Feb 25, 2022: According to a report by AFP, invading Russia’s forces pressed deep into Ukraine as deadly battles reached the outskirts of Kyiv and the West responded with harsh sanctions.

Russian missiles and shelling rained down on Ukrainian cities when President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale ground and air strike, forcing citizens to take refuge on the metro system, displacing 100,000 people. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that throughout Ukraine, at least 137 “heroes” had been killed since the first day of the war, calling on recruits and reserves across the country to fight in a general mobilization.

The United States has sought to impose sanctions on the Russian elite and banks, but insisted that U.S forces would not turn to Eastern Europe to fight in Ukraine, but would defend “every inch” of NATO territory. While President Zelenskyy said there was now a “new iron curtain” between Russia and the rest of the world, like in the Cold War.

According to western intelligence reports, Russia has managed to mass overwhelming force around Kyiv and has established complete air superiority over Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden announced export controls against Russia to cut off more than half of the country’s high-tech imports, alongside sanctions on Russian banks. After the attack, EU moved to impose “massive” sanctions on Russia’s energy and finance sectors, while French President Emmanuel Macron called Putin to “demand immediate halt” to the offensive.

President Zelenskyy called the attack on Chernobyl “a declaration of war on all of Europe” while 18 people were killed at a military base near the Black Sea port of Odessa.

According to Ukraine authorities, a military plane with 14 people on board crashed south of Kyiv and that officials were determining how many people died, while a transport plane crashed in Russia killing the crew. On the other hand, Ukrainian forces said they had killed “around 50 Russian occupiers” while repulsing an attack on a town on the frontline with Moscow-backed rebels.

Putin meanwhile justified the assault as a defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics in eastern Ukraine.

As a result of the attck, Ukraine refugees have begun to trickle into Hungary and Romania with the UN saying a 100,000 had been displaced by the fighting.

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