See Video As Russia Invade Ukraine, Bombs Kyiv And Mariupol After Putin Declares War To ‘Demilitarise’ Neighbour

Russia has today launched all-out war on Ukraine with simultaneous attacks coming from south, east and north, by land and by air.

Missiles and bombs rained from the sky, tanks rolled across the border, troops parachuted down on eastern regions and explosions were seen across the country after Vladimir Putin gave the order to attack.

‘Hundreds’ of Ukrainian troops were killed in early clashes, Kiev said, as the fight came to them on all fronts at a moment’s notice. Cruise missiles, guided bombs and GRAD rockets took out targets from east to west – aimed at airfields, military bases, ammo dumps, and command posts including in the capital.

Six Russian jets were shot out of the sky over the eastern Donbass region with 50 Russian troops killed, Ukraine claimed, before Moscow boasted of taking full control of the skies.

Ukrainian border guards said they had come under attack by heavy artillery, tanks and troops from Russia and Belarus – as Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko threw his forces into the fight.

See Video As Russia Invade Ukraine, Bombs Kyiv And Mariupol After Putin Declares War To ‘Demilitarise’ Neighbour

Luhansk, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv in the east of Ukraine all reported coming under attack, but blasts were also reported in the west – in Zhytomyr and Lviv, close to the border with Poland.

Extraordinary video footage showed what appeared to be a cruise missile slamming into Ivano-Frankivsk airport, also in the west.

An apartment block in Kharkiv was struck, causing civilian casualties.

Meanwhile pro-Russian rebel forces pushed out from the occupied Donbass region, capturing two villages and claiming to have shot two Ukrainian jets out of the skies.

The port city of Odessa, where Ukraine’s main naval base is located, also came under attack – though reports of an amphibious assault looked to be false.

It came after Vladimir Putin gave an extraordinary early-morning address to the Russian nation – delivered during a UN meeting aimed at avoiding war – in which he declared a ‘special military operation’ to ‘de-militarise’ and ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine in what amounted to a outright declaration of war.

The Russian strongman also issued a chilling warning to any country thinking of coming to Ukraine’s aid, vowing ‘consequences greater than any you have faced in history’. ‘I hope I have been heard,’ he said.

Ukrainian President Zelensky then followed with his own address – delivered from home – in which he declared martial law and vowed to resist the Russian attack, come what may.

‘Don’t panic. We are strong. We are ready for everything. We will defeat everyone. Because we are Ukraine,’ he said.

But as Russian bombs fell, people’s nerve broke. Images from Kiev in the early hours showed highways out of the city gridlocked as people tried to flee – though with the whole country under simultaneous attack, there was little safety to be found. Others sheltered in subways and basements as air-raid sirens wailed.

The invasion marks the most concerted attempt to up-end world order since the end of the Cold War, and risks sparking the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the end of the Second World War.

Western leaders lined up to condemn Russia’s actions in the early hours, with security councils convened the world over to mount a response. Heavy sanctions are expected to follow, along with more shipments of military equipment – provided they can find a route in.

But NATO and the US have made it clear that no troops will be sent, leaving Ukraine’s military – far the inferior of Russia – to hold off the assault alone. Few expect it to emerge victorious.

NATO efforts are instead expected to focus on stopping the war from spilling over into neighbouring countries.

Poland, a member of the alliance, shares and extensive land border with Ukraine.

The Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, NATO members – will now also fear a Russian assault.

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