Russia Attacks Ukraine: As It’s Happening

Thursday 24 February

3:45 p.m.: A Ukrainian military plane with 14 people aboard crashed south of Kyiv on Thursday, the emergencies service said.

The service said it was “still determining how many people died.” The incident occurred about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Kyiv, amid reports of several locations around the city coming under attack.

3:37 p.m.: The UN refugee chief warned Thursday Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have “devastating” humanitarian consequences and urged neighbouring countries to keep borders open to those fleeing the violence.

“We are gravely concerned about the fast-deteriorating situation and ongoing military action in Ukraine,” Felippo Grandi said in a statement.

3:30 p.m.: Several Russian cultural figures also made statements against the war.

“Soviet crimes went unpunished in Russia, and so they recur. The price for what was not done in 1991 are the Russian missiles and bombs killing Ukrainians today,” Sergei Lebedev, author of “Untraceable,” wrote under a photograph of the Bykivnia graves outside Kyiv where “enemies of the people” executed by the NKVD were buried.

“It is too early to ask Ukrainians to forgive us,” he wrote. “We will ask for forgiveness after the criminals who began this war are punished. If they are punished.”

Yelena Kovalskaya, director of the Meyerhold Theater Center, announced her resignation from the state theater Thursday, saying: “It is impossible to work for a murderer and receive salary from him. I will finish the work I’ve started, but without pay.”

2:31 p.m.: Eighteen people died in an air strike on a military base near Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odessa, the local administration said.

“Eighteen died — eight men and 10 women. At the moment, we are still digging through the rubble,” the Odessa regional administration said in a statement.

2:30 p.m.: Russian forces have broken through into the north of the Kyiv region, Ukraine’s border guards said, staging an attack with Grad missiles on government positions. 

Videos circulating on social media showed Russian Mi-8 and Ka-52 helicopters assaulting the Antonov International Airport in the Kyiv suburb of Gostomel.

2:30 p.m.: The Kremlin it believes Russians will “support” Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, saying the duration of the mission will depend on “results” and will last as long as necessary. It also said that a sharp drop in the value of the ruble and on the Moscow stock exchange was a predictable reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

2:20 p.m.: NATO will hold a virtual summit Friday on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, diplomats told AFP, as the alliance announced after an emergency meeting that “additional steps” were being taken to protect member countries.

1:35 p.m.: Russia’s communications watchdog warned media outlets they would be “immediately blocked” and fined 5 million rubles ($59,000) for spreading “deliberately false information” surrounding Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.

“We emphasize that it is the Russian official information sources that have and distribute reliable and up-to-date information,” said the watchdog, Roskomnadzor.

1:19 p.m.: Several Russian directors, producers and celebrities have posted black squares to Instagram in protest of the war.

Russian journalists also joined the chorus of voices opposing the war, with at least three dozen signing an anti-war petition launched by Kommersant business daily reporter Yelena Chernenko as of Thursday afternoon.

1:02 p.m.: The Russian army said that Moscow-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine are advancing and have gained territory.

Military spokesperson Igor Konashenkov told state television that forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic gained “up to three kilometers” (1.8 miles) in territory and those of the Lugansk People’s Republic “advanced one and a half kilometers.”

He added that Russia had “high precision weapons” and that Ukrainian civilians had “nothing to fear.”

12:52 p.m.: More than 40 Ukrainian service personnel and “nearly 10 civilians” have been killed in the early stages the Russian attack, the Ukrainian government’s press service said.

12:39 p.m.: Russia’s Transport Ministry said it will evacuate people from southern Russia by train and bus after flights to most cities in the region were canceled.

12:37 p.m.: Ukraine has severed its diplomatic relations with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced.

12:31 p.m.: Russia’s Defense Ministry said the “people’s militia” of eastern Ukraine’s self-proclaimed separatist republics have launched a counteroffensive with fire support from Russia’s Armed Forces.

12:28 p.m.: Ukraine’s Health Ministry has temporarily suspended all planned hospitalizations.

12:02 p.m.: Banks and ATMs in Moscow are no longer giving out euros or dollars, Moscow Times correspondents reported. Currency exchanges have also stopped trading rubles for dollars and euros as the Russian currency spirals.

11:47 a.m.: Ukraine’s military command said that government forces had killed “around 50 Russian occupiers” while repulsing an attack on a town on the frontline with Moscow-backed rebels. AFP could not immediately confirm the death toll.

“Shchastya is under control. 50 Russian occupiers were killed. Another Russian plane was destroyed in the Kramatorsk district. This is the sixth,” the armed forces general staff said on Twitter.

11:30 a.m.: Video shows a long line of cars waiting to cross Ukraine’s border with Slovakia.

11:25 a.m.: The head of the Ukrainian military said Thursday he had received orders from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to repel a Russian invasion of his country.

“The supreme commander the Armed Forces of Ukraine gave orders to inflict maximum losses against the aggressor,” Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Major General Valeriy Zaluzhny said.

