Russia Attacks UkraineUkrainian Officials Report Missile Attacks in Kyiv

Ukraine’s president denounced Russia in a televised address: “They say that civilian objects are not a target for them. It is a lie. They do not distinguish in which areas to operate.”

Follow the latest updates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Destroyed Russian Army rocket launchers in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Friday.Credit...Maksim Levin/Reuters
Pinned

Kyiv was under bombardment on Friday morning.

The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was under bombardment on Friday morning, with missile strikes and a rocket crashing into a residential building as the second day of Russia’s military offensive pressed closer to the heart of the government.

Ukrainian forces were battling Russian troops on the outskirts of Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million people, where President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a television address that he was “target No. 1” of the Russian advance.

By midmorning, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said that Russian forces had entered the Obolon district, a few miles north of central Kyiv, and urged people in the capital to stay indoors. In a sign of the potentially chaotic fight that could unfold, the ministry said on Facebook that Kyiv residents should “prepare Molotov cocktails” to deter “the occupier.”

Mr. Zelensky said that 137 Ukrainians, military and civilian, had been killed in the Russian invasion that began on Thursday morning, and that Russian “sabotage groups” had entered the capital with the aim of decapitating Ukraine’s government “by destroying the head of the state.”

The 44-year-old president, appearing unshaven and in a T-shirt, called on Ukrainians to defend themselves, in absence of military help from the outside world. He said not to expect foreign military forces to come to their aid. “We are left to our own devices in defense of our state,” he said. “Who is ready to fight together with us? Honestly, I do not see such.”

A day earlier, Mr. Zelensky’s government had declared martial law and ordered a general mobilization, urging all able-bodied Ukrainians to sign up with the country’s defense forces. Under the mobilization, most men ages 18 to 60 are barred from leaving the country, even as many Kyiv residents sought to flee the capital via road and rail to the relative safety of western Ukraine.

“The first days are the most difficult, because right now the enemy will feel it has the advantage, or will be broken physically and morally,” Hanna Malyar, the deputy minister of defense, said on Friday morning before calling on people to join the general mobilization.

“It is important that everyone is strong in spirit,” Ms. Malyar said. “This is our land. We will not hand it over.”

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In front of a residential building hit by shelling in Kyiv on Friday.Credit...Daniel Leal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A day after heavy fighting was reported in eastern Ukraine, in Moscow-backed separatist enclaves along the Russian border, the conflict appeared to be intensifying in Kyiv.

Videos verified by The New York Times showed a large explosion in the sky over the outskirts of southern Kyiv early Friday. Witnesses filmed fiery debris falling over parts of the city. The videos appeared to show at least two surface-to-air missiles being fired near Kyiv before the explosion.

Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor, said that a rocket fragment had hit a residential building in a civilian neighborhood, injuring three people, one of them critically, according to preliminary reports. Emergency workers were on the scene, and the house was on fire and at risk of collapsing, Mr. Klitschko said.

Ukrainian officials said that Kyiv had been under such large-scale attack only once before — in 1941, when it was attacked by Nazi Germany.

“Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. “Stop Putin.”

Constant Méheut
Feb. 25, 2022, 11:03 a.m. ET

Russia’s Ukraine invasion becomes a key issue in the presidential race in France.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, left, welcoming President Emmanuel Macron of France before their talks this month in Kyiv.Credit...Pool photo by Thibault Camus

PARIS — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shifted the debate in the French presidential race, shining a spotlight on the candidates’ stances toward President Vladimir V. Putin.

Analysts said that President Emmanuel Macron’s active diplomacy in trying to avert the attack, although unsuccessful, would bolster his chances of victory at home in April’s election. Mr. Macron, who has not announced a re-election bid, has used the crisis to avoid the day-to-day domestic political fight in France and present himself as the leader of Europe, engaging in extensive discussions with President Biden, Mr. Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

“The tragic times of history are coming back,” Mr. Macron said at a news conference early Friday morning. The war in Ukraine, he added, shows that Europe “has no other choice but to become” powerful.

Mr. Macron’s chance of victory has risen to 70 percent, up from 65 percent before the Ukraine crisis, according to a study published by the Eurasia Group on Friday. The organization didn’t detail its methodology, but predicted the conflict would “freeze” the campaign or tip it in Mr. Macron’s favor.

By contrast, Russia’s invasion has put some of Mr. Macron’s fiercest rivals in a difficult position, as they struggle to shrug off a string of statements in the past excusing, or even praising, Mr. Putin’s aggressive moves toward Ukraine, such as the annexation of Crimea.

In past interviews and writings, Éric Zemmour, a far-right candidate, has said he was dreaming of a “French Putin” and argued that “Ukraine did not exist” because it was “the cradle of Russian civilization,” echoing arguments made by Mr. Putin. Marine Le Pen, another far-right contender, has never hidden her admiration for Mr. Putin, meeting him in the Kremlin in 2017 before the last presidential election that year.

But the war in Ukraine forced both candidates to make about-faces. After stating his skepticism about an invasion and blaming the “propaganda” of the U.S., Mr. Zemmour on Thursday condemned the attack “wholeheartedly.”

Both Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Zemmour, as well as candidates from the far left, have been criticized for their desire to leave NATO. The center-right party Les Républicains has been embroiled in controversy after its former leader and prime minister François Fillon, who recently entered the board of a Russian petrochemical giant run by close allies of Mr. Putin, blamed the West on Wednesday for not “taking into account Russia’s requests regarding NATO expansion.”

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Andrew Higgins
Feb. 25, 2022, 10:49 a.m. ET

Thousands of Ukrainians are crossing the border into eastern Poland.

Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik and Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

MEDYKA, Poland — Terrified by Russian bombs and missiles landing near their towns and villages, and rumors that Russian tanks would soon arrive, thousands of Ukrainians crossed into eastern Poland on Friday as a mass exodus from Ukraine gathered pace.

Poland’s border service said that 29,000 people had arrived from Ukraine on Thursday, the first day of the war. Many more made the journey across Ukraine’s western border on Friday as fears grew that Russia intended to seize the whole country, even western regions far from the fiercest fighting north of Crimea on the Black Sea and in the eastern Donbas region.

Most of those who crossed into Poland at Medyka, one of the few border posts with Ukraine that allows pedestrians as well as vehicles, were women and their children. All men between the ages of 18 and 60 are barred from leaving Ukraine by a government order aimed at keeping potential fighters inside the country to confront advancing Russian forces.

Russia’s attack has taken on such large unpredictable dimensions that even people living far from what were expected to be the main combat zones are taking flight and racing to border crossings into Poland, Hungary, Moldova and Romania.

Oxana Olekhsova, 49, said her town of Khmelnitski, in western Ukraine, had not been hit directly but bombs had fallen on a nearby military airfield. She left her husband, a retired police officer, at their home and traveled overnight by car to the Polish border. There, they joined a line of pedestrians and vehicles waiting to cross the frontier that she said now stretches for miles.

Her 11-year-old daughter shivered at her side as they waited for her son, a Polish resident, to arrive to collect them after they crossed.

An ethnic Russian, she cursed President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for causing so much suffering for the people of her adopted home in Ukraine. She said that Russian forces “will of course win eventually” because they have so many more soldiers and better equipment than Ukraine. His goal, she added, “is not just to beat Ukraine but to make the whole world afraid of him.”

In contrast to the often brutal reception Poland gave last year to migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Afghanistan, who tried to sneak across the border from Belarus, refugees arriving from Ukraine have been greeted with welcoming smiles, hot drinks and transport to the nearest railway station. Police officers handed out fruit and sandwiches to Ukrainians camped out in the waiting room.

