Russian Roulette: Putin goes to war

KYIV/MARIUPOL,

Ukraine

:Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders on three sides on Thursday after Moscow mounted an assault by land, sea and air in the biggest attack on a European state since World War II. After Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war in a pre-dawn televised address, explosions and gunfire were heard throughout the morning in

Kyiv

, a city of 3 million people.

Missiles rained down on Ukrainian targets and authorities reported columns of troops pouring across Ukraine’s borders from

Russia

and Belarus to the north and east, and landing on the southern coasts from the

Black Sea

and Azov Sea. The assault brought a calamitous end to weeks of fruitless diplomatic efforts by Western leaders to avert war.

After a day of fighting, Putin said he had no choice but to act, while Western leaders condemned him. As night fell, the picture of what was happening on the ground was sketchy. Across Ukraine, at least 68 people were killed, including both soldiers and civilians, according to an AFP tally from Ukrainian official sources.

The highway heading west out of Kyiv was choked with traffic as residents fled. In Kyiv, queues of people waited to withdraw money and buy food and water. Cars stretched for dozens of kilometres on the highway leading west towards

Poland

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