The attack had been feared for several weeks, it was finally launched Thursday, February 24 in the early morning. Vladimir Putin gave the signal for hostilities in a video published at dawn, three days after recognizing the independence of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, claimed by separatists since 2014.
>> Threats to Kiev, capture of Chernobyl… Follow the evolution of Russian forces in Ukraine in our live
But the attack was not limited to these two regions. The air strikes and land incursions that have punctuated the past few hours have targeted the entire Ukrainian territory, from Donbass to Lutsk (less than 100 km from the Polish border) via Kiev, the capital. Many images, from webcams available online or shot by locals, document this chaotic day. We have geolocated several of them and have represented and numbered them on this map.
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The various numbered points on this map are listed in the explanations below.
Borders crossed at dawn
From the morning, images of a border post are published online. They show a crossing point between Belarus and Ukraine, where many armored vehicles circulate (1). They come from a webcam of the Ukrainian border guards, which made it possible to note such crossings several times in the morning. The advance of Russian armor has also been documented by other surveillance cameras inside the country (3).
Military equipment entering Ukraine in the video from cameras installed at the Belarusian-Ukrainian checkpoint “Senkovka-Veselovka”. These are: the TOS-1A “Solntsepyok”, at least 4 T-72B tanks, at least 8 MT-LB tractors, and Ural truck
All the equipment is marked with “O”. pic.twitter.com/3oIg0zAVuo— MotolkoHelp (@MotolkoHelp) February 24, 2022
Ukrainian border guards also released videos (2) showing several armored vehicles crossing the border between Crimea and Ukraine. In these images shot at the Kalanchak border post, several dozen vehicles drive in the wrong direction and enter the Ukrainian region of Kherson.
Many military installations destroyed
At the same time, the Russian army launched several air operations to destroy Ukrainian military equipment. In the afternoon, Moscow claimed to have destroyed 74, including 11 air bases, according to the spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense. One of the first, images of which are available online, concerns the international airport of Ivano-Frankivsk (4), in the West, targeted by a missile in the morning. Located about 130 km from the Polish border, it houses a military base, but was also frequented by civilians.
Ivano-Frankivsk airport in #Ukraine is bombed this morning. pic.twitter.com/1SSaNEKZUv
— Andrei VAITOVICH (@andreivaitovich) February 24, 2022
Other airbases met the same fate, such as that of Lutsk, in the northwest of the country (5). In the morning, smoke was also observed near the Ochakov naval base, near Odessa, in the Southwest (6), and a radar base near Mariupol, further east, was also destroyed (7).
Naval base of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Ochakov pic.twitter.com/S4RZ2Ax0ko
— CUT (@CUT) February 24, 2022
Kharkiv and eastern cities hit hard
Ukraine’s second most populous city, Kharkiv, was quickly hit by Russian bombardment. In the morning, soldiers from Moscow attempted a breakthrough in the east of the country, and civilians still present in their building heard and filmed what looked like gunshots not far from their home (8).
Reportedly video of fighting outside of Kharkiv. Sounds like small arms fire but it is hard to tell. https://t.co/H0AUR0QIg8 pic.twitter.com/CjKTsHSrfH
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) February 24, 2022
Other amateur videos show the result of a deadly clash between the Russian and Ukrainian armies. Just outside Kharkiv, tanks burned or still smoking sum up the intensity of the fight. Other cities in the east of the country have been targeted, such as Dnipre. At the end of the day, Russian tanks were observed in the town of Sumy (9), which is home to more than 260,000 inhabitants. Finally, sAccording to the Russian Defense Ministry, the pro-Russian separatists on the offensive against the Ukrainian army in the east and covered by Russian bombardments have advanced 7 km in their attack.
Heavy fighting in Kiev
Throughout the day, Kiev and its region were the scene of intense fighting. Air, first. In the afternoon, many helicopters were observed heading north of the capital, where the military airport of Hostomel (10) is located. Russian and Ukrainian aircraft exchanged fire, sometimes over homes.
#ГостомельКиевская обл., предположительно, российские вертолёты #RussiaInvadedUkraine pic.twitter.com/IDzvr3Tdcj
— Necro Mancer (@666_mancer) February 24, 2022
Other videos revealed bombing (11), dogfights, crashed aircraft or thick clouds of smoke. After several hours of combat and the arrival of Russian paratroopers, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, admitted that the adversary had conquered the military airport located about forty kilometers from the capital. In Kiev, the anti-bombing alarm sirens sounded for a good part of the day, and major traffic jams accumulated on the roads, with some of the inhabitants wanting to flee the city.
Air raid sirens as refugee convoy hits traffic on outskirts of Kyiv. This is very, very real now. pic.twitter.com/XzPK7BpCqj
— Max Hunder (@Max_Hunder) February 24, 2022
A little further north, Chernobyl is also the scene of major clashes. At the end of the day, the Ukrainian presidency announced that the nuclear power plant had fallen into the hands of Russian forces coming from Belarus.