Unlike the migrants beaten back from the border by Polish security forces last year, Ukrainians have a legal right to enter Poland and other European Union countries without visas. Nearly a million Ukrainians already live in Poland.

Lyudmilla Vitovich arrived with her two children from Lviv, a city near the Polish border that has been largely untouched by the fighting. “It is mostly calm now but nobody knows what their next target will be,” she said.

Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:48 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

Air raid sirens are sounding in Lviv, and I joined a group of local journalists in an underground pass in the city center. “Yes, I am scared,” said Vita Labych, 25, who works at a Lviv television station, NTA. “But this is a big fight for our whole history. It is our responsibility for our whole generation to destroy Russia.”

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Credit...Marc Santora/The New York Times
Marlise Simons
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:38 a.m. ET

Reporting from Paris

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, expressed “increasing concern” at the events in Ukraine and said his office was committed to holding accountable any party responsible for war crimes.

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The New York Times
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:37 a.m. ET

‘The Daily’ explores Ukrainians’ choice: Fight or flee.

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Ukrainians lining up to hand in their documents and complete medical checks to volunteer for military service in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on Thursday.Credit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the biggest in Europe since World War II. With the full-scale assault entering its second day on Friday, Ukrainians are coming to terms with the reality that the unthinkable has actually happened. A new episode of “The Daily” podcast explores the significance of this moment and speaks to Ukrainians on the ground.

The Daily Poster

Listen to ‘The Daily’: Ukrainian’s Choice: Fight or Flee?

An exploration of the significance of Russia’s invasion and the decisions Ukrainians must now make.
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0:00/42:31
-42:31

transcript

Listen to ‘The Daily’: Ukrainian’s Choice: Fight or Flee?

An exploration of the significance of Russia’s invasion and the decisions Ukrainians must now make.

sabrina tavernise

This is Sabrina Tavernise. It’s 9:15. And we just got to the railway station. And there’s a huge crowd of people standing outside. Oh, my god. Hundreds of people standing outside the railway station.

So young man in a black coat carrying a cat carrier with a cat in it. Elderly woman carrying a large red bag, struggling down the stairs.

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

tatiana

Tatiana.

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Tatiana [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Sabrina.

tatiana

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

tatiana

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[music]

sabrina tavernise

It’s 9:30 in the morning in Central Kyiv. I’m at the bus station. And it’s absolutely packed, long lines of people trying to pack onto buses. Just overheard a young man saying there are no tickets, there no tickets, I don’t know what to do.

[music]

I’m walking up to a large white bus, two large white buses. People are arguing over who gets to get on.

[interposing voices]

speaker 1

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 2

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 3

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[interposing voices]

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 1

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 3

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

The driver is saying, let’s do it without chaos, let’s do it without chaos.

speaker 3

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

Calm down. Calm down.

speaker 3

Yeah. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 1

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[interposing voices]

sabrina tavernise

People are scrambling to leave and are in shock.

[music]

Hi. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] I’m a journalist from The New York Times. Can I ask you a question?

speaker 4

Yes. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

Are you trying to leave Kyiv? What are you—

speaker 4

Yes. We are trying to reach Lviv and then Poland.

sabrina tavernise

And then Poland.

speaker 4

Yes.

sabrina tavernise

How are you feeling right now?

speaker 4

Maybe a little afraid.

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 4

Afraid of Russian—

sabrina tavernise

Yes. Yes.

speaker 4

It was too much unexpected to hear the explosions near the houses.

sabrina tavernise

Yes. Yeah.

speaker 4

We afraid.

sabrina tavernise

Yeah. What time did you guys wake up this morning to hear it?

speaker 5

We didn’t sleep. All night I didn’t sleep.

sabrina tavernise

Do you guys have a plan for Poland? Do you have a plan to the other side?

speaker 4

We expect to buy tickets to Turkey to Antalya, and live here there in Vilnius. So we wait for the end of war, and then come back.

sabrina tavernise

Just wait it out.

speaker 4

Yes. I want you to stay here, but my friends want to leave. So I think that it’s correct to go together.

sabrina tavernise

Thanks for talking to me guys.

speaker 4

Yes.

speaker 5

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

Good luck.

speaker 5

Thank you.

[interposing voices]

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

dimitri

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Sabrina [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

dimitri

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

This is Dimitri. He’s looking at a bus going to Lviv that is absolutely packed. His bus is supposed to leave at 9:00. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

dimitri

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I called my friends all around Ukraine yesterday, and everybody was intending on fighting.

dimitri

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I myself am taking my family to the village outside Lviv, and then coming back and signing up immediately for military service.

dimitri

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[music]

I think if there’s one sound of Kyiv this morning so far, just after 10 o’clock in the morning, it’s the sound of wheelie bags being dragged over cobblestones and pavement.

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

As Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine enters its second day, the people of Ukraine are starting to come to terms with the reality that the unthinkable has actually happened.

Today, my colleague Anton Troianovski explains the significance of this moment. And Sabrina Tavernise, Lynsea Garrison, and Michael Schwirtz speak to Ukrainians about the agonizing decisions that they now must make.

[music]

It’s Friday, February 25.

Anton, we are talking to you on Thursday night in Moscow. We are coming to the end of day one of this invasion. Help us wrap our heads around what’s happening and the significance of what we’re all witnessing. Because even if we’ve been hearing warnings about this for weeks, it’s hard to believe that we’re now experiencing a full scale attack on Ukraine by Russia.

anton troianovski

Yeah. It is really hard to believe. It’s the biggest attack of one nation on another nation in Europe since World War II. It is really kind of the worst case scenario of all those scenarios of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine that have been discussed. It’s something that I’ve spent just about every day writing about this crisis for the last two months or so. And honestly, even until yesterday I didn’t think that this could actually happen.

It’s Europe’s most powerful military, bearing, basically, its entire firepower, much of its firepower against the neighboring country. So since about 5:00 AM, we have seen cruise missile, ballistic missile strikes against infrastructure targets, military targets in Ukraine. Then during the day, today, we started seeing footage coming in of helicopter assaults, of paratroopers landing, of tanks rolling across the border.

And this is happening from 3 sides, from the North, Belarus, from the East, Russia, from the South, from the Black Sea in Crimea. It started, what, like 18 hours ago or so, and it’s still very hard to just wrap our heads around the magnitude of what’s happening.

michael barbaro

And what do we understand to be the end goal here at this point?

anton troianovski

Well, Putin laid it out quite clearly in his early morning speech. He said, our goal is to demilitarize and de-Nazify, in his words, Ukraine.

michael barbaro

And just explain that because—

anton troianovski

Yeah.

michael barbaro

De-nazification is not a familiar phrase in 2022.

anton troianovski

Exactly. And I mean, I will say, until recently, it hasn’t been a familiar phrase in Russia either. But the Kremlin in their propaganda they consider the democratically elected government of Ukraine a Nazi regime. They claim falsely that it has perpetrated a genocide on Russian speakers in Eastern Ukraine. And so Putin is trying to claim the moral high ground here.

He is saying he’s going in to remove this evil regime. And what that means is this is a full scale military assault to topple the government, most likely, of another country. This is just a massive undertaking that we’re only seeing the beginnings of.

michael barbaro

So we’re talking about a sovereign nation in Europe being attacked by another European nation. And its democratically elected leadership being, by what you just described, deposed. And these are developments that are unheard of in modern Europe. So how should we think about that?

anton troianovski

Yeah. I think it’s really the end of a certain post-Cold War order in Europe. It’s the end of 30 years of Russia trying to find a place in that kind of Western led order. It’s the end of 20 years of Putin trying to use diplomacy as well as his kind of hybrid warfare tactics to try to further his interests in Europe. That’s all gone now.

