Russia Ukraine War: Russian forces capture Chernobyl, pushing into outskirts of Kyiv | World News – Times of India

On Day 1 of the first major land war in Europe in decades, the Russian military plunged into Ukraine by land, sea and air, killing dozens of Ukrainian soldiers, and touching off a pitched battle at the highly radioactive Chernobyl exclusion zone that risked damaging the cementencased nuclear reactor that melted down in 1986. The day began before sunrise with the terrifying thud of artillery strikes on airports and military installations all over Ukraine.
By sunset, Russian special forces and airborne troops had seized the Chernobyl site and were pushing into the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv. While the ultimate goal of President Putin s remained unclear, American officials assessed that the end game was likely the decapitation of Ukraine’s government and the replacement of its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, with a Russiancontrolled puppet regime.
As of evening on Thursday, Zelensky remained in place as commander-in-chief, and Ukrainian forces, which officials said shot down several Russian jets and a helicopter, were engaged in fierce battles all along a broad front line to maintain control over their country. It was in the toxic marshes of the Chernobyl exclusion zone in northern Ukraine that one of the most dangerous battles was playing out. An adviser to the interior minister said that Ukrainian troops put up a “fierce resistance”. Should an artillery shell hit the storage unit, he warned, “radioactive dust could cover the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the countries of the EU. ”
Later Thursday, Russian forces captured the power plant, according to an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s office. He said the condition of the plant and its nuclear waste storage facilities was unknown. The site is now inside a protective zone covering about 1,000 square miles, including part of the shortest direct route from Belarus to Kyiv. Zelensky cal- led the attack at the site “a declaration of war against the whole of Europe. ”
As Russian forces advanced on Ukraine by land, sea and air, more than 40 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and dozens were wounded in fighting. At least 18 military officials were killed in an attack outside the Black Sea port city of Odessa, where amphibious commandos from Russian navy came ashore, according to Sergey Nazarov, an aide to Odessa mayor. An AFP tally said 68 people, including both soldiers and civilians, had been killed across Ukraine Explosions rang out around Odessa at 10. 30am, sending firefighters scurrying to put out blazes and rescue people. By noon, the fighting in Odessa appeared to have subsided, said Nazarov.
Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine was facing “a full-scale attack from multiple directions” but that it “continues to defend itself”. Civilians lined up at recruitment offices to take up arms against Putin’s forces.
Starting before dawn, Russian forces crossed into Ukraine at multiple points, with helicopter-borne troops flying in under the cover of machinegun fire, naval units coming ashore from the Black Sea and military vehicles crossing from Crimea, the peninsula that Russia seized in 2014. Ukrainian forces said they had repelled Russian advances on two major cities: Chernihiv in the north, near the Belarus border, and Kharkiv in the northeast, close to Russia.