 under attack. Again, strikes reported across the country. Explosions in all major cities in Ukraine. This Russian invasion has begun according to Ukrainian authorities calling it a full-scale invasion now underway. And the Belarusian troops again joining them from the north. At least now Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, announcing this military operation yesterday and warning other countries. Any attempt to interfere would lead to consequences they've never seen. Putin argued this attack is aimed at protecting civilians in eastern Ukraine. Now as he maintains his harsh rhetoric towards Kiev authorities, here's more from the Russian leader. I have made the decision of a military operation. Dear comrades, your fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers did not fight defending our motherland for today's neo-Nazis to seize power in Ukraine. You took an oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people and not to the anti-people junta that robs and harasses its own people. Don't follow its criminal orders. Whoever tries to interfere with us and even more so to create threats for our country, our people should know that Russia's response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences that you have never experienced in your history. On the Ukrainian side, President Zelensky held a phone call in the early morning with US President Biden. Biden attempted to reassure his Ukrainian allies and some upcoming measures to contain an ostensibly punished Russia with efforts to ramp up at the United Nations. But in Kiev and under fire, President Zelensky again spoke to his embattled nations. They braced themselves under this Russian offensive. Here's the latest from the president. I know for sure that we don't need the war. Not a cold war, not a hot war, not a hybrid one. But if we'll be attacked by the enemy troops, if they try to take our country away from us, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. Not attack but defend ourselves. And when you'll be attacking us, you'll see our faces, not our backs but our faces. The war is a big disaster and this disaster has a high price. With every meaning of this word, people lose money, reputation, quality of life, they lose freedom. But the main thing is that people lose their loved ones, they lose themselves. They told you that Ukraine is posing a threat to Russia. It was not the case in the past, not in the present, it's not going to be in the future. You are demanding security guarantees from NATO, but we also demand security guarantees. Security for Ukraine from you, from Russia, and other guarantees of the Budapest Memorandum. But our main goal is peace in Ukraine and the safety of our people, Ukrainians. For that, we are ready to have talks with anybody, including you in any format on any platform. The war will deprive security guarantees from everybody. Nobody will have guarantees of security anymore. Who will suffer the most from it? The people. Who doesn't want it the most? The people. Who can stop it? The people. But are those people among you? I am sure. Now we go to our defence correspondent, Jonathan Regget, who's on the ground here covering some of the latest now. I believe you're at the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv here, Jonathan. What's happening there? Yes, so at the Russian Embassy, and maybe David, you can see right behind me a small protest for the moment. This is right outside the Russian Embassy in central Tel Aviv. This protest is expected to grow larger in number later in the day. And one of the protesters, Mikhail Baghani, is here joining us. Mikhail, thank you for joining us. I understand you arrived to Israel from Ukraine a few years ago, actually from the area of Donetsk, which was under partial Russian occupation already. What are you feeling this morning? This morning I read the news, and I thought that I cannot be silent anymore, because I saw that this Russian federation, this fascist Putin's regime, they started the complex war in Ukraine. They started with shellings, with bombings, and I think that the international community is doing not enough. We're doing not enough pressure on Russia. We need to stop this fascist regime, because all they're doing is neocolonialism, and they're just trying to destroy Ukrainian state, the independent, the sovereign state of Ukraine. They're trying to destroy it. They're trying to destroy Ukrainian culture. And I think we need to talk louder about it. Have you been able to contact relatives in Ukraine to hear what's the situation there? I contacted with my friends in Ukraine, in areas not controlled by Russian supported troops, and they worry about what's happening, but they're calm, they're standing, and they're ready to protect their houses, protect their families. And I want Russian soldiers to know that no Ukrainians want to to war with Russia, but your government started the war against Ukraine, and you need to know that Ukrainians will protect their houses, their families, their children, and they will never surrender. What can we expect here today, a small protest now? Are we expecting more people? I hope so. I really hope so that I saw a lot of Israelis that were passing by in their cars. They were sending us some signals of support, and I believe that this protest will grow, that people will see that we are here, we are standing with Ukraine. We need to put pressure on Russian government, but we need to move only with legal movements. We need to make only legal government on this, on this criminal regime. Thank you very much, Mikhail. Obviously, we see that you're very touched by this. Thank you very much for being with us. These are the voices you hear them, David, here outside the Russian embassy. As far as Israel is concerned, another call this morning, both by a foreign minister, Yary Lapid, and the Israeli ambassador in Ukraine calling on all Israelis there about 8,000 or so to leave as soon as possible, leaving from the air. It is no longer possible. Therefore, the embassy itself was moved