A brave Ukrainian woman voiced the outrage of her nation today as she confronted heavily armed Russian soldiers and demanded to know what they were doing in her country.
The woman shouted at two of the invaders: ‘What the f*** are you doing in our land?’ while one of the embarrassed soldiers in Henichesk, a port city on the sea of Azov, tried to calm her.
She walked away, then called back: ‘You should put sunflower seeds in your pockets so that they will grow on Ukranian land after you die.’
On Twitter, she was hailed for her courage, with one admirer commenting: ‘The bravery is amazing! Thank you! We stand with you!’
A woman shouted at two of the invaders: ‘What the f*** are you doing in our land?’ while one of the embarrassed soldiers in Henichesk, a port city on the sea of Azov, tried to calm her
Fierce fighting raged in parts of the city tonight.
The incident came as protesters in Moscow voiced their support for Ukraine as they chanted ‘there is no war’ outside Pushkinskaya Metro station in the Russian capital.
Rarely seen protests against Russian president Vladimir Putin broke out in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, as the global outcry against the Russian strongman grew louder.
Posting a video of the rally on Facebook, Ukrainian government advisor Anton Herashchenko added: ‘Ukrainians! Call, write to your friends and acquaintances in Russia – ask them to tell everyone that Russian soldiers are now dying in Ukraine – sons, brothers, fathers!’
Russian police have detained almost 1,400 people at anti-war protests across Russia after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to invade Ukraine, an independent monitor said Thursday.
“More than 1,391 people have already been detained in 51 cities,” said OVD-Info, which tracks arrests at opposition rallies.
More than 700 people have been detained in Moscow and over 340 people in the second-largest city Saint Petersburg, the monitor said.
Pictures showed officers physically picking up protesters and dragging them away from the demonstrations, which are rare in the authoritarian country which does not tolerate dissent against the Kremlin.
The incident came as protesters in Moscow voiced their support for Ukraine as they chanted ‘there is no war’ outside Pushkinskaya Metro station in the Russian capital (pictured)
Police officers detain a woman during a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Moscow on February 24, 2022
MOSCOW: A person carries a banner during an anti-war protest, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Moscow, Russia February 24, 2022
MOSCOW: Police officers detain a man during a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Moscow on February 24, 2022
MOSCOW: Police officers drag a protester towards a police van in Moscow on Thursday night amid anti-war demonstrations
Earlier, a Russian opposition activist who called for anti-war protests told Reuters that she had been detained by police.
‘I was detained on my way out of the house,’ Marina Litvinovich, the Moscow-based activist, wrote on Telegram. She confirmed her detention separately in a message to Reuters.
Litvinovich called on Russians earlier to gather in protest in various Russian cities on Thursday evening.
Meanwhile, peers heard that the Russian people ‘don’t deserve’ President Vladimir Putin as their leader.
As the Lords were updated on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Labour’s Lord Robertson of Port Ellen said: ‘I am sure I wasn’t the only one who woke up this morning to listen to the news who wasn’t reminded of that day, that similar day in 1968, when we woke up to hear the news that Soviet tanks had crushed out the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.
The former Nato secretary-general added: ‘In May of 2002 when I chaired the Nato-Russia summit with President Putin as an equal member around that table I thought that finally I had exorcised the ghosts of 1968.
‘I stood only hours later on a platform at the press conference standing beside President Putin when he said these words – ‘Ukraine is an independent sovereign nation state and it will choose its own path to peace and security’.
More than 150 senior Russian officials signed an open letter condemning Putin’s (pictured) invasion as ‘an unprecedented atrocity’ and warning of ‘catastrophic consequences’
The attack has come to Ukraine on all fronts with bombs and missiles dropped on targets across the country in the early hours, followed by troop attacks from Crimea, the Donbass, Belgorod and Belarus as well as helicopter landings in Kiev and at power plants on the Dnieper River. Chernobyl nuclear power plant has also fallen to Russian forces
WARSAW: Demonstrators take part in the protest against Russia’s agression on Ukraine, in front of Russian embassy in Warsaw, on February 24
BERLIN: People take part in an anti-war protest at Brandenburg Gate, after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a military operation in eastern Ukraine, Germany February 24, 2022. Protests have broken out across Europe as the global outcry against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine grows louder amid the unfolding deadly crisis
‘Now remarkably the same man says that Ukraine does not exist, it is a state that does not deserve to be a state, that it’s democracy will be crushed again.
