UKRAINE: At least 137 killed in Russian attacks on the first day

Volodymyr Zelenskyy provided preliminary data on the death toll in a video message on Facebook, Ukraine's official Ukrinform news agency reported.

He also said that “enemy sabotage groups” have entered the capital Kyiv and called on the public to be careful and follow curfew rules.

“We have been left alone to defend our state,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in an emotional video address to the nation after midnight. “Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid,” he added.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russian rocket attacks on the capital Kyiv reminded him of life under Nazi Germany.

“Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv. Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

“Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one. Stop Putin. Isolate Russia. Sever all ties. Kick Russia out of everywhere,” he added.

Putin announced the military intervention in Ukraine early Thursday, days after recognizing two breakaway enclaves -- Donetsk and Luhansk -- in eastern Ukraine, drawing international condemnation and vows of tougher sanctions on Moscow.

The February 2014 “Maidan revolution” in Ukraine led to former President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing the country and a pro-Western government coming to power.

That was followed by Russia illegally annexing the Crimea region and separatists declaring independence in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, both of which have large ethnic Russian populations.

As clashes erupted between Russian-backed separatist forces and the Ukrainian army, the 2014 and 2015 Minsk Agreements were signed in Moscow after the intervention of Western powers.

The conflict, however, simmered for years with persistent cease-fire violations. As of February 2022, some 14,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Tensions started escalating late last year when Ukraine, the US and its allies accused Russia of amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine.

They claimed that Russia was preparing to invade its western neighbor, allegations that were consistently rejected by Moscow.

Defying threats of sanctions by the West, Moscow officially recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states earlier this week, followed by the start of a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the operation aims to protect people “subjected to genocide” by Kyiv and to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” Ukraine, while calling on the Ukrainian army to lay down its arms.