from the city of Kiev, the capital in the center of the country to the city of Lvov, in Western Ukraine, very close to the Polish border, and the call is on all Israelis to get there as much as possible, to leave Ukraine through land crossings, mostly to Poland. The Romanian border is also not very far. This is the call this morning coming from Israel, and the voices here, you've heard quite surprised and shocked the events of the past few hours. Thank you for the updates and, of course, for bringing us that palpably emotional testimony from one of the Ukrainian protesters there outside the embassy. We'll come back to you in a bit later on. Again, some people starting to come out to protest in front of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv now. But on the military side, some updates coming out of Ukraine. Again, live images from Kiev on your screen here now, reports as of this morning indicating perhaps hundreds of Ukrainian servicemen already killed in the initial Russian onslaught. Now, airstrikes, rocket barrages being reported across the country from the port of Odessa to Kiev International Airport. Now, stories of, or at least reports emerging again of Russian missile strikes taking place, airstrikes, the Ukrainians saying that they've downed some Russian warplanes and helicopters, the Russian defense ministry, claiming that they've neutralized, as they put it, the Ukrainian air defenses. This being footage that just emerged in the moment as we're speaking here, this is a legendary missile that struck the airport again in Ukraine. This is in Kiev. Again, reports of a Russian airborne assault on the airports and the sea ports themselves, coming in from virtually all directions in Ukraine. Bella Russian armored columns also joining the Russians from the north, rolling down the major highway towards Kiev. People taking shelter, air raid, sirens again. Some reports even of people fleeing the major cities, which are clearly a target at this point. What appears to be an all-out assault on Ukraine, and that according to the Ukrainian government themselves, these are the updates here. We'll continue rolling with them as they emerge here. So much happening in this arena. We're in the studio there with our correspondents and Owen Alterman, a senior international affairs correspondent. Owen, the Israeli angle one we keep trying to come back to and focus on here the dilemma between Russia, Ukraine, the United States, or Israel now. What's some of the latest emerging from the government? Yeah, I think the dilemma, frankly, David is on hold for the moment. There's a much more pressing issue and that's the Israelis who are in Ukraine. As I've said before in our broadcast, and Jews for that matter who are in Ukraine, as I said in our broadcast before, this is a more central issue for Israel than for other countries, right? I report in the British media that there were 5,000 British nationals in the eve of the war in Ukraine in a country that seven times the size of Israel. Israel on the other hand, on the eve of the war, 10 to 15,000 Israelis. Two to three times the number in a country that is one seventh of the size of Britain and then beyond that 150,000 to 200,000 Jews living in the country for whom Israel feels a sense of responsibility. In the last few moments another statement issued by Israel's foreign ministry going exactly at that, providing practical advice for Israelis inside Ukraine on what to do. Telling people, as Jonathan Regget mentioned, to get to land crossing. Saying that Israeli embassies and neighboring countries have put representatives on the other sides of those borders. If you get to the Polish border, there's an Israeli representative from the Israeli embassy in Poland on that border. Same in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and later in the day on the border with Moldova. So again, the Israeli government trying to take care of those Israelis in the country, telling them to get to those crossing points, putting out phone numbers and email addresses of the embassy, of the situation room in the foreign ministry for Israelis to register, to be in touch, and for the government to try to attract them and help them and do what it can. So obviously a fluid situation, I can say, one wonders. Again, it's hard to level any kind of criticism of people under such a difficult situation, but I do know Romania well. I lived there for two years. There isn't just one major crossing point from Ukraine to Romania. There are two. There's also a third one, we should say, which in fairness is a much more minor crossing. Assuming that both crossing points are open, why are there not representatives at both so that people can get to the one that's closest to where they live and to try to give people every avenue and every route to leave the country. But Israel, as we know David, Israeli diplomats are known for going beyond what diplomats from other countries, what they do, to help Israeli nationals who are abroad. That's going to be even more true in this situation, let alone what's going to happen with the much larger Jewish community in Ukraine. It's going to be a major, major focus for Israeli policymakers in the coming hours. Great for the update there. The Israeli government appearing to do what they can in this moment, so much developing on the ground right now and the images on your screen again, these are all coming out of Ukraine in the last minutes virtually here. Large explosions taking place across much of the country here. Again, that's what's on your screen here. But again, the Russians, at least their president, Vladimir Putin, justifying this all-out assault on the country as he put it to remove the neo-Nazis, quote-unquote, in Kiev now as he refers to the central government of Ukraine. And he's claimed this is a peacekeeping mission as his rhetoric is indicated there. It all aimed at protecting civilians as he puts it in eastern Ukraine. Again, the only damage and explosions we're seeing here are coming from elsewhere in the country, but here's more from