Russia Ukraine crisis LIVE Updates: More than 50,000 Ukrainians flee country in 48 hours, says UN

A woman reacts as she waits for a train trying to leave Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, 25 February, 2022. AP/Emilio Morenatti

Russia Ukraine crisis LATEST Updates: The Russian president has warned in a speech that he has the weapons available and if anyone dares to use military means to try to stop Russia’s takeover of Ukraine he would use it.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has issued a statement saying that the Taliban was closely watching the Russia-Ukraine situation and that they were concerned about civilians.

Ukraine’s nuclear agency said on Friday it was recording increased radiation levels from the site of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant, reported news agency Reuters.

Moscow on Friday banned all UK-linked planes, including transiting flights, from its airspace after its flagship carrier Aeroflot was prevented from flying over Britain following the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Russia has bombed 33 civilian sites in its assault on Ukraine in the last 24 hours, Kyiv’s interior ministry said Friday as Russian troops advanced on the capital, according to Interfax news agency.

Ukraine’s army said Friday it was fighting invading Russian forces northwest of the capital Kyiv, as Moscow pressed on with its advance on the pro-Western country for a second day.

Moscow’s defence ministry says its forces have “successfully completed” their objectives for the first day of the invasion, earlier claiming to have destroyed over 70 Ukrainian military targets, including 11 airfields.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Russians to protest against Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine as Moscow’s invading forces reached Kyiv, reports AFP.

Air raid sirens rang out across Ukraine’s main cities for the second consecutive morning today.

The United Nations has announced that it is immediately allocating $20 million to scale up UN humanitarian operations in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Japan is urging China to join international efforts to stop the Russian “massacre” in his country amid Beijing’s lack of criticism of Moscow’s actions.

Russian “sabotage groups” have entered Kyiv, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Friday.

Shocked Russians turned out by the thousands to decry their country’s invasion of Ukraine as emotional calls for protests grew on social media. Some 1,745 people in 54 Russian cities were detained, at least 957 of them in Moscow.

Nearly 400 Indian students in Ukraine’s Sumy city bordering Russia have taken shelter in a basement after Russian forces took control of it and have appealed to the government of India to evacuate them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says 137 civilians and military personnel have been killed so far in the Russian invasion of his country. He calls them “heroes” in a video address released early Friday in which he also says hundreds more have been wounded.

President Vladimir Putin said that he had ‘no other way’ left apart from invading Ukraine to ensure Russia’s security, hours after his troops launched a wide-ranging attack on ex-Soviet neighbour’s borders on Thursday.

“What was happening left us with no choice,” the Russian leader said during a televised meeting with business representatives, adding that “we had no other way of proceeding”.

According to an AFP report, Russia said that its military had achieved its goals set out for the first day of its invasion of Ukraine, after launching the attack despite warnings of sweeping Western sanctions.

“All of the tasks assigned to the groups of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for the day were successfully completed,” Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

Meanwhile, as many as 40 Ukrainian soldiers and around 10 civilians have been killed by Russian shelling, a Reuters report quoting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy adviser, said on Thursday.

The AFP reported that Ukraine said it killed “around 50 Russian occupiers” without providing details.

Ukraine said it lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site, the site of the 1986 disaster. A senior official said that the staff at the Chernobyl plant had been “taken hostage” when Russian troops seized the facility, a move the US termed “incredibly alarming”. A senior US defense official said Russia may be intent on seizing Kyiv, the capital, and other key cities and ultimately installing a more friendly government.