Ukraine says tens of thousands of civilians died, with food, water and medical supplies cut and continuous bombing trapping many in basements. Mariupol, a once-prosperous southern port, was destroyed by Russian forces over three months of what the Red Cross called "hell".
On the Hungarian side of the border, the children were later reunited with their mother, who wept as she hugged them tightly. "Their father simply handed over the two kids to me, and trusted me, giving me their passports to bring them over," Natalya Ableyeva, 58, said on the border with Hungary two days after the invasion, the arms of the young boy she had known for just a few hours around her neck. Kyiv banned men of fighting age from leaving. More than 6.6 million refugees have been recorded across Europe, most in neighbouring countries, which opened their arms. He has been beamed into the streets of Prague, the Grammy awards and the Glastonbury music festival, where he told cheering fans to "prove that freedom always wins".Īs Russia pounded Ukrainian cities, millions took flight in what the United Nations said was the fastest-growing refugee crisis in generations. Congress and the Berlin Wall to the Bundestag. Since then, he has used video links to invoke Martin Luther King to the U.S. Zelensky went on to rally his country in nightly addresses, his combat fatigues, sparse stubble and casual but firm speaking style becoming symbols of Ukraine's resistance. Behind him was a landmark building in central Kyiv. "Good morning Ukrainians," the former sitcom actor said, with the hint of a smile, in a mobile phone selfie video taken in the early light of the war's third morning. While Russia's armoured columns would eventually reach the northern outskirts of Kyiv, the failure to secure a working air field on day one helped wreck Moscow's plan to swiftly seize the capital.Īs Russian bombs fell on Kyiv and its residents huddled in metro stations for shelter or crammed train stations to flee, President Volodymyr Zelensky made clear he would go nowhere. Within a day, Ukrainians had wiped out the elite Russian paratroops and destroyed the landing strip. Within hours of the invasion, Russia landed commandos at Antonov airfield, a cargo base just north of Kyiv, to secure an air bridge for a lightning assault on the capital. "Since time immemorial, the people living in the southwest of what has historically been Russian land have called themselves Russians and Orthodox Christians." It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space," Putin said. "Ukraine is not just a neighbouring country for us. But Ukrainians say an address by Russian President Vladimir Putin three days before the Feb 24 invasion left no doubt he aimed to conquer their country and wipe out their 1,000-year national identity. Russia repeatedly denied it would invade Ukraine and once it did, said it sought to "disarm" Kyiv, purge it of "nationalists" and halt the expansion of NATO, not seize territory.
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