KYIV: Explosions were heard before dawn Thursday in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the eastern port city of Mariupol, shortly after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced an operation to “demilitarise” the country.
AFP correspondents in both cities heard powerful blasts and in Mariupol, close to the frontline and the Russian border, residents reported hearing artillery in the city’s eastern suburbs.
Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.“This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”
US President Joe Biden said his prayers were with the people of Kyiv “as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces”.
The president of Ukraine claims that constant communication exists between the city authorities and the Kyiv defenders, and that the situation in besieged Mariupol remains extremely dire.
In an online speech, Zelenskiy accused Moscow of attempting to exterminate the city’s people. However, he made no mention of Moscow’s earlier assertion that its soldiers had driven the Ukrainian army out of the Mariupol metropolitan region.
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