Not long after Vladimir Putin announced the start of the war against Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed his people in a video message early this morning.

Without a tie and unshaven, he spoke into a camera that appears to be lying on a table in front of him.

He said that Russia had started hitting military infrastructure and Ukrainian border guards, and explosions could be heard in cities: "We are introducing a state of war on the entire territory of our country." He spoke to US President Joe Biden , who promised to organize international support.

Citizens should remain calm - "if possible, stay at home".

All security forces worked.

"I, the Security Council,

the cabinet will be in constant touch with you.” The speech, which lasted only a minute, ended with the words: “Don't panic.

We are strong, we are ready for anything, we will win.

Glory to Ukraine!”

Reinhard Veser

Editor in Politics.

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While the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, announced a state of war a few hours later, Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov called on the Ukrainians to remain calm.

Bit by bit, reports of explosions – presumably caused by rocket hits – are arriving from all over the country.

The Ukrainian General Staff reports air strikes against several airports, including Kiev's Borispil Airport;

numerous towns in the border area are under fire.

But Russian attacks are not limited to areas along the border.

According to official Ukrainian data, the TV tower was hit in Lutsk in western Ukraine, less than a hundred kilometers from the Polish border, and barracks are burning near Kiev and other cities.

The Ukrainian armed forces report the loss of two towns in the Luhansk region in the Donbass.

However, the Ukrainian army is also reporting enemy casualties from this region: five Russian planes and one helicopter were shot down in the Luhansk region.

A tank and several military trucks were said to have been destroyed near Shchastya, directly on the previous front line to the "People's Republic" of Luhansk.

Apparently, the leadership in Kiev is also trying to counter misinformation with a transparent information policy: Reports on a landing operation by Russian troops near Odessa on the Black Sea are described as "fake".

News like this also testifies to the efforts to convey an image of controlled action to the Ukrainian population: The Minister of Education announced in the morning that all schools should switch to distance learning.

However, Ukrainian media are reporting long traffic jams on the arterial roads from Kiev - obviously many people are trying to leave the city.

A few hours before the fighting began, Zelenskyy made a dramatic appeal to the Russians in Russian in the middle of the night – in a suit and tie, with a large map of Ukraine in the background.

He tried to call Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The answer was silence." That is why he is now addressing the citizens of Russia directly - "not as President, I am addressing the citizens of Russia as a citizen of Ukraine".

A great war could break out at any moment: “They tell you that this flame will bring liberation to the people of Ukraine.

But the Ukrainian people are free.

Ukraine in your news and Ukraine in real life are two completely different countries.”

“They tell you that we are Nazis.

Tell that to my grandfather, who went through the whole war in the infantry of the Soviet Army and died a colonel in independent Ukraine.” In this vein, Zelenskyy echoed one statement after another by Russian President Putin about Ukraine.

"Listen to us, the people of Ukraine want peace, the government of Ukraine wants peace." But if Ukraine is attacked, it will defend itself: "When attacked, you will see our faces - our faces, not our backs. ' He concluded with a direct appeal to the Russians: 'Do the Russians want war?

I would very much like to answer this question.

But the answer depends on you.”