Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine from land, air and sea on Thursday, the biggest attack by one country against another in Europe since World War Two and confirming the West's worst fears.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin's goal was to destroy his country.
As for Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, he tweeted: "Putin has just launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are being hit."
Hours before the invasion began, the separatists appealed to Moscow to help stop alleged Ukrainian aggression, allegations the United States dismissed as Russian propaganda.
In contrast, China, which signed a friendship treaty with Russia three weeks ago, renewed its call on all parties to exercise restraint and refused to describe Russia's behavior as an invasion.
Ahead of the Russian offensive on Thursday morning, officials debated whether the Kremlin's recognition of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, and its deployment of troops there this week, amounted to the Russian invasion that the West has warned about for months.
While many European officials condemned Putin's recognition of the independence of the two regions as a violation of international law, they refrained, according to the Washington Post, from using the term "invasion" before Russian missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities this morning.
However, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said, on Thursday, in a tweet: "I summoned the Russian ambassador to meet me and explain the reason for the illegal and unjustified Russian invasion of Ukraine."
And Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, told reporters, before what happened today: "I wouldn't say it's a full-scale invasion, but Russian forces are on Ukrainian soil."
In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, at a press conference, in Washington, last Tuesday: "There is no small, medium or comprehensive invasion. An invasion is an invasion."
As for the White House, it resolved the term crisis in a speech delivered, on Tuesday, by President Joe Biden, in which he said that Russia's moves in the two separatist regions represented "the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the deployment of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine as a "new invasion", in reference to Russia's previous annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
In this context, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, Tuesday: "What we see now is that Ukraine, which has already been invaded, is suffering a new invasion."
After today's invasion, Biden said he was praying for the people of Ukraine suffering "an unprovoked and unprovoked attack" and vowed to impose severe sanctions in response.
Borrell also promised the most severe financial sanctions the union had ever imposed. Zelensky appealed to world leaders to impose all possible sanctions on Russia, including Putin.
Washington and its Western allies imposed the first sanctions in response to Moscow's recognition of the separatists, whom Kiev has been fighting for eight years in a conflict that has killed more than 14,000 people so far.
On Wednesday, the European Union imposed sanctions on Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other military leaders as part of a package of measures in response to Moscow's recognition of the independence of the two breakaway regions.
The European Union sanctions included 351 deputies in the State Duma who voted in favor of recognizing the two breakaway regions, in addition to 23 Russian figures who participated in the aggression against Ukraine by making political decisions or waging a "media war of disinformation."
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