Three years later: how russia's invasion of Ukraine began

February 24. The date that changed everything. The date that divided life into "before" and "after". That night, Ukraine woke up from the explosions - and never fell asleep again. The enemy planned a blitzkrieg, but received resistance that continues to this day. This is the day when surrender was not an option.

Ukrainian News Agency will remind you of how it was.

Around one in the morning, reports appeared that russia had closed the airspace along the border with Ukraine. And at about 4:00 in the morning, after the appearance of then-unknown people in camouflage, the lights went out and the webcams at the checkpoints in Kalanchak and Chonhar stopped working.

At 4:50 in the morning, russian leader vladimir putin appeared on russian television to announce his special operation, and in fact, a full-scale war against Ukraine. And a few minutes later, explosions broke the nightly silence over Ukrainian cities.

Along with the missile attack, a simultaneous offensive on the state border began from the territory of russia and Belarus. Ukrainian border guards in the Luhansk, Sumy, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv and Chernihiv Regions were attacked by russians with heavy equipment, artillery and small arms.

This day began the same way for many Ukrainians: with explosions, calls and messages.

At 6:50 a.m., an address from Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared, in which he reported that russia had begun its so-called special operation, and in fact a full-scale invasion of the entire territory of Ukraine. "Dear citizens of Ukraine, this morning president putin announced a special military operation in Donbas. Russia carried out strikes on our military infrastructure and on our border guards, border detachments. Explosions were heard in many cities of Ukraine. We are introducing martial law throughout the territory of our state," Zelenskyy said then.

At 8:10 a.m., martial law was introduced throughout the country by a decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk announced that those MPs who would leave Ukraine were traitors. Alarming news came one after another. Russian troops were advancing in the south towards Kherson and Melitopol, and in the east, attacks on Mariupol, Volnovakha, and Shakhty continued.

Zelenskyy ordered to inflict maximum losses on the invaders. Such a message soon appeared on Facebook of the then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. "The State Defense Forces, exercising the right to self-defense, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, are providing a worthy rebuff to the enemy's attempts to breach the border. The situation is under control. Russian troops are suffering losses. In the area of the JFO, five planes and two helicopters were shot down, two tanks were knocked out, and several trucks of the armed forces of the russian federation were destroyed. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine gave the order to inflict losses on the invaders," his message said at the time.

At 11:30 a.m., Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced at a briefing that Ukraine was severing diplomatic relations with the russian federation.

Meanwhile, russia began a blockade of Ukrainian ports, announcing that all ships in the Sea of Azov and the northwestern Black Sea would be considered a terrorist threat.

That day, in addition to the hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, many other events were taking place. The world expressed a lot of indignation and support, new sanctions were announced for russia, a new anti-putin coalition was announced. Some enterprises in russia were closed, fuel restrictions were introduced, information about bank operations, the dollar exchange rate, transport, shelters, and warnings about the threat of missile strikes were updated. Ukrzaliznytsia was trying its best to evacuate people from the most dangerous regions.

Around 1:00 p.m., an attempt was made to land russian troops in Hostomel, near Kyiv. Following the landing of the military, transport planes with hundreds of russians and heavy equipment were to arrive there. As we know, they were already waiting in Belarus at that time for the signal to take off. If the Il-76 had landed on the runway, thousands of military occupiers would have landed near Kyiv. And although the russians managed to temporarily capture that airfield, the main threat was eliminated, and transport planes never landed near Kyiv.

Around 4:00 pm, the russians entered the territory of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and within a few hours control over it was lost.

Zelenskyy called this step a war not only against Ukraine, but also against all of Europe.

Ukraine was attacked not only with missiles, but also with disinformation, or, to put it simply, fakes. Such as, for example, news about the landing of russian troops in Odesa.

Zmiyinyi Island was captured around 10:00 pm. At that time, it was reported that 13 border guards had been killed, but as it turned out later, the russians had taken them prisoner. A few hours earlier, a phrase from a Ukrainian border guard had been uttered, which had given hope to Ukrainians and became a symbol of the indomitable spirit of the Ukrainian people.

At midnight, Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree on general mobilization. In his evening address, he announced that he was staying in Ukraine, as was his family, although he had received information that he would be the number one target for the russians.

But the evening of February 24 also brought something special. The evening of February 24 brought us confidence that we would fight.

Soon the words of the Ukrainian border guard would become prophetic for the russian cruiser Moskva, the Ukrainian flag would rise over Zmiyinyi, control over Kherson and part of the Kharkiv Region would be restored, the Crimea bridge would burn, and Ukrainian drones would strike deep into russia.

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