On Thursday, the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant which is located to the north of Kyiv, the site of the 1986 disaster was captured by the Russian forces as per the statement by the adviser to the Presidential Office of Ukraine. The military forces of Russia have also destroyed more than 70 Ukrainian military facilities including 11 airbases.
The President of the United States of America, Joe Biden has announced various export restrictions against Russia. The sanctions imposed by the United States have targeted the Russian banks, high-tech sectors and oligarchs. President Biden said that this aggression will be costing them dearly and went on to say that President of Russia, Vladimir Putin has chosen the war. The US has been working to secure oil energy supplies and added that oil and gas companies should not exploit the ongoing situation to hike their prices.
According to a Reuters report that had quoted the adviser to the Ukrainian President, around 40 soldiers of Ukraine and almost 10 civilians have so far been killed due to the shelling done by Russia. As per reports, Ukraine said that it had killed around 50 Russian occupiers without going into much detail. These casualties are the result of the latest developments that began when the President of Russia announced a military operation early morning on Thursday. After the order given by the Russian President, several explosions were reported from different regions of Ukraine and air sirens went off in the capital city indicating attacks on Kyiv.
Mariupol, the city located in Ukraine and one of the largest ports on the Azov Sea was under heavy fire with explosions being reported from the area as per reports. As per the statement by the Kyiv Post, taking over Mariupol would be an advantage to Russia in securing a direct land route to Crimea, which is the Ukrainian Peninsula that was annexed by Russia in the year 2014.
Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has also appealed to his Russian counterpart for an immediate cessation of violence during his phone call to him on Thursday. He also called for concerted efforts from all the parties to return to the path of diplomacy, negotiations, and dialogue. He also mentioned his long-standing conviction that the differences that have occurred between NATO and Russia can only be resolved through sincere and honest dialogue.
Various protests were held by people in front of the consulates of Russia in Poznan, Poland. President Biden has also announced a series of new sanctions on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine began on Thursday accusing the Russian leader of choosing this war and saying that his country will bear the consequences of its President’s actions. In his address on the ongoing crisis, he said that the situation shouldn’t be exploited to hike the prices by the oil and gas companies adding that this is a dangerous time for Europe and that the US was working towards securing oil energy supplies.
Russian troops also took over the Chernobyl power plant while the Ukrainian forces were battling them on three fronts after they mounted an assault by land, sea, and ait making it the biggest attack on a European nation since the end of the Second World War. Some Russian military troops were amassed in the exclusion zone of Chernobyl before getting into Ukraine early on Thursday. As per reports, Russia wanted to control the Chernobyl nuclear reactor to signal NATO not to interfere in the conflict militarily. The disaster in 1986 after a botched safety test in the fourth reactor of the atomic plant of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant which was located in then-Soviet Ukraine had sent clouds of nuclear material over most of Europe.