We’re in a new reality now, where Russia is showing it is prepared to fight a large land war in Europe to achieve what it describes to be its aims. It’s just a totally different world that we’re in now.

michael barbaro

Well, so let’s talk about the consequences of that for all involved.

anton troianovski

Yeah. I mean, I would break it up into a few different parts, the consequences for Ukraine, for Russia, for Europe, and the U.S., and the rest of the world. So starting with Ukraine. This is just the beginning, I fear. If this continues, if this continues the way we think it’s going to, to Putin pursuing regime change, it could get much more bloody. So we don’t know yet what happens to the cities.

There is a fight for territory going on in Eastern Ukraine, where those separatist regions are. But the big question is, will they go into Kyiv?

michael barbaro

Right.

anton troianovski

Very scarily, it looks like they may well.

michael barbaro

OK. So what about Russia, where you are based? What are the consequences you are seeing and expecting there?

anton troianovski

Well, so people are expecting a new crackdown on civil liberties, on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, even on business. The reason being that whenever we’ve had crackdowns here in Russia, the justification has always been that the Kremlin is hunting down internal enemies, who are serving some kind of foreign agenda to destabilize the country. So that’s certainly one thing to watch over the coming days and weeks is how much of an additional crackdown is there.

protesters

[CHANTING]

anton troianovski

Tonight, we had pretty significant anti-war protests—

protesters

[CHANTING]

anton troianovski

—in Moscow, and St. Petersburg, and in a number of cities in Siberia all told several thousand people were in the streets and there were more than 1,500 arrests. So—

michael barbaro

Wow.

anton troianovski

—one thing that’s very important to point out is, there has been next to no outpouring of support for this. And there is a lot of anger, disbelief, fear to see your country inflicting so much suffering on a neighboring country is awful, and this narrative for why it was necessary to do it. It really does fall apart quite quickly upon inspection. Why— How does Ukraine actually threaten Russia?

Can it really be true that the Ukrainians were planning an invasion of these pro-Russian separatist areas in the East just as 150,000 plus troops were surrounding Ukraine on three sides? There’s just so much in the Kremlin propaganda narrative that doesn’t hold up, that I think a lot of people aren’t buying that story.

michael barbaro

OK. Finally, let’s talk about the consequences for the United States and for the rest of the world.

anton troianovski

So President Biden and the E.U. announced major sanctions today against Russia. And Russia has promised to respond potentially asymmetrically. So we might not see sanctions by Russia against the U.S., but we might see Russia take other actions that could cause harm and pain in the U.S. And they’re— We can really only speculate what that would be. Some folks are talking about the potential for cyber attacks here in Moscow.

There’s been a lot of talk that Russia could base missiles or other military assets in Latin America, to more directly threaten the United States. Russia, obviously, is one of the world’s biggest energy suppliers, especially to Europe. If it were to turn that spigot, that could cause incredible problems for Europeans. So there is so much uncertainty here still, not just in Ukraine, not just in Russia, but really about how this crisis plays out and what it means for the rest of the world.

michael barbaro

And Anton, as you’re preparing to sign-off for the night, I want to return to Ukraine and where this situation leaves its people at this moment.

anton troianovski

I mean, it’s a horrible situation. These are people who— I think there was so little expectation that Russia could actually go ahead with this kind of invasion. And now they are making choices they would never thought they would have to make. Do they stay in Kyiv? Do they try to flee West? Do they try to get out of the country? Do you sleep in the basement? It’s really an unimaginable situation for millions and millions of people right now.

[music]

michael barbaro

Well, Anton, thank you. We’ll talk again soon. Stay safe.

anton troianovski

Thank you.

[music]

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

[music]

All day yesterday, my colleagues in Ukraine and back in the U.S. we’re speaking with Ukrainians around the country about their experiences of the past 24 hours.

denis surkov

Hello.

lynsea garrison

Hi. How are you?

denis surkov

Hi, Lynsey.

Not good.

lynsea garrison

Not good.

denis surkov

It’s not the same.

michael barbaro

Lynsea Garrison got on the phone with Denis Surkov, who lives in a city called Dnipro in Eastern Ukraine.

denis surkov

I am doctor, Chief of Dnipro Regional Children’s Hospital.

lynsea garrison

You’re a doctor at Dnipro Regional Children’s Hospital.

denis surkov

Yep.

lynsea garrison

OK.

denis surkov

And I am Chief of NICU and I.C.U.

lynsea garrison

Chief of NICU?

denis surkov

Exactly.

lynsea garrison

Got it. Can you just tell me a little bit about what the past 24 hours have been like for you?

denis surkov

So in the morning, we wake up and we have heard, first, rocket explosions near Dnipro Airport. So I was in my hospital. We were nervous. We were confused. Everybody was near their laptops or iPhones.

lynsea garrison

Yeah.

denis surkov

And checked the news. And the news were and are dramatic.

lynsea garrison

Dramatic.

How were you understanding this? Did you think that this would happen?

denis surkov

Honestly, no. We were expected for the beginning of the attack, but we didn’t know that it could be so, so fast, so right now.

And now, the borders between Ukrainian regions are closed. We had some possibilities and some efforts to go last week.

lynsea garrison

OK.

denis surkov

I can’t explain, but something stopped us. We hoped that finally everything will resolve. But now, honestly, I don’t know exactly what to do.

lynsea garrison

What do you think stopped you?

denis surkov

My family didn’t want to leave Ukraine because we love Ukraine, and we wanted to live here happy and in peace, and so on. So I said, OK, maybe everything will be not so bad. Let’s wait. So my main question for myself is, if I made a very, very big mistake not to move from Ukraine when I had an opportunity to do this.

lynsea garrison

That’s a heavy question.

denis surkov

Yes.

If there was a big mistake or not so big, and I have no answer. I can ask you, do you want to wake up in the morning and understand you should go forever, not for one day, not for two days, forever? Can you make such a decision in— I don’t know, in 10 minutes? My question to you.

lynsea garrison

Yeah.

denis surkov

To bring just a bit of water, just a bit of food, single cloth, documents, money, and go outside your home forever, can you make such a decision?

Just imagine.

lynsea garrison

Yeah.

denis surkov

So this was my family feeling last week. Even though yesterday in the evening, I told to my wife that this is the last calm day we can evacuate. In the morning, we realized that war came to Ukraine, not conflict, not disturbs, war, conventional war.

lynsea garrison

What are your children asking you? Like, how are you talking about this with them?

denis surkov

I say to my children, everything will be OK, your father will care about you.

lynsea garrison

How old are they?

denis surkov

My elder daughter is 30 and she lives abroad. And my younger daughter, she is 14. She’s with me.

lynsea garrison

How is she doing?

denis surkov

She believed me.

lynsea garrison

That you’ll protect her? And how does that make you feel that she believes you?

denis surkov

I will do all I can to protect her.

I don’t know exactly what, but I will do everything, everything can.

lynsea garrison

Are you worried it won’t be enough?

denis surkov

I am worried.

Everything could be changed, I don’t know, next few hours or even next few maybe minutes.

[music]

sabrina tavernise

It’s 3 o’clock and I’m getting out of the gas station.

So I’m looking at this line, I’d say it’s maybe 30-40 cars long.

speaker 7

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 8

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 7

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

Everybody is limited now. You can only get 20 liters of gas.

speaker 7

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 9

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I’m walking up to an ambulance that’s waiting in line for gas. The ambulance is being ushered ahead. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 7

Ya.

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 7

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

The man who’s managing here says he’s too busy. He’s running, trying to usher the ambulance to the front of the line. I’m going to talk to another person. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Sabrina [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] The New York Times [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

varari

Varari.

sabrina tavernise

This is Varari. Varari, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I hear— I’m hearing on the radio now that they’re bombing us. I live in this area that they’re bombing.

