KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Europe was plunged into its gravest disaster in a long time early Thursday as Russia defied worldwide legislation and threats of devastating financial sanctions by mounting a lethal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, threatening the protection of thousands and thousands and sending residents throughout the nation scrambling for refuge as missiles fell from the sky.

The Russian assault started within the early morning hours and got here by land, air, and sea. Shelling and explosions struck all components of the nation, far past the entrance strains in jap Ukraine, signifying a dramatic escalation of Russia’s 2014 invasion.

“We woke as much as a drastically totally different world,” Emine Dzheppar, Ukraine’s first deputy international minister, informed BuzzFeed Information.

The Russian navy claimed to have destroyed greater than 80 Ukrainian navy websites, together with 11 airfields, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov mentioned in a briefing from Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed his nation late Thursday, swapping his swimsuit and tie for a navy uniform. He mentioned that at the very least 137 Ukrainians had been killed to this point within the Russian invasion, together with each civilian and navy casualties.

Zelensky ordered a full navy mobilization, calling up all conscripts and reservists as a way to fight Russia’s actions, which he in comparison with these of the Soviet Union, describing the invasion because the “sound of the brand new Iron Curtain that’s falling and shutting Russia from the civilized world.”

“Our activity is for that curtain to not fall on Ukrainian territory,” Zelensky mentioned.