Russia-Ukraine live updates: Biden to speak as defense official says Russia aiming at big cities

Ukrainian authorities said Thursday that Russian invasion forces have captured the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the scene of a 1986 disaster that rocked the region.

“Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,” Zelensky said earlier on Twitter, announcing that fighting over the area had begun. “This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, recalling the catastrophe that ranks as the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident, said the Russian attack “may cause another ecological disaster.” If the war continues, it said, Chernobyl “can happen again in 2022.”

“State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate informs that the [Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant] is fully controlled by [Russian forces], including all installations and repositories,” Demchenkov Yaroslav, Ukraine’s deputy energy minister, tweeted Thursday, on an account that could not immediately be verified.

In April 1986, core explosions and fires broke out at the Chernobyl plant, then under the control of the Soviet Union. Large quantities of radioactive material contaminated the surrounding land, and a nearby city had to be evacuated. Vast swaths of Europe were affected, and a radioactive cloud spread as far away as Norway.

Russian troops have attacked Ukrainian airports, warehouses and hospitals, killing at least 40 Ukrainian service members and dozens of civilians since Russia’s assault began early Thursday, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova told reporters.

Russia has also tried to seize the abandoned nuclear power station in Chernobyl, she said.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not publicly issued casualty figures, and Markarova did not cite the source of her count.

A Russian platoon from the 74th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade has surrendered to Ukrainian forces, the ambassador said. She added that the platoon members said they had not known they were being sent to kill Ukrainians. She said she did not know the number of the platoon members who surrendered, and her account could not immediately be independently verified.

Markarova called on her country’s backers, including the United States, to put in place sanctions on Russia and provide Ukraine with defensive and humanitarian aid. She stopped short of requesting foreign troops, acknowledging that Ukraine is not a member of NATO.

“We do not expect anyone to fight for us, but we expect all the help and all the response the West can send to us,” Markarova said.

Markarova said President Volodymyr Zelensky remains in Ukraine but declined to disclose his location. She rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim to be seeking the “denazification” of Ukraine, saying her country has been undergoing reform and strengthening its democracy since 2015, after the Ukrainian popular uprising that deposed a pro-Moscow president in 2014.

Asked how she expects the conflict to end, Markarova confidently predicted, “With our victory.” She added: “It will end with Ukraine winning this because we are in our home. We are defending our home.”

Leaders from the Group of Seven on Thursday condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for having “reintroduced war to the European continent” by attacking Ukraine.

The G-7 leaders held an emergency virtual meeting Thursday, then called on Putin to withdraw all forces from Ukraine.

“This has fundamentally changed the Euro-Atlantic security situation,” the foreign ministers said in a joint statement. “President Putin has reintroduced war to the European continent. He has put himself on the wrong side of history.”

President Biden on Twitter added that the group “agreed to move forward on devastating packages of sanctions and other economic measures to hold Russia to account. We stand with the brave people of Ukraine.”

The leaders again denounced the “fabricated claims and unfounded allegations” from Russia that preceded the attacks. The G-7 leaders also called on the rest of the world to punish Russia for its actions.

“We call on all partners and members of the international community to condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms, to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and raise their voice against this blatant violation of the fundamental principles of international peace and security,” the leaders said in the statement.

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, residents flocked to gas stations in the morning to fill up. They wanted to be prepared, but not everyone was set on leaving.

“We will stay in Ukraine,” Kristina Nimenko, 18, told The Washington Post. “We will stay at home because we are from Ukraine.”

Biden will address the nation about “Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine” at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, the White House said in an update to the president’s daily schedule. The speech was previously scheduled for 12:30 p.m.

Biden met virtually with the leaders of other Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union — at 9 a.m. He has also gathered the National Security Council in the Situation Room to discuss the crisis, a White House official said.

On Wednesday evening, Biden said he planned to announce “further consequences” from the United States and its allies to Russia on Thursday.

“We will also coordinate with our NATO Allies to ensure a strong, united response that deters any aggression against the Alliance,” he said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday called for a dramatic increase in the severity of sanctions against Russia, saying the ones President Biden has invoked so far “were in the tepid category.”

