Zürcher Nachrichten - Invading Russian forces press deep into Ukraine

EUR -
AED 4.288018
AFN 79.960491
ALL 97.655834
AMD 447.991031
ANG 2.089265
AOA 1070.536389
ARS 1466.010684
AUD 1.774673
AWG 2.104298
AZN 1.989113
BAM 1.948021
BBD 2.358681
BDT 142.052765
BGN 1.954873
BHD 0.440054
BIF 3480.601501
BMD 1.167433
BND 1.493935
BOB 8.101649
BRL 6.45999
BSD 1.168135
BTN 100.037537
BWP 15.565844
BYN 3.822935
BYR 22881.692399
BZD 2.34653
CAD 1.599121
CDF 3369.212857
CHF 0.931081
CLF 0.028903
CLP 1109.131781
CNY 8.37668
CNH 8.370812
COP 4688.061845
CRC 589.147457
CUC 1.167433
CUP 30.936982
CVE 110.614641
CZK 24.642994
DJF 207.476327
DKK 7.461288
DOP 70.282823
DZD 151.516417
EGP 57.795885
ERN 17.511499
ETB 158.041295
FJD 2.61651
FKP 0.859421
GBP 0.862062
GEL 3.163585
GGP 0.859421
GHS 12.172506
GIP 0.859421
GMD 83.47586
GNF 10105.302712
GTQ 8.974165
GYD 244.404062
HKD 9.164217
HNL 30.762193
HRK 7.531349
HTG 153.267981
HUF 399.054413
IDR 18942.422263
ILS 3.870863
IMP 0.859421
INR 100.254385
IQD 1529.337604
IRR 49163.53233
ISK 142.812139
JEP 0.859421
JMD 186.684544
JOD 0.827685
JPY 171.492461
KES 151.182498
KGS 102.091773
KHR 4694.249027
KMF 492.073956
KPW 1050.678224
KRW 1606.855277
KWD 0.356897
KYD 0.973513
KZT 606.020082
LAK 25134.838563
LBP 104602.022084
LKR 350.918735
LRD 234.654211
LSL 20.698243
LTL 3.447127
LVL 0.706169
LYD 6.298301
MAD 10.509823
MDL 19.765075
MGA 5171.7296
MKD 61.513833
MMK 2451.086777
MNT 4187.3557
MOP 9.445583
MRU 46.346608
MUR 53.071115
MVR 17.981869
MWK 2027.250221
MXN 21.798238
MYR 4.971509
MZN 74.668855
NAD 20.698468
NGN 1786.896443
NIO 42.902987
NOK 11.790972
NPR 160.05986
NZD 1.941435
OMR 0.448883
PAB 1.168135
PEN 4.139675
PGK 4.81537
PHP 65.933107
PKR 332.133115
PLN 4.256895
PYG 9053.846801
QAR 4.250157
RON 5.078568
RSD 117.149625
RUB 90.598648
RWF 1674.099332
SAR 4.378468
SBD 9.720618
SCR 17.133342
SDG 701.04933
SEK 11.117426
SGD 1.496083
SHP 0.917419
SLE 26.273855
SLL 24480.496562
SOS 667.187612
SRD 43.624632
STD 24163.511975
SVC 10.221185
SYP 15178.886357
SZL 20.699111
THB 37.973688
TJS 11.302069
TMT 4.097691
TND 3.384065
TOP 2.734243
TRY 46.898725
TTD 7.932325
TWD 34.173688
TZS 3070.349466
UAH 48.892665
UGX 4186.28362
USD 1.167433
UYU 47.460484
UZS 14782.626389
VES 132.43128
VND 30481.683088
VUV 139.442741
WST 3.2116
XAF 653.348095
XAG 0.031207
XAU 0.00035
XCD 3.155047
XDR 0.811849
XOF 651.427065
XPF 119.331742
YER 282.343854
ZAR 20.755195
ZMK 10508.302466
ZMW 27.364729
ZWL 375.913042
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Invading Russian forces press deep into Ukraine

Invading Russian forces press deep into Ukraine

Invading Russian forces pressed deep into Ukraine as deadly battles reached the outskirts of Kyiv, with explosions heard in the capital early Friday that the besieged government described as "horrific rocket strikes".

Text size:

The blasts in Kyiv set off a second day of violence after Russian President Vladimir Putin defied Western warnings to unleash a full-scale ground invasion and air assault that quickly claimed dozens of lives and displaced at least 100,000 people.

