Russia has started the invasion of Ukraine on Friday and has started attacking the former Soviet nation from multiple sides moving towards its capital city where several explosions were heard in the early hours of Friday.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in a video address also confirmed that around 137 people including both servicemen and citizens of his country had been killed and hundreds of others have been injured. With the Western powers imposing fresh sanctions on Russia, the nation has been prevented from importing critical technology as of now.
The military forces of Russia have captured the Chernobyl nuclear plant site after fighting a battle with the national guards of Ukraine as per reports by the adviser to the Ukrainian President, Mykhailo Podolyak. He stated that the condition of the nuclear plant’s facilities including a confinement shelter and a repository for nuclear waste was still largely unknown. Some reports have claimed that shelling by the Russian military might have hit a radioactive waste repository at the plant’s site and that has led to the rise in radiation levels. The increase in level can not be immediately confirmed.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden has vowed to turn the Russian President Vladimir Putin into a pariah while announcing new sanctions that are aimed at cutting his country’s largest banks and towards preventing the nation from importing critical technology from the United States, as per the reports by The New York Times.
During the early hours of Friday, various explosions were heard in numerous parts of the capital city, Kyiv which prompted the Mayor of the city, Vitaly Klitschko to appeal to the population of more than 3 million people to stay indoors if they did not work in critical sectors. He also mentioned that people should be prepared with their go-to bags filled with necessities including medicine and documents.
The United Nations has also released a statement saying that it would be allocating $20 million immediately to scale up the humanitarian operations of the UN in Ukraine amid the escalating crisis. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, while making the announcement said that the UN and its humanitarian agencies were committed to staying and delivering support to the people of Ukraine. The Humanitarian chief of the UN, Martin Griffiths has stated that $20 million has been allocated from the UN’s Central Emergency operations along the contact line in the breakaway regions in Eastern Donetsk and Luhansk along with the other areas of the country. He said the fund will hopefully help with health care, shelter, food, water, and sanitation.
The Ukrainian President in his televised address also said that he was Russia’s number one target and his family was number two saying that Russia wanted to destroy his country by destroying its head of state adding that he would be staying in the government quarters only along with all the people who were needed to do the Central Government work.