Vladimir Putin. I have made the decision of a military operation. Dear comrades, your fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers did not fight defending our motherland for today's neo-Nazis to seize power in Ukraine. You took an oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people and not to the anti-people, junta, that robs and harasses its own people. Don't follow its criminal orders. Whoever tries to interfere with us and even more so to create threats for our country, our people should know that Russia's response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences that you have never experienced in your history. Again, you are, if you're just joining us now, this is live breaking news. Cover John Gowing here at I-24 News for continuing to cover the latest now, everything developing quickly on the ground in Ukraine and for a bit more in the military analysis now we're joined by security analyst Raffer Ushami. Thanks for being with us in the studio here. The big picture taking place, the latest reports clearly a lot happening. What's it all look like to you? It appears to be the Russian objective at this point. The last minute information is a terrestrial entry from Crimea and we have the terrestrial entry from Belarus towards Kiev. So this indicates very clearly that who are in the worst scenario possible, meaning a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine by Russia. This during the night, the missiles were aimed at strategic points, mostly airports and air defense. And now that's the artillery and the air force have done their job. The terrestrial entry is coming in. We're probably trying to see a blitz, meaning a very fast entrance in many different points into Ukraine and neutralizing of the Ukrainian military defense in a very fast, very well-planned action. The Russian intel must be quite good because they know exactly where they're going and they know exactly how to neutralize on the way air defense facilities, even civilian facilities have been hit. Simultaneously, there is a cyber attack all over Ukraine hitting all the most strategic infrastructures. So this is the worst-case scenario. We are going to have to see now what is happening on the other side because obviously the discretion of sanctions doesn't work, Putin is not impressed. The whole world is now going into economic chaos. I mean the boomerang of the sanctions will be actually very fast in coming. The Russians are counting on the help of the Chinese. Anecdotically, the Chinese have told their citizens in Ukraine to drive around with a little Chinese flag on their car, meaning they will not be hit because they are the friendly force. That's the anecdote. The other anecdote that's less ironical is that there are many cities, mayors have asked people to stay home and others have asked people to evacuate the city. Remember that in Ukraine, they do not have the shelters that we have in Israel or the training of the population to defend themselves. And that's the next problem that the Europeans are going to face because right now NATO is being tested and NATO is being as usual when it's tested very disappointing. They're not doing anything. I'm not sure they're going to do anything, but the next crisis is going to be possibly the refugee crisis. Tens of thousands of refugees fleeing westward. The question will be now what will Europe do? Will it as usual close its borders? Will the Moldavians, will the Romanians let people come out? That's why the Israelis already talked with the Russians in case if we cannot evacuate Israeli citizens and Jews towards the west, we evacuate them through Russia. This is going to be a huge humanitarian catastrophe as well. The last question, how long will the Ukrainian army, which is weakest than the Russian army for sure, how long will they last? How long before military victory of the Russians, the flag will be put up on Kiev? But then the second question is how long will be the civilian resistance, the resilience of the Ukrainian people? Once the army is defeated, it doesn't mean the Russians have completely won the war. There might be a strong, strong resistance of the Ukrainians, in which case we can enter another scenario, which will be in like an Afghanistan or Vietnam scenario, where the Russians are making what some many armies have done in the past, the mistake of confronting guerrilla warfare, urban guerrilla warfare. There's so much happening as you highlight here, Russell, thanks for the updates there. Clearly a lot taking place in this arena now. This is developing by the minute across Ukraine here. This is again as you just have it here. It appears to be an all out assault. You're watching images on your screen here. Some of the footage emerging here. We know that this has been a massive air and now land assaults on the country from almost all directions here now. The Russians moving in, the Belarusians joining them from the north here, and we go back to Kiev at this moment to Oleg Golubenko, political analyst there in Kiev. Oleg, we spoke last hour. It appears more has taken place since that time. What else can you tell us about what you're hearing from the front lines of your country? First of all, we have officially martial law now in our country. So and we are ready to protect our territory to defend. And of course, now we are trying to receive all possible support from from the world. So to organize anti-Putler coalition because only together we could stop this mad guy because it's it's really awful thing. Unbelievable. Still now it's it's unbelievable because it was normal, normal peaceful agreements all the time. But Russia denied Ukrainians as nation, Putin crazy. He's crazy. Absolutely. And it's it's we have a mad neighbor. This is a problem. And of course, we haven't enough maybe shelters. We haven't enough weapon, but we have a spirit. And we are ready to protect our territory to defend our people, our families. And of course, so each person in our country is ready absolutely to kill all occupants, all the soldiers who will