Dozens have been killed so far in the Russian army’s attack on Ukraine, an adviser to the country’s president said today.
Several dozen more people have been injured, said Oleksii Arestovich, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who did not specify whether civilians were among the victims.
For his part, Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian authorities will distribute weapons to those who are willing to defend the country.
“The future of the Ukrainian people depends on each Ukrainian,” he said, urging all those who can participate in the defense of the country to appear at the premises of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In response, NATO envoys agreed to reinforce their air, land and sea contingents on the alliance’s eastern flank, near Russia and Ukraine.
The Ukrainian border guard released footage of what they discovered to be Russian military vehicles entering the country, and explosions were heard in the capital, Kiev; Kharkiv in the east and Odessa in the west. As the Russian military claimed to have disabled all Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses in a matter of hours, some Ukrainians fled the cities and European authorities declared the country’s airspace an active conflict zone.
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Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said that his country has severed diplomatic relations with Russia after his attack.
Zelenskyy announced the decision today after Moscow launched the massive attack that included air and missile operations.
Ukrainian officials said the army is responding to the aggression and asked the West for defense assistance.
The crisis with Ukraine was triggered after Moscow saw that nation’s annexation as a NATO partner country as a threat to Russian sovereignty.
Russia demands guarantees from Western powers that Ukraine will remain a partner and will never be incorporated as a member, which NATO is unwilling to offer.
NATO is a military alliance formed in 1949 by twelve countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France, which is committed to mutual and reciprocal assistance in the event of a military attack and today has 30 members.
It was created to stop the threat posed by the expansion of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in Europe after World War II.
But after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, several countries from the former Warsaw Pact – a NATO-like alliance led by Russia – became NATO members, which has put the Kremlin on the defensive as in the case of Ukraine, a country with a large presence of Russians who maintain strong ties with their country. Putin considers it “his backyard”.