The United States and its allies responded with a barrage of sanctions, but the Russian forces appeared intent Friday on pressing home their advantage after a string of key strategic victories on day one.

"Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv," Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted on Twitter after explosions were heard in the capital before dawn.

"Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one."

At least 137 "heroes" were killed during the first day of fighting, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday, as he called up conscripts and reservists nationwide to fight in a general mobilisation.

Zelensky said there was now a "new iron curtain" between Russia and the rest of the world, like in the Cold War, adding in a later speech his nation had been "left alone".

"Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don't see anyone."

And while the United States moved to impose sanctions on Russian elites and banks, it stressed that American forces would not head to eastern Europe to fight in Ukraine.

NATO said it had activated "defence plans" for allied countries.

But NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said there was no plan to send alliance forces into Ukraine.

- 'War on Europe' -

Among the highest-profile strategic developments on Thursday, Ukraine said Russian forces had seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant -- prompting concern from international nuclear watchdogs.

Zelensky called the attack on Chernobyl "a declaration of war on all of Europe" while 18 people were killed at a military base near the Black Sea port of Odessa in the deadliest single strike reported by Kyiv.

Witnesses also told AFP that Russian paratroopers wrested control of the strategic Gostomel airfield, on the northwestern outskirts of Kyiv.

"The helicopters came in and then the battles started. They were firing machine guns, grenade launchers," resident Sergiy Storozhuk said.

Russian ground forces had initially moved into Ukraine from the north, south and east, forcing many Ukrainians to flee their homes as the sound of bombing reverberated.

Moscow's defence ministry said Thursday its forces had "successfully completed" their objectives for the day, earlier claiming to have destroyed over 70 Ukrainian military targets, including 11 airfields.

Western intelligence confirmed Moscow had established "complete air superiority" over Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces said they had killed "around 50 Russian occupiers" while repulsing an attack on a town on the frontline with Moscow-backed rebels, which could not immediately be confirmed by AFP.

Ukraine also said a military plane with 14 people on board crashed south of Kyiv with officials still determining how many people died, while a transport plane crashed in Russia killing the crew.

Olena Kurilo was among 20 people wounded by flying shards of glass following a blast in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuguiv.

"Never, under any conditions will I submit to Putin. It is better to die," the 52-year-old teacher said, her face covered in bandages.

In the Ukrainian village of Starognativka near the frontline where separatists have faced off against Kyiv's forces, official Vladimir Vesyelkin said missiles had rained down since Friday morning and power was out.

"They are trying to wipe the village off the face of the earth," he said.

- Sanctions -

Weeks of diplomacy failed to deter Putin, who massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine's borders in what the West said was Europe's biggest military build-up since World War II.

Western allies had initially imposed some sanctions on Russia in an en effort to deter Putin, then followed through on Thursday with vows to try and heavily punish Russia economically.

US President Joe Biden announced export controls against Russia to cut off more than half of the country's high-tech imports, alongside sanctions on Russian elites he called "corrupt billionaires", and banks.

He will meet Friday with fellow Nato leaders in an extraordinary virtual summit to discuss the security situation in and around Ukraine later.

The EU moved to impose "massive" sanctions on Russia's energy and finance sectors, while French President Emmanuel Macron called Putin to "demand immediate halt" to the offensive -- but said the door must be kept open for dialogue.

The fighting spooked global financial markets, with stocks plunging and oil prices soaring past $100.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said the unrest carried "significant economic risk" for the world, but Putin insisted he did not seek to undermine the global economic system.

- Demonstrations across Europe -

In a televised address, the Russian president justified the assault as a defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics in eastern Ukraine.

The Kremlin earlier said the leaders of the two separatist territories had asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv after Putin recognised their independence on Monday.

A conflict between the separatists and government forces has dragged on since 2014, killing more than 14,000 people on both sides.

Russia has also long demanded that Ukraine be forbidden from ever joining NATO and that US troops pull out from Eastern Europe.

In the Baltics, Lithuania declared a national emergency. Latvia, Lithuania and Czech Republic, also stopped issuing visas to Russians.

Demonstrators took to the streets of European capitals to condemn the Kremlin but a small anti-war protest in Moscow was quickly halted by police, with over 1,700 people detained at rallies across Russia.

"Anyone who can is fleeing," said Krisztian Szavla, one of the first refugees who arrived Thursday in Hungary from Ukraine's western Transcarpathia region.

burs-gw/rbu/kma

W.Vogt--NZN