come here. And you should understand one thing that it's it's not normal war. We're very large country. We have more than 40 millions people. And so our people would like to be free and to choose democracy values. And of course, we will we will be strong. And we hope for the whole world to be with us. And so to protect our ideas, our values, because it it's not normal war. It's it's it will be started in the third world war. Absolutely. It's the same ideas like Hitler has. Absolutely. But only now Ukrainians suffer from it because of the ideas of one crazy guy in Kremlin that it should not be existing. Absolutely. Like country, like nation, like people. Oh, like thanks for those updates. Stay with us. We are moving back in the studio again just to tell anyone tuning in here. We're watching the unfolding situation here and trying to cover everything as it emerges from Ukraine. There's been reports emerging from virtually every city now massive explosions across Ukraine, the main cities all being targeted, the airports, the seaports, certainly all the military installations for the Ukrainian Defense Forces. We were a correspondent here in the studio, Arielle Saran. Arielle, what what some of the latest has been obviously so much going on. What can you tell us about what appears to be happening on these front lines with the Russian troop movements? What's the latest? Well, pretty much we're seeing all of Ukraine one front line, whether it's border cities, cities inside. If we're talking about the north, we saw earlier this morning ground tanks, troops entering pretty much undist, without any disturbance from the Belarusian border. The Russians were not only what appears they were doing drills, combined drills with the Russian and Belarusian forces, but this was apparently preparation, not just a drill, but preparation for this ground invasion. And what's interesting about this entry point from the north, that's the fastest way to get to the capital Kyiv. And I think what we're seeing now is a ground race to Kyiv. And one of the main missions of the Ukrainian army is to try and stop Russian forces from getting into Kyiv. We're also hearing air sirens, air raid sirens in the capital Kyiv and Lviv in the west. They've been going off pretty much just to come in to explain what our viewers are looking at here. These are purported to be images of Russian troops now already moving into the second largest city in the country, Kovalev, out in the east part of the country here. This is again all indicating the Russian ground troops on the move as your report. Yeah, second largest city and it was actually the first capital of the Ukrainian Federation when the capital moved to Kyiv in 1934. So this is in the northeastern part of Ukraine near the Donbas area. Kharkiv is right near the Russian border city of Belgorod. And so we're seeing already ground forces in the northeast, ground forces coming in from Belorussia in the north. Also from the south, there's images of Russian forces coming in from Crimea. We're also seeing reports off the port of the port city of Odessa, the country's third largest city of navy vessels on fire. Elsewhere in the east, throughout the night there were rocket barrages in the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, and as well as currently this morning we're seeing Russian air force acting in the Donbas. In the west there were the air raid sirens in Lvov and also the airport or the airfield of Frankivsk in the west was struck too. So all across the country city of Uman also inside every major city in the country has appeared to become under fire. Ukraine is one big front line at the moment. It's somewhat staggering here as we clearly cannot keep up with everything taking place. Likely neither can the Ukrainians. Attacks taking place in every corner of their large country here from the sea, from the land, from the air. Appears to be as we've, our correspondents have been covering here an all-out assault on the government in Kiev. Now well development's happening rapidly on the ground taking place rapidly now. This appears to be the goal. Again we're covering it based on all the latest reports here, the explosions being reported, the footage emerging. Ukrainian Defense Ministry saying that they've taking out Russian warplanes from the sky. The Russians for their part saying that they've neutralized the Ukrainian air defenses and so much happening on the international arena. Such an important factor at this point here. All eyes looking certainly to the west but we have Owen Alderman in the studio here still. Owen what's the latest? Yeah a couple quick updates from here at Israel. David we were told earlier this morning by the foreign ministry that the foreign ministry year Lepid would hold a situational assessment that's maybe the best translation from the Hebrew at 10 o'clock local time. So in a half an hour assuming that's still on we've also heard that the foreign minister this is not uninteresting. We'll be giving a press conference at 12 o'clock local time on the situation in Ukraine. Two and a half hours when you're nodding because it promises to be a very interesting press conference especially if there are questions from reporters because he will not be able to evade at least not the question. It may by his answer be able to be evasive about Israel's position on the conflict and on the war as we all know Israel has been very very careful in terms of what it said waited until yesterday to put out even a very carefully worded statement as I often compared on our air like a page of Talmudry of the text in the middle and leave the commentary all around it to decipher what it means that was put out to try to strike the Israeli balance between its alliance to the United States the need for ties with Russia given the Russian presence in Syria. So Lepid may not be able to escape taking some position on that. Of course what's front and center for Israeli policymakers as a legitimate issue in its own right are the Israeli nationals and the Jews inside the country as I said