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

No one believed it. No one believed that they would act toward us this way. We were brothers. We’re neighboring countries. We’re brothers. No one believed it.

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I feel— I have this feeling of nervousness, of anxiousness.

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I’m calling with my loved ones, my mother.

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

He said, she’s an elderly person, she doesn’t see very well, and she does not hear very well. So it’s very difficult for her, she’s not understanding what’s happening.

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

So, so far, I’m going to hunker down in place, but I’m getting as much gas as I can because I might need to make it to my mom’s.

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I bought some food.

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I got all my phones, passports, documents.

varari

Yes.

sabrina tavernise

I bought—

varari

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

—vermicelli bread, milk, and dill, and sour cream.

I’m going to talk to another person.

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

ura

Ura.

sabrina tavernise

Ura. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Ura. I’m taking to Ura, who’s getting some gas. He says he does not plan to leave.

ura

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I’m a little shocked—

ura

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

—that Russia attacked Ukraine. It’s so bad.

ura

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

We’re going to defend our country to the last drop of blood.

[music]

ura

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

Tomorrow I’m going to sign up for a territorial defense force. And I’m going to defend my country.

ura

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[music]

sabrina tavernise

It’s 3:30 and we’re driving in Central Kyiv, and this is just a closed town right now.

The day is still very gray. The sky is very low. Feels sort of raw, and cold, and wet.

The air has a kind of bitter smell of ordinance. It’s the smell of the air after an air strike.

Someone carrying a gun and some body armor down the street. A very sweet little bakery, I’m going to come in.

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

Yeah. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] The New York Times.

speaker 10

Yeah.

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Sabrina. Yeah. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] I’m saying I’m a journalist from The New York Times and I would like sweets, but also her opinion. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

Today, there’s panic, people are panicking very strongly.

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

You can see that they’ve bought me a lot of bread.

So I’m doing a bit of panic buying myself, two large bags of cookies, three candy bars, 10 quiches, and a bunch of almond croissants.

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] I’m asking her if she plans to leave. No, I don’t plan to leave.

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I really don’t have a place to leave to.

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I’m here.

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I have my home here.

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

I think everything will be OK.

[MUSIC]

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

Today is the hardest day. I think tomorrow might be easier.

[music]

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 10

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[music]

sabrina tavernise

OK. Back to the hotel.

Everything is closed now. It’s almost as if it was nighttime. A few cars are still going by, but almost no pedestrians. It’s very central. The street is just completely deserted.

[music]

It does feel ominous.

michael schwirtz

Day one of the war it’s been a very long day. The town I’m in, Slovyansk, kind of continued on as normal. There were bits of panic that could be evident. There were lines at the A.T.M.s. And people were stocking up on medications. But overall, the mood was pretty calm and collected, probably because these people have been through this before, the town came under heavy attack in 2014 when Ukrainian forces clashed with Russian backed rebels who had come in from the East.

And so when I’m walking around town, people are telling me that this is just part of their lives. Very few people I met around town today said that they had any intention of leaving even though rocket attacks hit an airport nearby and Russian forces were fighting with the Ukrainian military just a few dozen kilometers away.

lera alekseevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

lera alekseevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

I met a woman named Lera Alekseevna, who was in the courtyard near my hotel. Oh, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

lera alekseevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

And she had stuffed her pet hairless cat in her jacket and it was shivering.

lera alekseevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] And she was telling me how she was planning on going to work at a company that sells cash registers and bringing her animals with her, so that they wouldn’t have to be alone. So if she had to make a quick dash for it, she could be with her animals. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

lera alekseevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

But she said she had no intention of leaving, mostly out of fear that she would be forced to leave behind her pets. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

lera alekseevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

Outside a blood bank in Slovyansk, I met a young man named Bogdan Kravchenko,

[non-english singing]

who was just sitting in his car listening to the Ukrainian national anthem cranked up on high volume.

bogdan kravchenko

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] He had just gone and donated blood. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

bogdan kravchenko

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

And he said he wasn’t panicked, but he said that he was acting according to the situation and that things had only just begun.

bogdan kravchenko

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] I walked up to a base of the National Guard Unit here in Slovyansk. And out front there were a few couples, men dressed in drab green uniforms, and women— all of them were being sent off. The men, they were all being sent off somewhere. Some of them said they couldn’t tell me where they were being sent. Some of them admitted that they didn’t even know. I met one couple, Yelena and Eugenia.

Yelena had brought Eugenia, her husband, some clothes that he was going to take with him on his deployment wherever he was headed. Another couple just held each other for what seemed like 15, 20, 30 minutes, just held each other on the street in the sun ahead of whatever deployment this young man was being sent on.

speaker 11

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 12

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

You both [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 11

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 11

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 11

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] And then, I met Lyubov Vasilyevna, a 75-year-old pensioner, she was carrying a bag filled with newly purchased loaves of bread. And she said she had spent her last bit of cash on. And was waiting in line at an A.T.M., it would appear that there was no cash left.

lyubov vasilyevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

All she wanted, she said, was to live in peace in her native Donbass, which is what this Eastern region is called.

lyubov vasilavna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

And then, she paused and recited a poem that she said she wrote 2 years ago. It was supposed to be evocative, the piece that she was looking for.

lyubov vasilyevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

And I’ll read that poem that I translated from the Russian into English. I’m so looking forward to peace, but it is coming to us so slowly.

lyubov vasilyevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

We still have a little patience. Peace is close at hand, and we’re waiting for it to arrive without gunfire, without blood. Enough has been spilled in Donbass.

lyubov vasilyevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

Let the sun smile, and the sky brighten, and the children smile. Let it go in a black moment. There will be peace for all. And people will say, god hurt us.

lyubov vasilyevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

Let all stormy skies leave us.

lyubov vasilyevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] Donbass [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

And hail Donbass and the city of Slovyansk.

lyubov vasilyevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

lyubov vasilyevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael schwirtz

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

lyubov vasilyevna

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[music]

sabrina tavernise

It’s 11:30 AM on Friday in Kyiv.

Last night, in the city there were a lot of airstrikes and it seems like they’re getting closer. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

speaker 13

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

sabrina tavernise

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

[music]

The airstrikes are beginning again. You can hear the siren. We’re trying to decide whether to leave.

Our colleagues, a few of them drove out this morning because it’s really unclear what’s going to happen. Will there be a big fight with the Ukrainian military? Or will the Russians just come in? What will happen if they take the city? And it seems like that is imminent.

So we’re trying to make arrangements. Our hotel doesn’t have a generator, which means we would be out of power if the power gets cut off in the city, which is a pretty good chance.

Yeah. We’re trying to figure it out.

I guess, like a lot of people here, we’re trying to make that decision. Should we leave or should we stay?

michael barbaro

As of Friday afternoon in Kyiv, Ukrainian officials were bracing for an attack on the capital city as Russia’s military offenses pressed closer to the heart of the government.

volodymyr zelensky

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael barbaro

In a televised address, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that at least 137 Ukrainians, military and civilians, had already been killed. And he called on Ukrainians to defend themselves against Russian forces, saying that nobody else would come to their rescue.

volodymyr zelensky

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael barbaro

Zelensky, who was unshaven and in a t-shirt said that he himself was now Russia’s number one target. Followed, he said, by his own family.

[music]

We’ll be right back.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

On Thursday, three former Minneapolis police officers were found guilty of federal crimes for failing to intervene as a fellow officer, Derek Chauvin, killed George Floyd by pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes. The case is believed to be the first time that the federal government has charged police officers for inaction when a more senior officer was using excessive force.

Two of the officers were rookies at the time of Floyd’s death, but the jury rejected their defense that they had been trained to obey superior officers, like Chauvin, and to carry out orders without question.

