The multi-pronged assault on Ukraine began just before dawn after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to attack during a televised address. Russian forces have launched over 100 ballistic missiles at military targets across the country as troops continue to close in on Kyiv and Ukrainian forces fight back against the bombardment. A U.S. defense official warned Moscow’s goal is “decapitating the government” and establishing a Russian-backed government in Ukraine’s capital.
Just hours after the attack began, Russian forces took over the decommissioned nuclear power plant, the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986. Radioactivity still leaks from the facility.
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warned early Thursday that the country’s “defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 does not happen again.” The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry shared a similar concern.
“In 1986, the world saw the biggest technological disaster in Chernobyl,” the ministry tweeted. “If Russia continues the war, Chernobyl can happen again in 2022.”