Russia invades Ukraine

VLADIMIR PUTIN’S invasion of Ukraine, long predicted by the West and long denied by him, began before dawn on February 24th with volleys of cruise missiles, artillery and other weapons. There were explosions near Kyiv’s main airport, as well as around other cities. The scope of the attack was not immediately clear, but all the evidence pointed to a large-scale operation. Early reports, still unconfirmed, said Russian troops were advancing on the eastern city of Kharkiv. The mayor of Odessa, a big port, said his city had been attacked, but that the attack had been repelled.

Having called up reservists a day earlier and declared a state of emergency, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, imposed martial law across the country. In parts of Ukraine, people woke to the sound of sirens and took to their basements; elsewhere some knelt on the streets to pray. People rushed to take cash out of ATM machines as huge traffic jams formed on the roads leading out of Kyiv.