Russia launches attack on Ukraine, Biden says

As news of Russia’s attack on Ukraine rippled across the Atlantic, officials in both U.S. political parties vowed to stand with Ukraine. Some offered their prayers, others urged for greater action against Russia and still others interjected partisan politics.

“Putin’s decision to invade is an evil, panicked move of weakness and will be his defining mistake,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wrote on Twitter. “The Ukrainian people will fight for as long as it takes to secure their nation from this foreign tyrant, and the United States will stand with them in this fight.”

Warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin had plans to use “this crisis to try to divide Americans from each other and to separate America from our allies,” Murphy urged both parties to come together against a common threat to democracy worldwide.

“This is not a moment for politics to trump security,” he wrote.

In an interview with Fox News, former president Donald Trump said Putin had undertaken the military maneuver “because of a rigged election” in the United States. In the days leading up to Russia’s attack — amid escalating tensions — Trump had praised Putin, saying it was a “smart move” by the Russian president to send “the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen” to the Ukraine border.

His comments — along with those made by a faction of conservative Republicans, Trump supporters and conservative media figures — caused a rift.

“Kyiv and Kharkiv are being bombed,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) wrote on Twitter. “The largest invasion on our planet since WW2. Republicans are rooting for the Russians. God be with Ukraine and democracy.”

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said Russia’s actions amounted to “an invasion of a sovereign nation” — one that “cannot go uncontested.”

“I hope you’ll join me tonight in praying for the people of Ukraine and for a unified allied response,” he wrote.

Echoing some of his counterparts’ calls for a strong stance against Russia, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the assault on Ukraine had brought decades of general peace in Europe to an end.

“While there is still an opportunity for Russia to reverse course, we can no longer hold out hope that this standoff will be resolved peacefully,” Warner said in a statement. “Therefore, we must all, on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Atlantic, work together to demonstrate to Putin that this aggression will not be allowed to go unpunished.”

KHARKIV, Ukraine — Just after Russian President Vladimir Putin finished his speech announcing military action against Ukraine, distant booms could be heard in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which is 50 miles from the Russian border.

It’s unclear what caused the explosion or what targets were hit.

Russian troops, tanks and missile launchers had been massing in Belgorod, a Russian city 90 minutes from downtown Kharkiv. This is a majority Russian-speaking city that was long considered a target in a full-scale invasion by Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared martial law, according to a Ukrainian government official.

As the sun rose, some people in the city reacted with confusion. At one hotel, a staff member asked a guest what was happening. Told this was likely a Russian invasion, she cursed.

“I don’t watch the news,” she said.

Outside of the hotel, a mother and child packed their car to leave Kharkiv. There were commuters with suitcases on the subway and people were in line at a water-filing station near the city center.

KYIV, Ukraine — A series of loud booms were heard in the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday as Ukrainian officials announced that Russian attacks on their country had begun.

The booms just after 5 a.m. could be heard from central Kyiv, but they appeared to be relatively far from major urban centers. As dawn broke here, traffic moved relatively normally and calmly. But later in the morning, air raid sirens started going off.

Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs says Russia has “launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”

“Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes,” Dmytro Kuleba tweeted early Thursday morning local time. “This is a war of aggression.”

He said that Ukraine “will defend itself and will win" and urged the world to “stop Putin.”

In a later tweet, he called for the world to immediately impose further sanctions on Russia, as well as dispatch weapons and equipment, humanitarian assistance and financial support to Ukraine. “Fully isolate Russia by all means, in all formats,” Kuleba wrote.

Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs, said troops are in Odessa — one of Ukraine’s most populous cities — and are crossing into Kharkiv, a city in the country’s northeast, according to NBC.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations confronted Russia’s representative Wednesday at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, daring him to acknowledge that a massive invasion was underway.

“Should I play the video of your president?” Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya asked his Russian counterpart, Vassily Nebenzia, brandishing a cellphone. Kyslytsya said he been planning to ask for confirmation that Russian troops would not start firing that day — but it all “became useless 48 minutes ago,” he said, when Putin announced his attack.

“So now,” Kyslytsya continued, “I would like to ask the ambassador of the Russian Federation to say on the record that at this very moment your troops do not shell and bomb Ukrainian cities. That your troops do not move in the territory of Ukraine. You have a smartphone.”

If Nebenzia could not give that confirmation, Kyslytsya said, he should pass the responsibilities of Security Council president to “a legitimate member.”

“There is no purgatory for war criminals,” he told Nebenzia. “They go straight to hell, ambassador.”

Nebenzia reiterated Russia’s blaming of Ukrainian “provocations” for the crisis and cast Russia as a defender of the Donbas region, where Moscow has backed two separatist enclaves. He acknowledged that Putin had spoken during the Security Council meeting about a “special military operation in the Donbas.”

He said that “the occupation of Ukraine is not in our plans,” though he said “we don’t know all the details today.”

Addressing the Security Council for the second time Wednesday night, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that “at the exact time as we are gathered in the Council, seeking peace, Putin delivered a message of war in total disdain for the responsibility of this Council.”

“The world will hold Russia accountable,” she said.

Representatives from other countries had spent much of the meeting appealing to Putin to pull back. “It’s too late, my dear colleagues, to speak about de-escalation,” Kyslytsya said. “Too late.”

As explosions ripped through cities in Ukraine in a Russian military offensive, members of the U.N. Security Council made a succession of pleas for peace and dialogue in an emergency session Wednesday night that laid bare the limits of the world body’s influence.

The United States and its allies condemned Russia’s actions, while other nations such as China, Brazil and India urged de-escalation — calls Russian President Vladimir Putin ignored as he announced a military operation to achieve the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine.

Russia’s ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, lashed out at Western nations, accusing them of “arming” and “egging on” Ukraine’s government to attack the separatist-controlled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. He insisted Russia was not attacking the people of Ukraine, but the military “junta” in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Putin of exhibiting “total disdain” for the United Nations by ordering military action “at the same time we’re gathered in the council seeking peace.” She called the moment a “grave emergency.”

Ukraine’s ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, called out to Russia’s envoy in a testy exchange, urging him to telephone Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and “do everything possible to stop the war.”

Nebenzya declined, saying that “waking up Mr. Lavrov is not something I plan to do.”

The most scathing criticism of Russian action came from European envoys representing Britain, France, Ireland and Norway.

“France strongly condemns the strategy of provocation to war of the Russian president,” said French envoy Nicolas de Rivière. “We hear the call of the Ukrainian people. … Ukrainians want peace.”

“Russia has been holding a gun to Ukraine’s head. Now, President Putin’s finger is on the trigger,” said Britain’s ambassador, Barbara Woodward. “The world is calling for peace, but Russia is not listening.”

China’s envoy, Zhang Jun, called for “enhanced dialogue,” while India’s ambassador, T. S. Tirumurti, urged “immediate de-escalation.” But in a council where all resolutions are subject to a veto of the permanent members, no action was proposed and therefore none taken.

Russia “alone is responsible for the death and destruction” its military action in Ukraine may bring, according to a

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