Today’s episode was produced by Rob Szypko, Rachelle Bonja, Lynsea Garrison, Rachel Quester, Kaitlin Roberts and Clare Toeniskoetter. It was edited by Lisa Tobin and Lisa Chow. Contains original music by Dan Powell and Marion Lozano, and was engineered by Corey Schreppel. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landfurg of Wonderlake.

The Daily is made by Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Austin Mitchell, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Robert Jimison, Michael Benoist, Liz O’Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Kaitlin Roberts, Rachelle Bonjour, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Anita Badejo, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Chelsea Daniel, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsy, and John Ketchum.

Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchuman, Cliff Levy, Lauren Jackson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Sofia Milan, Des Ibekwe, Erica Futterman, Wendy Dorr, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, and Daniel Friedman. That’s it for The Daily. I’m Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday.

Monika Pronczuk
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:32 a.m. ET

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, wrote Friday on Twitter that he had spoken with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and expressed his support for the Ukrainian people. “The senseless suffering and loss of civilian life must stop,” he tweeted. “Second wave of sanctions with massive and severe consequences politically agreed last night. Further package under urgent preparation.”

Anton Troianovski
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:26 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, dismissed Ukraine’s offer to negotiate. He said at a news conference in Moscow that President Volodymyr Zelensky was “lying” in saying he was ready to discuss a neutral status for Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.

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Credit...Pool photo by Maxim Shemetov

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Michael Schwirtz
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:25 a.m. ET

Reporting from Ukraine

We just arrived in Kharkiv, where a large rocket landed right in the middle of the street and failed to detonate near the National Guard academy. The long, silver rocket was sticking out of the asphalt as soldiers ran around throwing on body armor and cocking automatic weapons. It was unclear if anyone was injured, and we were told to leave the area immediately.

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Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Christopher F. Schuetze
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:20 a.m. ET

Reporting from Berlin

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who during her tenure favored strong ties with Russia, said on Friday that she fully supported economic sanctions against Moscow to end the “war of aggression by Russia and President Putin.”

“There is no justification whatsoever for this blatant breach of international law, and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” Ms. Merkel told the German wire service DPA, in her first public comments about the invasion of Ukraine.

Megan Specia
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:16 a.m. ET

U.K. intelligence says Russia fell short of its military goals on Day 1.

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Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, said on Friday that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had so far failed to meet his objectives in Ukraine.Credit...Andy Rain/EPA, via Shutterstock

LONDON — Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, said on Friday that the verified assessment of his country’s intelligence services was that Russian forces “hadn’t achieved their goals so far” and had failed to meet any of their objectives in the first day of their invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Wallace, speaking to the BBC on Friday morning, said President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had so far failed in an attempt to take a key airport north of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Russian forces also lost approximately 450 troops and a significant number of tanks, and have so far not broken through the line of control in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, he said.

“Putin had in his mind and in his articles and speeches that somehow Ukrainians were waiting to be liberated by the great czar, and that he would turn up in Ukraine and they would all cheer him,” Mr. Wallace said. “Of course we all saw that’s not true.”

He added that while Ukrainians were bravely standing up for their values, Mr. Putin had also grossly miscalculated the support he would receive at home.

“It shows how out of touch with his own people he is,” Mr. Wallace said, pointing to antiwar protests in several Russian cities.

Mr. Wallace repeated that he had no intention of ordering British forces into a ground battle in Ukraine, despite what he called Russia’s “naked military aggression.”

“I said very clearly about a month ago that we are not going to be sending British troops to fight directly with Russian troops,” he said.

Instead, Mr. Wallace again emphasized the new sanctions imposed by Britain, which include a ban on Russia’s Aeroflot flights. Russia retaliated against those actions on Friday morning by banning British flights from its own airspace.

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Abdi Latif Dahir
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:16 a.m. ET

‘We are really terrified’: African students are stranded by the war in Ukraine.

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The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Friday.Credit...Daniel Leal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

NAIROBI, Kenya — African citizens remained stranded across Ukraine on Friday, even as their governments called for an immediate cease-fire, urging Russia to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and to withdraw its troops.

The rapidly escalating conflict is trapping thousands of African nationals in multiple cities, many of them medicine and science students at Ukrainian universities. As Russia began shelling Ukrainian towns and cities on Thursday, many of the students took to social media to share their fears and frustrations and plead for help from their governments.

“We are really terrified,” Mohamed Abdi Gutale, a Somali citizen who is a first-year medicine student at Kyiv Medical University, said in a telephone interview on Friday morning.

Just hours before, Mr. Gutale said, he and 168 other Somali nationals were able to secure buses to transport them from Kyiv, the capital, to Lviv in western Ukraine. He said they didn’t know what their next plans were, “but we will decide what to do once we get there.”

Russia has staunch allies across Africa, with Russian mercenaries battling insurgents in Mali, its companies mining for diamonds in the Central African Republic and its weapons finding ready customers in Egypt and Burkina Faso. In 2019, Russia convened a summit of African leaders in the southwestern Russian city of Sochi as part of its ambition to revive its economic, political and military influence in the continent.

But no African nation has come out to support the invasion of Ukraine, and some have expressed their dismay at the Russian attack.

On Thursday, the chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and President Macky Sall of Senegal called on Russia “and any other regional or international actor to imperatively respect international law, the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Ukraine.”

South Africa, which is part of the group of five emerging economic powers known as BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — also urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.

“Armed conflict will no doubt result in human suffering and destruction, the effects of which will not only affect Ukraine but also reverberate across the world,” South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement. “No country is immune to the effects of this conflict.”

In the lead-up to Russian invasion this week, Gabon, Ghana and Kenya, which are current nonpermanent members of the United Nations Security Council, also expressed their concerns and denounced the dangers of using force to change borders.

“The conflict will cause reputational damage to Russia,” said Murithi Mutiga, the Africa program director at the International Crisis Group. “Many on the African continent cheered Moscow’s vocal opposition to American-led wars in Iraq and Libya and now Russia will come across as the aggressor in a war of choice against a less powerful neighbor.”

As the crisis unfolded this week, however, one African leader headed to Russia. Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, Sudan’s second most powerful man, on Thursday met with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, as part of a trip aimed at improving diplomatic and economic ties. General Hamdan, also known as Hemeti, was among the generals who carried out a coup in October that derailed Sudan’s democratic aspirations.

As the war began on Thursday, African governments scrambled to respond to citizens’ pleas for evacuation. Abdisaid M. Ali, Somalia’s foreign minister, said in an interview that his office had contacted countries such as Poland in an effort to provide legal entry to about 300 Somalis. Francisca K. Omayuli, a spokeswoman for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement that it would evacuate its citizens once airports were reopened.

Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 5:15 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

In Lviv, Ukraine, about 1,000 volunteers enlisted the day the war started, and the numbers are growing. Conscription of fighting-age men will start with those with previous service records. Under martial law, no man aged 18 to 60 is allowed to leave the country.

Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 4:31 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

A Ukrainian soldier who was going off to fight on Friday said he was not afraid to die. “The war has been going on for more than eight years, and how much more will be, no one knows,” he wrote in a message translated by the Telegram app as he showed me his smartphone in the Lviv train station. “But the Ukrainian people will remain free!”

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Sui-Lee Wee
Feb. 25, 2022, 4:31 a.m. ET

Reporting from Singapore

Vietnam said it was “extremely concerned about the armed conflict in Ukraine.” Vietnam has very close ties to Russia, which is Hanoi’s top supplier of weapons.

Tariq Panja
Feb. 25, 2022, 4:22 a.m. ET

The Champions League final will be played in Paris, not Russia.