‘The leader of the Russian people – to whom we owe so much for our own liberty today – has been led by somebody who is taking his country down the road to pariah status. The Russian people don’t deserve that.’
Government minister Baroness Evans of Bowes Park agreed with Lord Roberston, and said President Putin was ‘never serious’ about diplomacy.
Earlier today, more than 150 senior Russian officials signed an open letter condemning Putin’s invasion as ‘an unprecedented atrocity’ and warning of ‘catastrophic consequences’.
The deputies said they were ‘convinced’ Russian citizens do not back the war and blamed Putin ‘personally’ for ordering troops into Ukraine in an attack ‘for which there is no and cannot be justification’.
Across Europe and the rest of the world, anti-war activists took to their own streets and gathered outside Russian embassies including those in London, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Oslo, Riga, as well as further afield in Tokyo, making their voices heard. Sydney also saw furious protesters calling for an end to the conflict.
Demonstrations were held overnight before war was declared by Russia, and continued into Thursday as Russian tanks rolled towards Kiev.
SAINT PETERSBURG: Armoured police gather in a square near demonstrators during an anti-war protest on Thursday night
SAINT PETERSBURG: Riot police are seen during an unsanctioned anti-war protest
NEW YORK: A women becomes emotional while waving a Ukrainian flag at a Stand With Ukraine Rally in Times Square on February 24
VILNIUS: Demonstrators take part in a protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in front of Russia’s embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania
Ukrainian servicemen get ready to repel an attack in Ukraine’s Lugansk
There have been reports of intense fighting and casualties on both sides.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday also called on Ukrainian to ‘go out’ and ‘protest against this war’, after urging Russians to do the same earlier this week in a bid to prevent the invasion.
‘We have severed diplomatic relations with Russia. For all those who have not yet lost their conscience in Russia, it is time to go out and protest against the war with Ukraine,’ he said today.
Meanwhile, Russian forces seized control of Chernobyl nuclear power plant after a ‘fierce’ battle, with the condition of nuclear storage facilities ‘unknown’, sparking fears of a radiation leak that could cause fallout in Europe.
Video revealed Russian tanks and armoured vehicles standing in front of the destroyed reactor, which sits just 60 miles north of the capital Kiev.
Elsewhere, Kiev ordered civilians into bomb shelters and declared a curfew amid concerns Russia is about to strike the capital as Ukrainian troops lost control of a key airfield around 15 miles away.
Russian forces had attacked it with around two dozen attack helicopters earlier in the day, four of which are thought to have been shot down.
Ukrainian servicemen get ready to repel an attack in Ukraine’s Lugansk region
Ukrainian tanks are seen rolling into the port city of Mariupol, in eastern Ukraine, after Putin declared war
A wounded woman is seen as airstrike damages an apartment complex outside of Kharkiv, Ukraine
Ukrainian security forces accompany a wounded man after an airstrike hit an apartment complex in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv
‘They are going to bomb Kyiv now. Authorities told us to hide in shelters,’ a source in the city told MailOnline as authorities said a hospital had been hit, killing four people.
The Ukrainian army was this afternoon fighting in almost every region of the country, battling the Russians for control of military bases, airports, cities and ports from Kharkiv to Kiev, and Donetsk to Odessa.
It came after Vladimir Putin personally gave the order to attack around 5am, unleashing a salvo of rocket fire that American intelligence said involved more than 100 short and medium-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles, and 75 bombers that targeted military sites including barracks, warehouses and airfields in order to knock out the country’s military command structure.
Russia said the strikes destroyed 74 Ukrainian military ground facilities, 11 airfields, three command posts and 18 radar stations controlling Kiev’s anti-aircraft batteries.
That was followed by attacks from Crimea in the south towards the city of Kherson, a northern advance from Belarus to Kiev, and an eastern advance from Belgorod towards Kharkiv where the heaviest fighting is going on.