earlier larger number per capita in Israel than elsewhere specific instructions from the foreign ministry to Israelis to get to border crossings in the West Israeli embassies in those countries in Poland Slovakia Hungary Romania later in the day in Moldova putting representatives on the other side of those border crossings to absorb the Israelis giving practical information to Israelis inside the country about what to do and when you bring up this working relationship with Russia that's been so critical for Israel we've seen that allegedly on display again overnight here Syrian media reporting overnight as this Russian assault was taking place on Ukraine that alleged Israeli strike took place outside Damascus again this is Russia's backyard militarily here the Russian military so and Israel's backyard geographically yes and so clearly that that aspect of the relationship between Israel and Russia as relevant as ever and perhaps more sensitive than ever we've seen some ups and downs understatement so that likely to be a heavy topic or a hot topic at this press conference in about 30 minutes here with the foreign ministry two and a half hours the situational assessment at 10 o'clock we'll keep it we'll keep our viewers involved with all of that now so this is again you're seeing some of the alleged images that emerged three soldiers killed according to Syrian state media there and this alleged Israeli strike again overnight near Damascus an area where the skies are virtually controlled by the Russians appears Ukraine is also now an area where the Russians are controlling the skies here we know that there's been now no civilian traffic in the air over Ukraine here the reports of airstrikes ongoing now a land incursion as well coming in from Crimea coming in from the north and Belarus and of course the east where troops have been amassing for weeks and weeks and we have the New York Times Moscow correspondent Ivan Yvon Necheparenko thanks for joining us here Yvon so much happening right now what's being said inside Russia about the nature of these moves against what Vladimir Putin calls neo-nazis in Kiev well I think most Russians woke up in shock today because despite all the earlier reports about that happening I think most people even those who are critical presence Vladimir Putin have been very skeptical they wouldn't believe that Russia would wage a war against what many Russians believe as a brotherly nation so I think there's a lot of shock and basically people think about what Russia will be like as a country after this happened because it's not just a war in Ukraine but clearly that this will be continued with some measures inside the country too because many people are what you call them for protests and many people are saying that this is the most shameful event of their lives the dramatic sentiments coming out of Russia we know Vladimir Putin in power for some 22 years it appears he's had virtually no domestic public constraints on the behavior of his military or his orders for it now does that equation in place or is there a risk of popular protests in Red Square well I think what we saw from President Vladimir Putin's meeting with his top security officials is that even his top security lieutenants were not quite sure that the decision he made is the right course of action so I would expect that the main point of convention to be among the elites because now is the point where all people okay so I think for many members of the many members of daily the so-called technocrats the liberals this will be a very very difficult choice so I would expect some attention there that Ivan are you getting different reports inside Russia than what's we're seeing about essentially an all-out assault from almost every direction on Ukraine right now troops coming out of Crimea coming out of Belarus coming out of the east is it appear to be an all-out assault on a regime change operation for Ukraine well the Russian defense ministry just issued a statement saying that they have suppressed Ukrainian air defense missiles and that they have rendered all Ukrainian military airfields inoperable so that means that they have launched an all-out assault on the whole country because Ukraine has airfields all across the country so that basically confirms that yes Ivan thanks for the reports here again coming out of Russia we do have some updates Ukrainian authorities saying that seven at least seven people have been killed but again we don't know the nature of exactly where or what but so much footage of these missile strikes you just saw one of them on your screen there clearly casualties are taking place across Ukraine we go back to Kiev now we're Oleg Olovenko joining us now Oleg some confirmation from your government now of people being killed in this conflict what's the nature of it and how many we don't know exactly there are because there are a lot of fake news especially came from Russia we know that they used like propaganda like Hitler used before it's absolutely the same and they're telling a lot of fake things and so and we we we should hear only officials our officials and of course because the the main idea of Russia is to organize panic here and of course they could provide different fake news and they made it a lot of them because of propaganda but really so i don't know exactly what happened because it's it's only you know so each half an hour we have break news officials and so we are trying to to protect and to change a lot and i don't know a lot and of course it's now it's difficult difficult because we don't know exactly what to do because we really were not expected like something like this like such a tech and so i hope that we have enough time to prepare because our army is defending now and sometimes we could hear even these explosions explosions of them it's working of our anti-plane system and so it was reported a lot of planes russian planes were they were suited and so and the helicopter so and really i try to believe to to our officials not to russian propaganda because and that's why