As the attack of Russian armed forces for a full scale occupation of Ukraine has entered its second day on Friday, aid raid sirens have sounded in the capital of Kyiv early in the morning following explosions in the city.
The CNN correspondent Matthew Chance was interrupted by missile strikes while reporting live in Kyiv.
“Oh, I tell you what, I just heard a big bang right here behind me. I told you we shouldn’t have done the live shot here,” he was heard saying, being forced to stop the report.
While an estimated 100,000 Ukrainians fled their homes in the first 24 hours of the Russian attack. thousands have been reported to have crossed into neighbouring countries, including Romania, Moldova, Poland and Hungary, Reuters reported.
People trying to flee Kyiv formed long lines of traffic on Thursday.
Asked by a reporter what he thought about the Russian attack, a Ukrainian briefly replied, “It’s war. Putin’s opened a war with Europe.”
Many people in Kyiv chose to take refuge in subway stations and spend the night there in anticipation of imminent air or even ground attacks.
A short interview in a subway station with a young Ukrainian mother who’s taken refuge there with her child reflected the circumstances the civilians faced.
Asked whether they would stay there for the night and if they had things they needed, the mother said they would, and showed a small bag of food she was carrying. She added:
“We try to be brave because we have children, and we don’t want to show them that we are scared.”
In the meantime, around 60 cities in Russia saw protests against the Russian invasion in Ukraine, and over 1,000 have been reportedly detained. Other demonstrations have taken place in capital cities all over the world.
Some unconfirmed video images showed a particularly large demonstration in the city of Petersburg, and some others, show an anti-war march in the capital city of Moscow.
