently verify the claims on either side.
Feb 24, 1:28 am
State Department suspends consular operations in Lviv
In a new security alert, the State Department said it has suspended its consular operations in Lviv in western Ukraine amid “reports of Russian attacks on targets in a number of major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Mariupol and others.”
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv previously suspended operations on Feb. 12.
“The U.S. government will not be able to evacuate U.S. citizens from Ukraine,” the warning stated.
The State Department advised U.S. citizens to shelter in place and issued instructions on actions to take if a loud explosion is heard or if sirens are activated.
“Further Russian military action can occur at any time without warning. U.S. citizens throughout Ukraine are strongly encouraged to remain vigilant and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness,” the warning read. “Know the location of your closest shelter or protected space. In the event of mortar and/or rocket fire, follow the instructions from local authorities and seek shelter immediately. If you feel that your current location is no longer safe, you should carefully assess the potential risks involved in moving to a different location.”
Feb 24, 1:11 am
Russian, Belarusian troops attacking Ukraine from Belarus
Ukraine’s border service said Russian and Belarusian troops are now attacking from Belarus.
Ukraine’s border came under attack from artillery, tanks and small arms around 5 a.m. local time from Russian troops “with the support of Belarus,” the border service said in a statement.
The attack is happening along much of Ukraine’s northeast border, including the Chernigiv and Zhitomirsky regions that are directly north of Kyiv.
There are reports of casualties.
Feb 24, 1:00 am
Ukrainian president declares martial law
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared martial law in the country Thursday, saying Russia has launched an “unjustified, false and cynical invasion.”
“There are strikes on military and other important defense facilities, attacked border units, the situation in the Donbas has degraded,” Zelenskyy said in a statement Thursday morning. “The Armed Forces, all special and law enforcement agencies of the state are on alert. The National Security and Defense Council is working in an emergency mode.”
“Civilian citizens of Ukraine should stay at home,” he added. “Warn your loved ones about what is happening. Take care of those who need help. All thoughts and prayers with our soldiers.”
Martial law allows military authorities to temporarily take over government functions, generally during a time of emergency.
The announcement came as reports of explosions and air raid sirens in cities across Ukraine rolled in and as Russian-controlled separatists, in a breakaway region of eastern Ukraine known as Donbas, say they have launched a full-scale offensive to retake what they claim is their territory there.
Feb 24, 12:44 am
Zelenskyy asks for global response, talks to Biden
In a new video statement denouncing the Russian attacks on his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it’s not only the fate of Ukraine that’s being decided.
“Ukrainians will never give their freedom and independence to anyone. Only we, all citizens of Ukraine, have been determining our future since 1991,” Zelenskyy said. “But now the fate of not only our state is being decided, but also what life in Europe will be like.”
The Ukrainian president stressed the need for a global response, stating that what remains of international law “depends on the world’s honest and just response to this aggression.”
President Joe Biden and Zelenskyy spoke over the phone around midnight ET, when Zelenskyy asked Biden to “call on the leaders of the world to speak out clearly against President Putin’s flagrant aggression and to stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden said he told Zelenskyy that the U.S. condemned the attack, and he also briefed him on the steps the U.S. is taking “to rally international condemnation.”
Biden also reiterated in the statement that he will meet with G-7 leaders Thursday and plans to impose “severe” sanctions on Russia.
“We will continue to provide support and assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” he said.
In the video, Zelenskyy implored citizens to stay home.
“Warn your loved ones about what is happening,” he said. “Take care of those who need help.”
Feb 24, 12:11 am
US senators call for harsher sanctions following Russian attack
Senators on both sides of the aisle are calling on the administration to turn up the pressure on Russia following its attack on Ukraine.
“President Biden has already imposed an initial tranche of sanctions, and it is now time for us to up the pain level for the Russian government,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a statement.
“I urge the Biden administration to respond swiftly and in concert with our allies to impose crushing economic sanctions on Kremlin officials, Russian entities and other actors involved int his attack on Ukraine,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said.
“America and our allies must answer the call to protect freedom by subjecting Putin and Russia to the harshest economic penalties, by expelling them from global institutions, and by committing ourselves to the expansion and modernization of our national defense,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said.
While a handful of Republicans knocked the administration for not imposing pre-invasion sanctions, those jabs are largely being overwhelmed by calls for unity among NATO allies.
“There is no justification for this assault and I call for the administration to lead the world in a unified response,” Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman said.
Feb 24, 12:00 am
Reports of Russian troops crossing border into Ukraine, ballistic missiles
There are reports that Russian troops have now crossed the border in eastern Ukraine, close to the city of Kharkiv, as explosions in the area continue.
Ukraine’s deputy interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, told media the troops crossed near Kharkiv. A former senior adviser to Ukraine’s government also confirmed the reports, saying he was informed by the president’s office, while Ukraine’s main newswire agency, UNIAN, has also reported the news.
Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second largest city and is only about 20 miles from the border with Russia. However, it is not next to the separatist-controlled areas.
Ukrainian authorities also said that Kyiv and multiple cities east of it have been stuck by ballistic missiles. Gerashchenko said at least seven cruise missiles or ballistic missiles hit a military aerodrome near Kyiv that is home to fighter jets. It appears that the missiles have largely struck targets on the outskirts of the city so far.
Russia’s defense ministry said it is striking Ukrainian air bases, military infrastructure and air defenses across the country but said it will not target Ukrainian cities themselves.
The ministry said “high-precision” missiles are being used.
Reports of explosions also continue to come in from Odessa, Dnipro and Mariupol.
