Ukraine shoots down five Russian planes, helicopter in Luhansk – report

Kyiv, Feb 24: Ukraine military on Thursday claimed to have shot down five Russian planes and a Russian helicopter in the breakaway Luhansk region, AFP reports.

Ukraine's border guard agency says the Russian military has attacked the country from neighbouring Belarus. The agency said the Russian troops unleashed artillery barrage as part of an attack backed by Belarus.

They said the Ukrainian border guards were firing back, adding that there was no immediate report of casualties. Russian troops have deployed to its ally Belarus for military drills, a move that the West saw as a prelude to an invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv is about 75 km (50 miles) south of the border with Belarus.

Russian troops launched their anticipated attack on Ukraine on Thursday, as President Vladimir Putin cast aside international condemnation and sanctions and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to "consequences you have never seen".

Big explosions were heard before dawn in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa as world leaders decried the start of an invasion that could cause massive casualties and topple Ukraine's democratically elected government.

An Associated Press photographer in Mariupol reported hearing explosions and seeing dozens of people with suitcases heading for their cars to leave the city. The Russian military said it struck Ukrainian air bases and other military assets and had not targeted populated areas. The Russian Defence Ministry statement said the military was using precision weapons and claimed that "there is no threat to civilian population".

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on Facebook that the Russian military had launched missile strikes on Ukrainian military command facilities, air bases and military depots in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.

After the initial explosions in Kyiv, people could be heard shouting in the streets. Then a sense of normality returned, with cars circulating and people walking in the streets as a pre-dawn commute appeared to start in relative calm.

(PTI)