11:20 a.m.: Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has denied that Minsk’s forces are taking part in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after claims that Russian forces entered Ukraine across the Belarusian border. Russian forces have been deployed in Belarus since major military exercises began last month.

11:19 a.m.: Russia’s ground forces have crossed into Ukraine from several directions, Ukraine’s border guard service said.

Russian tanks and other heavy equipment crossed the frontier in several northern regions, as well as from the Kremlin-annexed peninsula of Crimea in the south, the agency said.

It said one of its servicemen died in a shelling attack along the Crimean border, the first officially confirmed military death of the Russian invasion.

11:10 a.m.: Russia’s Central Bank says it is blocking the short-selling of shares in a bid to halt the slide and “protect the interests of investors” after Russian stocks fell by more than 28% in the first 30 minutes of trading.

11:05 a.m.: Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny speaks out against Russia’s offensive on Ukraine. Speaking at a court hearing in a case that could see him spend 15 more years in prison, Navalny said: “I want the court to record that I’m calling for the war to be stopped. The people who unleashed this war are gangsters and thieves.”

11:00 a.m.: Ukraine’s embassy in Ankara has asked the Turkish government close the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits — which control access to the Mediterranean Sea from the Black Sea — to Russian shipping, according to a statement issued by the embassy on Twitter.

10:48 a.m.: China says it is monitoring the situation in Ukraine and called for “restraint” on all sides.

“China is closely watching the latest situation, and we call on all parties to maintain restraint and prevent the situation from getting out of control,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing.

10:47 a.m.: EU Commission head Ursula von der Layen says Europe will “not let Putin tear down the security architecture of Europe,” and expressed the bloc’s unwavering support for Ukraine. She promised to level a “massive, unprecedented” package of sanctions against Russia later today to “severely weaken” the Russian economy.

10:41 a.m.: Ukraine’s interior ministry denies claims by separatists that they have taken control of the town of Schastiya located near the contact line in the Luhansk region. 

10:38 a.m.: Russia on Thursday said it closed shipping in the Azov Sea. “In connection with the conduct of anti-terrorist activities, shipping in the Azov Sea is suspended from 4:00 a.m. on Feb. 24 until further notice,” a representative of the Federal Agency for Maritime Transport Rosmorrechflot told Russian agencies.

10:34 a.m.: Ukraine’s interior ministry says an air bomb attack on a military unit in Odessa has killed at least six and wounded at least seven, with 17 more unaccounted for.

Russia’s ground forces crossed into Ukraine from several directions, Ukraine’s border guard service said, with tanks and other heavy equipment crossed the frontier in several northern regions, as well as from the Kremlin-annexed peninsula of Crimea in the south.

10:24 a.m.: French President Emmanuel Macron releases a statement saying: “France strongly condemns Russia’s decision to wage war on Ukraine. Russia must end its military operations immediately. France stands in solidarity with Ukraine. It stands with the Ukrainians and works with its partners and allies to end the war.”

10:18 a.m.: The Russian ruble crashed by 10% immediately following Putin’s announcement to a new all-time low, falling through 90 against the U.S. dollar and 100 against the euro.

10:08 a.m.: All Russian diplomatic staff have been evacuated from Ukriane, the Russian Embassy in Kyiv told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

9:53 a.m.: Video footage published by independent monitors appears to show that Russian rockets have targeted Ukrainin population centers, despite the Russian military’s claim that it is only targeting military infrastructure.

9:45 a.m.: Germany blasted Russia’s military operation in Ukraine as “a day of shame” and warned that the political and economic consequences for Moscow would be severe.

“Germany condemns in the strongest possible terms this unscrupulous act by President (Vladimir) Putin. Our solidarity goes out to Ukraine and its people,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement.

9:42 a.m.: The first casualties have been reported. Ukraine’s interior ministry adviser says shelling has killed one and injured another in Brovary in the Kyiv region.

Russian-backed separatists now control two towns in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, which Ukrainian police later confirmed. 

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it has taken out military infrastructure at Ukraine’s air bases and degraded its air defenses.

It denied reports that one of its aircraft had been downed over Ukraine. Kyiv’s military had said earlier that five Russian planes and one helicopter had been shot down over the Luhansk region.

9:25 a.m.: Video appears to show long traffic jams on the roads leading out of Kyiv.

8:00 a.m.: Flights from cities in southern Russia near Ukraine were canceled Thursday. 

According to a decision by Russian aviation authorities, flights from a number of airports in southern Russia including Krasnodar, Sochi and Anapa were temporarily suspended,” Russian agencies quoted an aviation official as saying. Flights from Rostov airport were also cancelled, local media reported.  

6:00 a.m.: In a televised address, Putin announces “I have made the decision of a military operation.” He calls on Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms, claiming he wanted a “demilitarization” of the former Soviet state but not its occupation. 

Explosions were soon reported in Ukrainian cities including Odessa, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Mariupol and Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declares martial law.

AFP contributed reporting.