i don't know exactly what what we have and so and this is a situation it's a difficult process yes you talk about this misinformation campaign there's reports of a cyber assault on the country as well are you seeing signs of that or and oleg on top of that is the rhetoric is the discussion changing among you and your neighbors here is there a calculation in place about whether to stay whether to go we understand there's been some conflicting policies across the country from even the mayors some places being told to stay some places told to evacuate yeah so we were not ready really this is a problem because so it we are not prepared so for example israel so is in the war for for alone here per term yeah so we are not accustomed for such yet for such mad neighbor so we will be stronger of course and i really believe in our army and in our people and so and we are ready to protect and so to tell the truth we don't know what to do really a lot of us don't know what to do me personally i know what to do and so i will be protect and defend and so of course and so i hope that we will receive normal instructions what what to do and what what should we do now the main activities are is from our army this is the main idea for us because they are professionals they won't they know what to do we have a lot of soldiers we have a lot of people with the war experience and so i hope that with the help of all the world we will stop this fascist regime of putin and wokashenko well let go to benko again in kiv thanks for being with us on the latest there we are still with yvonne cheprenko from the new york times in russia you mentioned some of the shock this morning yvonne as people woke up to this news what exactly is being fed to the people of russia right now is it all state media or they have access to foreign media outlets in terms of where they get in their updates and and what what is the news there well of course the state media is portraying it does not as a war but is a military operation against as you said i think nazis uh in ukraine uh they a lot of reviews were yes yes and they broadcast this is what i was about to say that they broadcast his statement over and over again but if you look at outside this state run bubble if you look at social networks of course people saying and report different things many people in russia have relatives in ukraine for instance you know i myself is half ukraine half russian so i have relatives and friends there so for many people it's a personal matter really and they can they can get reports from the other side of what is happening there so um yeah it's it's a difficult situation for the country and yvonne thank you again for the updates coming to us from russia now just to recap a bit now if i can for our viewers who may be tuning in again yes thank you yvonne that's breko coming to us from russia there this is all how the world woke up today to see the assault begin on ukraine here ronam reputant declaring the beginning of what he termed a special military operation now there are casualties being reported the european unit making a statement let's listen in president of the european council president michelle has called for a meeting of the european council this evening and they will agree and provide political guidance to adopt the stronger package the harshest package of sanctions we have ever implemented as a representative for the foreign affairs and security policy of the european union i will be in touch with our partners around the world to ensure the international community will be fully grasping the gravity of the moment and to call strongly and united on russia to seize immediately this behavior intolerable behavior and russia leadership will face unprecedented isolation this is not a question of blocks this is not a question of diplomatic power games it's a matter of life and death it's about the future of our global community and we will stand united with our transatlantic partners and with all european nations in defending this position we stand united in saying that no violence and destruction as means to obtain political gains we the european union remain the stronger group of nations in the world and this should not be underestimated more immediately we will be designing urgent assistance to ukraine in this dire situation we will also be active in supporting evacuation operations including of our own staff in zones affected by this russian attack the european union together with transatlantic unlike minded partners have made unprecedented efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to the security crisis caused by russia but russia has not reciprocated these efforts and instead has obtained unilaterally for a grave and premeditated escalation conducting to war president putin needs to stop this senseless aggression and today our thoughts are with the people of ukraine we will stand with them again you're watching statements from the european union here again as they stake out their position again no change really trying to dissuade uh president putin with their harsh rhetoric now from the ongoing as far as we can tell from reports full assault from all directions almost on ukraine here now the ports the airports and seaports under attack we are in the studio still looking at the situation at large certainly is the israeli government maybe involved here uh actually we'll be back with much more we're stepping out for some break here we'll continue our live coverage there this is a fluid situation we're also trying to keep up with like the rest of the world here more underway in ukraine the russian assault as you're creating a government puts it full scale invasion underway reports indicate russian troops crossing the borders from primium from the east and from the north alongside the bell russians we'll keep you updated for now on the breaking war in ukraine here for my 24 news markets on the streets to see how the top stories of the week are affecting real people no commentary no debate just the best stories presented by our best germans