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A banner advertising the Champions League final at the Krestovsky stadium.Credit...Anatoly Maltsev/EPA, via Shutterstock

Follow live updates of the UEFA Champions League final.

European soccer’s governing body on Friday voted to move this season’s Champions League final, the showcase game on the continent’s sporting calendar, to Paris as punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The game, on May 28, had been scheduled to be played in St. Petersburg, in a stadium built for 2018 World Cup and financed by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, a major sponsor of the governing body, UEFA. It will take place instead at the Stade de France, in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. It will be the first time France has hosted the final since 2006.

UEFA said it had made the decision as a result of “the grave escalation of the security situation in Europe.”

UEFA also said it would relocate any games in tournaments it controls that were to be played in Russia and Ukraine, whether involving clubs or national teams, “until further notice.”

At the moment, that affects only a single club match: Spartak Moscow’s next home game in the second-tier Europa League. But UEFA’s move to punish Russia will put new pressure on world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, to move a World Cup qualifying match set for Moscow next month.

On Thursday the soccer federations from Poland, Czech Republic and Sweden wrote to FIFA calling for Russia to be banned from hosting playoff games for the 2022 World Cup that are scheduled for next month. Poland is scheduled to play Russia in Moscow on March 24. If Russia wins that game, it would host the winner of the game between the Czechs and Sweden in a match to decide one of Europe’s final places in the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

“The military escalation that we are observing entails serious consequences and considerably lower safety for our national football teams and official delegations,” the federations wrote in a joint statement. They called on FIFA — which has authority over the games — and UEFA to immediately present “alternative solutions” for sites that were not on Russian soil.

Russia’s soccer federation, known as the R.F.U., reacted angrily to the decision to move any matches.

“We believe that the decision to move the venue of the Champions League final was dictated by political reasons,” said the federation’s president, Alexander Dyukov. “The R.F.U. has always adhered to the principle of ‘sport is out of politics,’ and thus cannot support this decision.”

“The R.F.U. also does not support the decision to transfer any matches involving Russian teams to neutral territory as violating the sports principle and infringing on the interests of players, coaches and fans.”

Dyukov is also the chief executive of Gazprom and the president of the Russian team Zenit-St. Petersburg.

UEFA had in recent days been lobbied extensively privately and publicly by British officials about moving the Champions League final to London. That idea was quickly rejected, however, for logistical reasons as well as unease about the game’s becoming a political tool for British lawmakers who have often used soccer to score points at home and abroad. Britain’s foreign secretary, for example, this week suggested British teams that should boycott the game if they qualified and it was not moved out of Russia.

Paris emerged as the top candidate to replace St. Petersburg because it had not hosted the game since 2006 and because France currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, one of the bloc’s key decision-making bodies.

The UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin, traveled to the French capital on Thursday to meet with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, to finalize the agreement.

It will be the third straight year the Champions League final has had to be relocated, with the two most recent editions shifted to Portugal because of coronavirus concerns.

The final in Paris also will be the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus that the game will be played in a full stadium. The 2020 final was played without spectators as part of a so-called bubble environment created to finish the competition’s remaining games, while last year restrictions meant only a quarter of the Dragão stadium in Porto was allowed to be populated.

Ivan Nechepurenko
Feb. 25, 2022, 4:17 a.m. ET

Reporting from Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said that since Thursday morning, Russian forces had destroyed 118 military facilities in Ukraine, including 11 military airfields and 13 surface-to-air missile systems. He added that Russia had downed five Ukrainian military planes, one helicopter and five drones, and that more than 150 Ukrainian service members had given up arms.

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Anton Troianovski
Feb. 25, 2022, 4:02 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Russia announced its first response to Western sanctions: British planes will be banned from flying to Russia or crossing its airspace, which could affect flights from London to Asia. Britain this week banned the Russian national airline Aeroflot.

Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 4:00 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

At the Lviv train station, Anton, a resident of Dnipro, said he had decided to move west after a rocket attack struck a military installation near where he lives. Asked the worst case for how things might go from here, he said, “Nuclear war.” Asked for the best-case scenario, he said, “Putin dies.”

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Credit...Marc Santora/The New York Times
Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 3:50 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, in a post on its official Facebook page, warned residents in a district in northern Kyiv of fighting with Russian forces nearby, telling them to stay home and prepare Molotov cocktails.

Stephen Castle
Feb. 25, 2022, 3:48 a.m. ET

Reporting from London

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain spoke to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Friday morning. He told him that “the world is united in its horror” at the Russian aggression, paid tribute to the “bravery and heroism of the Ukrainian people,” and “committed to provide further U.K. support to Ukraine,” Downing Street said in a statement.

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Credit...Andy Rain/EPA, via Shutterstock

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John Yoon
Feb. 25, 2022, 3:22 a.m. ET

South Korea, which exports semiconductors, automobiles and electronics to Russia, is bracing for any economic slowdown resulting from the international sanctions being placed against Russia. South Korea’s financial authorities said they are reserving up to 2 trillion won, or $1.7 billion, in emergency funds to support its companies. The Korean government has not specified what sanctions it will place upon Russia.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff
Feb. 25, 2022, 3:15 a.m. ET

The Taliban on Friday issued its first response to the turmoil in Ukraine, calling on “both sides of the conflict to resolve the crisis through dialogue and peaceful means.” The statement, posted on Twitter by the group’s spokesman, Mohammad Naeem, also asked Ukraine and Russia to safeguard “the lives of Afghan students and migrants in Ukraine.” After the collapse of Afghanistan’s Western-backed government in August, the Ukrainian military evacuated nearly 100 Afghans to Kyiv.

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Credit...Thomas Gibbons-Neff for The New York Times
Amy Qin
Feb. 25, 2022, 3:06 a.m. ET

Reporting from Taipei, Taiwan

Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, called on Friday for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries to be respected while also acknowledging Ukraine’s “complex” history and Russia’s “legitimate” security concerns. At a regular news briefing, he echoed almost word-for-word what Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, told his Russian counterpart in a telephone call on Thursday.

The New York Times
Feb. 25, 2022, 3:04 a.m. ET

In pictures: A capital under attack.

Ukrainian defense officials said Friday morning that multiple missile strikes had hit Kyiv, but the targets and the damage inflicted remained unclear. “They say that civilian objects are not a target for them,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the Russian assault. “It is a lie, they do not distinguish in which areas to operate.”

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Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 3:00 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

As air raids blare in Lviv, anxiety builds.

LVIV, Ukraine — In Lviv on Friday, air-raid sirens sounded repeatedly, sending waves of anxiety through the city.

After a second alarm in the morning, the hotel staff at the Citadel Inn grew nervous. They said that there was a bomb shelter under the hotel, which started as an imposing and solid fort built in 1865 to look down over the city.

Staff and guests went outside first and talked nervously, then decided to go into the basement, hoping that walls that have stood for over 150 years would protect them from any Russian bombs.

A father ran back to his room to get blankets for his daughter. A woman carried a small dog.

The hotel is like a stone fortress. But many guests, including small children, were huddled in a tiny room in the basement.

Sui-Lee Wee
Feb. 25, 2022, 2:55 a.m. ET

Reporting from Singapore

Myanmar’s military junta backs Russia. Its shadow government disagrees.

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“Russia has done its part to maintain its sovereignty, and I think it is the right thing to do,” said Myanmar’s military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun.Credit...Thar Byaw/Reuters

Myanmar’s military junta expressed support on Friday for Russia’s attack on Ukraine, even as a group of officials from Myanmar’s shadow civilian government took the opposite position.

“In the case of Russia and Ukraine, Russia has done its part to maintain its sovereignty, and I think it is the right thing to do,” the spokesman for the junta, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, told The New York Times by telephone. “Russia is also a big country among world powers and is showing that it also plays a main role in the balance sheet of maintaining world peace.”

Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of the National Unity Government in Myanmar, said on Twitter that those in the government “strongly condemn the unprovoked attack on Ukraine that undermines the UN charter and international law.”

“We pray for the people of Ukraine as they face catastrophic suffering from this unjustified invasion,” he wrote.

The National Unity Government is made up of a group of deposed officials who banded together after generals in Myanmar seized power in a coup in February 2021.

Since the coup, the generals have cultivated closer ties with Moscow. Russia is a major supplier of arms to the junta, and senior military officers from each country visited their counterparts several times last year. In June, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of Myanmar’s junta, traveled to Russia to meet with the country’s defense minister.

The junta is also courting Russia to invest in sectors like fuel, natural gas, cement and electric public transit in Myanmar.

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Amy Qin
Feb. 25, 2022, 2:39 a.m. ET

Reporting from Taipei, Taiwan

Ukrainian troops killed on Snake Island to be honored.

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Credit...Ukraine presidency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A small contingent of Ukrainian border guards defending Snake Island, a remote outpost in the Black Sea, were among the 137 civilians and military personnel killed in Thursday’s attacks, according to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

“All border guards died heroically but did not give up,” Mr. Zelensky said in a short video message posted just after midnight on Friday. He added that the guards would be posthumously awarded the title of “Hero of Ukraine.”

Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, is 30 miles off the coast of Ukraine and less than one-tenth of a square mile in area. The island grew in importance for Ukraine’s maritime territorial claims after nearby Crimea was seized by Russia in 2014.

In an audio clip circulating online, an approaching Russian warship ordered Ukrainian guards on the island to “lay down arms and surrender.” The guards on the island rejected the demand, using an expletive.

Motoko Rich
Feb. 25, 2022, 2:22 a.m. ET

The Ukrainian ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky, said in Tokyo on Friday that his country “would very much welcome if China will exercise its connection with Russia and talk to Putin and to explain to him, this is kind of inappropriate in the 21st century to do this massacre in Europe.” Mr. Korsunsky noted that China was Ukraine’s largest trading partner, with China buying $17 billion in coal, food and other products last year.

Amy Qin
Feb. 25, 2022, 2:22 a.m. ET

Reporting from Taipei, Taiwan

The actor and filmmaker Sean Penn is in Kyiv to make a documentary about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a post released through the official Facebook account of Ukraine’s Office of the President. “Our country is grateful to him for such a show of courage and honesty,” the office said.

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Motoko Rich
Feb. 25, 2022, 1:46 a.m. ET

Mikhail Yurievich Galuzin, Russia’s ambassador to Japan, said there would be a “serious” response by Russia after Japan announced further sanctions earlier Friday, though he declined to specify any details. Japan’s sanctions, he said, were “counterproductive” and could potentially affect “our dialogue around a very very broad agenda” including any agreement on disputed islands that Russia calls the Southern Kuril Islands and Japan calls the Northern Territories.

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Credit...Behrouz Mehri/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 1:38 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

Ukrainian defense officials said Friday morning that multiple missile strikes had hit Kyiv, but the targets and the damage inflicted remained unclear. “The first days are the most difficult, because right now the enemy will feel it has the advantage, or will be broken physically and morally,” Hanna Malyar, the deputy defense minister, said before calling on people to join a general mobilization. “It is important that everyone is strong in spirit. This is our land. We will not hand it over.”

Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 1:36 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, accused Russia of targeting civilian areas with rocket attacks on Friday morning, including in the capital, Kyiv. “They say that civilian objects are not a target for them,” he said in a televised address. “It is a lie, they do not distinguish in which areas to operate.”

Zelensky said that “in most directions the enemy was stopped, the fighting continues. The purpose of this attack is pressure, not only on the government, but on all Ukrainians.”

Emily Schmall
Feb. 25, 2022, 1:34 a.m. ET

India is resisting calls to condemn Russia.

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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meeting with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in Melbourne, Australia, this month.Credit...Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

NEW DELHI — India has so far resisted entreaties from the United States and Ukraine to join the international condemnation of Russia, its most important source of military supplies.

As U.S. foreign policy has shifted its focus toward Asia, ties with India have deepened, particularly through the four-country coalition known as the Quad, which also includes Japan and Australia. Yet the Quad has not yet proven to be a bulwark against incursions by Chinese soldiers on India’s eastern border.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he appealed in a call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday for a “cessation of violence” but fell short of condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Mr. Modi and other Indian officials have said their priority is the safe evacuation of about 16,000 Indian nationals, including thousands of students, who were stranded in Ukraine. India also appears to be waiting to see how the toll of sanctions will affect its relationship with Russia, from whom it bought a missile defense system late last year.

Late Thursday, President Biden said the White House was seeking to resolve India’s stance on Russia. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in a statement that he “stressed the importance of a strong collective response to condemn Russia’s invasion” in a call with India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

On Friday a spokesman for the Modi government on Twitter mocked the United States’ appeal for help, citing the U.S. push for U.N. intervention after India demoted Kashmir from a state to a territory in 2019.

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Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 12:43 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

For a second time this morning, sirens have wailed in Lviv, and people are growing increasingly anxious. A father ran back to his room to get blankets for his daughter. A woman carried a small dog. They went outside first and talked nervously, then decided to go into the basement of the fort, hoping that walls that have stood for over 150 years would protect them from Russian bombs.

Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 12:32 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

When a second air raid alarm in Lviv sounded this morning, the hotel staff at the Citadel Inn grew nervous. They said that there was a bomb shelter under the hotel, which started as an imposing and solid fort built in 1865 to look down on the city.

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Credit...Marc Santora/The New York times
Marc SantoraAmy Qin
Feb. 25, 2022, 12:27 a.m. ET

Leaders try to reassure Ukrainians that they will stand strong.

Ukrainian officials on Friday braced for an attack on the capital, Kyiv, as an explosion lit up the night sky on the city’s outskirts and a rocket crashed into a civilian apartment building.

Ukrainian officials said there were multiple missile strikes in Kyiv, but the targets and the damage remained unclear.

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of targeting civilian areas with rocket attacks on Friday morning, including in Kyiv.

“They say that civilian objects are not a target for them,” he said in a televised address. “It is a lie. They do not distinguish in which areas to operate.”

He said that rocket attacks had resumed around 4 a.m. and claimed that “in most directions the enemy was stopped, the fighting continues.”

“The purpose of this attack is pressure, not only on the government, but on all Ukrainians,” he said.

As Russian troops advanced on Kyiv, officials tried to reassure Ukrainians that the government would stand strong.

“The first days are the most difficult, because right now the enemy will feel it has the advantage, or will be broken physically and morally,” Hanna Malyar, the deputy minister of defense, said on Friday morning, before calling on people to join the general mobilization.

“It is important that everyone is strong in spirit,” Ms. Malyar said. “This is our land. We will not hand it over.”

Officials fear a major attack on the city of 2.8 million people.

“Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv,” the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote on Twitter. He said the last time the capital had experienced something similar was in 1941, when it was attacked by Nazi Germany.

“Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one. Stop Putin,” Mr. Kuleba said, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Videos verified by The Times showed a large explosion in the sky over the outskirts of southern Kyiv. Witnesses filmed fiery debris falling over parts of the city. The videos appeared to show at least two surface-to-air missiles being fired near Kyiv before the explosion.

Separately, a rocket struck a civilian building in a residential neighborhood, according to Ukrainian officials.

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said on Twitter that according to preliminary reports, three people were injured, one of them critically, when a residential building was hit by debris. He said emergency workers were on the scene and that the house was on fire and at risk of collapsing.

