Photos from the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday morning show long lines of cars trying to leave the city after Russia launched an attack on the country this morning.
Heavy traffic appears to be moving west, away from where the blasts were heard in the morning, with few cars heading east.
Shots and explosions were heard in the early hours of Thursday (24) in several parts of Ukraine shortly after Russia announced a military operation in the neighboring country.
Reporter Mathias Brotero, from CNN Brazil, is in Kiev, capital of Ukraine, and reported hearing noises that could be explosions.
Team reporters from CNN in Kiev, they heard explosions in the direction of the city’s international airport. On social media, users reported hearing several explosions in the Boryspil area, east of the capital, where the international airport is located, about 25 kilometers from the city. THE CNN did not confirm that the airport was targeted.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city located in the northeast of the country, a team from CNN reports hearing a “constant stream of explosions”.
In Kramatorsk, a city in the east of the country located about 120 kilometers from Donetsk, two people said they heard at least two explosions. In the region, controlled by separatists, artillery fire was heard on Thursday.
In Mariupol, residents told CNN who heard explosions coming from the east of the city, located in the southeast of the country. In Odessa, a team from CNN heard two sequences of explosions, about 20 minutes apart. In Zaporizhzhia, a reporting team said they heard at least one distant explosion.
Furthermore, a team from CNN in the Russian city of Belgorod, about 80 kilometers north of Kharkiv, he said he heard a steady stream of thuds that sounded like artillery fire.
Russian-backed separatists said on Thursday they had launched an offensive in the Ukrainian-held town of Shchastia in Luhansk province, Russian news agency Interfax said.
the russian attack
After days of escalating tensions and threats, Vladimir Putin’s Russia attacked Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday (24).
Shortly after Putin authorized a military operation in eastern Ukraine’s breakaway regions in a televised address, explosions and sirens were heard in several cities across the country, according to reports from CNN.
In his speech, Putin justified the action by stating that Russia could not “tolerate threats from Ukraine”. Putin urged Ukrainian soldiers to “put down your weapons and go home”. The Russian leader further stated that he will not accept any kind of foreign interference.
In a video posted on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had imposed martial law in the country and urged the population to remain calm.
“Dear Ukrainian citizens, this morning President Putin announced a special military operation in Donbas. Russia has carried out attacks against our military infrastructure and our border guards. Explosions were heard in many cities in Ukraine. We are introducing martial law throughout the territory of our country,” he declared.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Putin had ordered a full-scale invasion. “Ukraine’s peaceful cities are under attack. This is a war of aggression,” he wrote.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry described Russia’s military action as an “act of war” in a statement posted on social media.
Source: CNN Brasil
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