“We’re all together at this point, and we need to be together about what should be done,” McConnell said at an event at an addiction recovery facility in Louisville attended by White House drug czar Rahul Gupta and other officials.

“Ratchet the sanctions all the way up. Don’t hold any back,” he added. “Every single available tough sanction should be employed and should be employed now. There’s no such thing as a little invasion, and of course this invasion is far beyond just the areas of eastern Ukraine you’ve seen described on television.”

McConnell also said the United States needs to make sure Ukrainians are “fully armed,” though he maintained there should not be American troops on the ground in Ukraine.

Asked about remarks former president Donald Trump made on Wednesday, calling Putin a “genius” for his strategy in attacking Ukraine — and whether it was a mistake for Republicans to have elected a president that some argued emboldened Russia — McConnell declined to respond, instead pivoting back to Putin.

“Vladimir Putin is a bad guy. He’s an authoritarian. He yearns for empire,” McConnell said. “We need to do everything we can to stop him.”

Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov and other prominent Russian artists and intellectuals are decrying their government’s massive military attack on Ukraine.

“Our country started a war with Ukraine following President Putin’s order,” Muratov said in a video message. “And there is no one to stop the war. Therefore we and I feel shame along with grief.”

Muratov, editor in chief of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, said its next edition will be published both in Ukrainian and Russian because “we do not recognize Ukraine as an enemy, and the Ukrainian language as the language of the enemy.”

In an open letter also signed by Muratov, several prominent Russian artists and writers called on all citizens of Russia “to say no to this war.”

“We do not believe that an independent Ukraine poses a threat to Russia or any other state,” the letter said. “We do not believe Vladimir Putin’s claims that the Ukrainian people are under the rule of ‘Nazis’ and need to be ‘liberated.’”

The document, circulated on Facebook, has been signed by writer Mikhail Zygar and director Vladimir Mirzoev, among others.

Novaya Gazeta, an independent investigative news outlet in Russia, has been the subject of several attacks. Six journalists have been killed while working for the paper.

Muratov received the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2021 along with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa for what the prize committee called “their courageous fight for freedom of expression.”

MEDYKA-SHEHYNI CROSSING, Ukraine — Carrying children on their shoulders, dragging suitcases and the little they could carry, Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s assault on their country walked for miles to border crossings with Poland on Thursday, seeking safety outside their homeland.

Lines of barely moving cars stretched at least five miles into Ukraine from the Medyka-Shehyni border point, prompting some frustrated passengers to abandon their vehicles and continue on foot. Some said they woke up to the sound of rockets and decided it was finally time to flee.

“We didn’t expect it to happen so fast,” said Khrystyna Spilnyk, 22, who was walking to the border with her mother after leaving their car at the side of the road. “We are stressed, confused.”

Traffic was jammed in both directions at points. One farmer, apparently irked at people fleeing the country instead of staying put, drove a tractor and trailer across the road to block cars from exiting. Some people said they would just be in Poland long enough to assess the situation. Others, especially foreign residents, questioned whether they would ever be back.

They said they were heading to countries across Europe, from Germany to France and Finland — wherever they had a network to rely on. But many said they would stay in Poland, already home to as many as 2 million Ukrainians. Officials in Warsaw have said authorities were preparing for the arrival of as many as a million Ukrainians.

Vitalii Koval, 50, who was crossing into Poland with his wife and two daughters, ages 3 and 5, said he left his home in Kyiv for the western city of Lviv around 10 days ago. But after Thursday’s early-morning attack, they decided it was time to leave Ukraine.

“It’s just terrible, unbelievable,” he said, turning away to stop the tears. “It’s the 21st century. Why?”

Ivan Yurochko, 24, an engineer, was leaving on foot with nothing but a small backpack. “I didn’t have time to pack,” he said. He said he planned to stay with colleagues in a town on the border, but his mother and other family members had chosen to remain in the country.

Many people don’t have the financial means to leave, he said. “Sometimes I just have this emotional breakdown, just crying,” Yurochko said. “I don’t know if I’ll come back to Ukraine.”