Mr. Klitschko, a former heavyweight champion in boxing, said in an interview with “Good Morning Britain” on Thursday that he was prepared to take up arms to defend against Russia’s invasion and that Mr. Putin had “lost reality.”

“I don’t have another choice — I have to do that,” the mayor said.

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Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 12:17 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

Air-raid sirens wailing in Lviv.

Marc Santora
Feb. 25, 2022, 12:16 a.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

Three Ukrainian border guards were killed by a Russian rocket strike early on Friday, according to the State Border Guard service. The strike, which took place around 4:25 a.m., hit a border post in the Zaporizhia region in southeastern Ukraine.

Marc Santora
Feb. 24, 2022, 11:37 p.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

As the skies above Kyiv were lit up by a huge explosion and at least one rocket crashed into a civilian building, Ukrainian officials braced for attacks.  “Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv,” the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote on Twitter. The last time the capital “experienced anything like this,” he wrote, was in 1941 “when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one. Stop Putin.”

Marc Santora
Feb. 24, 2022, 11:04 p.m. ET

Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

A civilian building was struck in a residential neighborhood, according to Ukrainian officials.

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said on Twitter that according to preliminary reports, three people were injured, one of them critically, after a rocket fragment hit a residential building. He said emergency workers were on the scene and that the house was on fire and at risk of collapsing.

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Credit...Ukrainian Ministry Of Emergencies, via Reuters

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Amy Qin
Feb. 24, 2022, 10:32 p.m. ET

Reporting from Taipei, Taiwan

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Friday that the self-governed island would join the international community in imposing economic penalties on Russia, though it did not specify details.

Feb. 24, 2022, 10:30 p.m. ET

Videos show a large explosion in the sky over southern Kyiv.

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Video player loading
CreditCredit...Osint_Ukraine via Twitter

Videos verified by The Times showed a large explosion in the sky over the outskirts of southern Kyiv early on Friday morning. Witnesses filmed fiery debris falling over parts of the city. The videos appeared to show at least two surface-to-air missiles being fired near Kyiv before the explosion.

Vivek Shankar
Feb. 24, 2022, 10:30 p.m. ET

Most Asian stock markets posted gains on Friday morning, while Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, climbed 2.5 percent to $101.57 a barrel. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.5 percent, and the Shanghai Composite advanced 0.8 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.4 percent. Overnight on Wall Street, stocks rebounded from a selloff to close higher on Thursday.

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Amy Qin
Feb. 24, 2022, 10:14 p.m. ET

Reporting from Taipei, Taiwan

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, said that President Vladimir V. Putin had “lost reality” and that he was prepared to take up arms to defend against Russia’s invasion. “I don’t have another choice — I have to do that,” he told a reporter from Good Morning Britain. Mr. Klitschko, 50, and his brother Wladimir Klitschko are former heavyweight champions.

Amy Qin
Feb. 24, 2022, 10:08 p.m. ET

Reporting from Taipei, Taiwan

China’s embassy in Ukraine is arranging charter flights for Chinese nationals who are looking to evacuate. There are around 6,000 Chinese citizens in Ukraine. The announcement came after a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman declined to call Russia’s attack on Ukraine an “invasion.”

Daniel McGrawMiriam Jordan
Feb. 24, 2022, 9:43 p.m. ET

Daniel McGraw and

‘Ukraine is helpless and we are helpless here’: Immigrants in America watch in horror.

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The Rev. Jason Charron led a prayer vigil at the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie, Pa., on Thursday.Credit...Jared Wickerham for The New York Times

PARMA, Ohio — Ukrainian Americans, watching the Russian attack on their homeland with horror and anger on Thursday, described Ukraine as vulnerable and helpless — but also as a country with the same aspirations as the United States.

“Americans have to realize that this is about freedom and being able to live one’s life as they see fit, to govern as they want to, and not to be put under the power of a dictator’s ego,” said the Very Rev. John Nakonachny, 75, pastor of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb with a sizable Ukrainian population.

“Isn’t caring about what happens in Ukraine something Americans would get behind?” he asked.

Peter Teluk, 55, worked in Ukraine for 25 years as a consultant for American business interests and returned to the United States last year. He urged Americans not to turn a blind eye to the conflict.

“The U.S. has a short attention span and has a desire to think less about foreign conflict these days,” said Mr. Teluk, a lawyer in the Cleveland area. But he said the United States should appreciate that Ukraine was “symbolically what we want the rest of the world to be — a country that wants to define what it is by themselves.”

“We should understand that,” he continued, “because that is what we have always believed.”

Taras Szmagala Jr., the board chairman and president of the Ukrainian Catholic University Foundation, said President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was threatened by the growing independent voice of middle-class Ukrainians. Russians, he said, are hearing those voices and seeing what a democracy can bring them.

“Ukrainians are maturing as a society and they are getting better over time, and that is a threat to Putin,” he said. “The Americans and the media need to see that side of things.”

Across the nation, Ukrainian immigrants said they felt a profound sense of helplessness as they heard from panicked relatives who felt trapped as much of their home country was transformed into a war zone.

“I didn’t sleep all night. I talked to my brother and sister. They are so scared,” said Tanya Vlasenko, 48, of Vancouver, Wash. “There is nothing we can do, only pray,” she said, weeping.

Vancouver and nearby Portland, Ore., are home to more than 20,000 Slavic Christians. Most of them are Ukrainians who began settling in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s with refugee status, after fleeing religious persecution. They have erected dozens of churches that are the center of community life.

At First Slavic Evangelical Baptist Church, where Ms. Vlasenko’s family worships, the pastor has been leading congregants in prayer since Russian military action in Ukraine became a possibility.

Salah Ansary, senior district director for Lutheran Community Services Northwest, a refugee resettlement agency, said anxious Ukrainian immigrants had been calling to ask how they could get their relatives out of the country.

“We don’t have good information to provide, or anything to offer that can give them any kind of comfort at this moment,” he said. “The situation is so fluid.”

Solomia Gura, 31, of Philadelphia, said it had become increasingly difficult to reach people in her home country who have taken refuge in bunkers.

“I am trying to check if everybody is alive, if no bomb hit them,” said Ms. Gura, whose mother and brother live outside Lviv, a city in western Ukraine that had not been spared from the Russian military incursion.

Ms. Gura said she planned to attend a rally for Ukraine on Friday in Philadelphia, where about 70,000 Ukrainians and Ukrainian Americans live.

“That’s as much we can do is show our support,” said Ms. Gura, her voice laden with exhaustion and tears.

Irena Mykyta, 60, an immigration lawyer in New York, said that, like her relatives and friends in Ukraine, she was incredulous her home country was under attack.

“I feel useless and guilty that I am a Ukrainian here,” said Ms. Mykyta, who has lived in the United States for 26 years and is a naturalized citizen. “Ukraine is helpless and we are helpless here.”

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Sui-Lee Wee
Feb. 24, 2022, 9:14 p.m. ET

Reporting from Singapore

Singapore said it was “gravely concerned” about Russia’s announcement of the start of the “special military operation” in the Donbas region and of reports of land and air attacks on Ukraine. “Singapore strongly condemns any unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country under any pretext,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “We reiterate that the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine must be respected.”

The New York Times
Feb. 24, 2022, 9:01 p.m. ET

Photographers capture the uncertainty and fear among Ukrainians.

For weeks, a Russian invasion had been expected by some Ukrainians and merely sequestered in the mind’s recesses by others. But once the sweeping attacks began on Thursday, hitting seemingly every corner of the country, the war became unavoidably tangible for Ukrainians — a hovering cloud of darkness that once seemed unimaginable in the post-Cold War era. These images are a visual documentation of a populace coping with the initial stages of a national military invasion, struggling with newfound uncertainty and fear.

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