8 killed, 9 wounded in first Russian airstrike in Ukraine

Eight people have been confirmed killed, while nine were injured in the first airstrike following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on Thursday, security reports from Kyiv have said.

Though Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement shortly after sending troops into Ukraine that its air strikes were not targeting cities and posed no threat to civilians, the Ukrainian government said all those killed and injured are civilians.

“All those killed and injured are civilians. At least eight people had been killed and nine were wounded by Russian shelling,” the Ukrainian army said.

According to Ukraine’s Border Guard Service, Russia’s ground forces crossed into Ukraine from several directions early Thursday, hours after President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of a major offensive.

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“Russian tanks and other heavy equipment crossed the frontier in several northern regions, as well as from the Kremlin-annexed peninsula of Crimea in the south,” the agency said.

“One serviceman died in a shelling attack along the Crimean border, the first officially confirmed military death of the Russian invasion,” it added.

“On Feb. 24, five aircrafts and an aggressor helicopter were shot down near the area of the Joint Forces,” Ukraine’s Command of Joint Forces said on Facebook.

“The Joint Forces give a worthy rebuff to the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” the statement added.

Ukraine has suffered heavy casualties in its eight-year conflict with Russian-backed rebels in the separatist east, but has reported no fatalities along its southern border with Crimea for some years.

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