A fog of war remained over the country as the American East Coast awoke Thursday morning, and conflicting reports sprouted on social media regarding fighting at various locations. Ukraine’s leadership said at least 40 people have been killed so far in what it called a “full-scale war” targeting the country from the east, north and south.

But as morning broke in Ukraine, big explosions were heard in the capital Kyiv, as well as Kharkiv and Odesa as world leaders decried the start of an invasion that could lead to massive deaths, a toppling of Ukraine’s democratically elected government and a threat to Europe’s post-Cold War balance.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser said that Russian forces have launched an attack on Ukraine from the north, east and south. The adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said “the Ukrainian military is fighting hard.”

Podolyak said Thursday that “our army is fighting back inflicting significant losses to the enemy.” He said that there have been civilian casualties, but didn’t give details.

He said that “Ukraine now needs a greater and very specific support from the world — military-technical, financial as well as tough sanctions against Russia,” he said.

Ukraine’s leadership said at least 40 people have been killed so far in what it called a “full-scale war” targeting the country from the east, north and south.

Ukrainian border guards released footage of what they said were Russian military vehicles moving in, and big explosions were heard in the capital Kyiv, Kharkiv in the east and Odesa in the west. As the Russian military claimed to have wiped out Ukraine’s entire air defenses in a matter of hours, Ukrainians fled some cities and European authorities declared Ukrainian air space an active conflict zone.

‘All-out defense mode’

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s defense minster, Oleksiy Reznikov, called on citizens looking to fight the Russians to enroll with the country’s territorial defense units, The New York Times reported.

“The enemy is attacking, but our army is indestructible,” he said. “Ukraine is moving into all-out defense mode.”

Ukrainians have started fleeing some cities and the Russian military claimed it had taken out all of the country’s air defenses and air bases within hours of the invasion’s commencement.

Security camera footage showed a line of Russian military vehicles crossing into Ukraine from Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared martial law and said Russia was targeting the country’s military infrastructure.

Zelenskyy cut diplomatic ties with Moscow and declared martial law, saying Russia has targeted Ukraine’s military infrastructure. Ukrainians who had long braced for the prospect of an assault were urged to stay home and not to panic even as Ukrainian authorities reported artillery barrages and airstrikes on targets around the country.

An adviser to Ukraine’s president, Oleksii Arestovich, said about 40 people have been killed so far in the Russian attack and several dozen wounded. He didn’t specify whether the casualties included civilians.

“The Ukrainian military is waging hard battles, repelling attacks in Donbas and other regions in the east, north and south,” Zelenskyy said at a briefing. He said the Ukrainian authorities will hand weapons to all those willing to defend the country.

Citizens were urged to stay home and not panic, even as the country’s border guard agency reported an artillery barrage by Russian troops from neighboring Belarus.

The world reacts

President Joe Biden has pledged tough sanctions to punish Russia, even as Putin asserted in a televised address before the invasion that the attack was meant to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the U.S. had predicted he would make to justify the military actions.

Japan, Italy, Spain, Australia and France all condemned the attack Thursday, and Latvia called for an invocation of NATO’s Article 4, which allows for any member to call a group consultation when they think “the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened.”

If Russia takes the entirety of Ukraine, it would immediately abut several NATO member states.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has convened a meeting of NATO ambassadors to assess the invasion of Ukraine.

The meeting Thursday morning will “address the situation in Ukraine and the consequences of Russia’s unprovoked attack.”

Earlier, Stoltenberg had already condemned Russia’s invasion. “Despite our repeated warnings and tireless efforts to engage in diplomacy, Russia has chosen the path of aggression,” Stoltenberg said.

He also warned Moscow that the alliance will “do all it takes to protect and defend” NATO members.

He called the invasion a “grave breach of international law, and a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security. I call on Russia to cease its military action immediately.”

The European Union is planning the “strongest, the harshest package” of sanctions it has ever considered at an emergency summit Thursday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that “the target is the stability in Europe and the whole of the international peace order, and we will hold President (Vladimir) Putin accountable for that.”

“We will present a package of massive and targeted sanctions to European leaders for approval,” she said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called it the “strongest, the harshest package” ever considered.

“A major nuclear power has attacked a neighbor country and is threatening reprisals of any other states that may come to the rescue,” Borrell said. “This is not only the greatest violation of international law, it’s a violation of the basic principles of human co-existence. It’s costing many lives with unknown consequences ahead of us. The European Union will respond in the strongest possible terms.”

Putin defiant

Putin accuses the United States and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demands to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and other security guarantees.

He also claimed that Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine but will move to “demilitarize” it and bring those who committed crimes to justice.

But as the attack commenced, some analysts questioned Putin’s claim that the Russian military would hold back.

Appearing on CNN, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark urged Ukrainian’s outmatched forces to consolidate in cities before the Russians arrived.

“They’re certainly going to need support, and the West needs to give them that support,” said Clark, who served as NATO Supreme Allied Commander from 1997 to 2000.

In a written statement Wednesday night in the United States, Biden condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified attack” and promised that the United States and its allies would “hold Russia accountable.”

Biden is slated to speak to Americans Thursday following a meeting of the Group of Seven leaders and more sanctions against Russia are expected to be announced Thursday as well.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described the assault as a “full-scale invasion” and said Ukraine will “defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”

In the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko advised residents to stay home unless they are involved in critical work and urged them to prepare go-bags with necessities and documents if they need to evacuate.

‘What could be worse?’

An Associated Press photographer in Mariupol reported hearing explosions and seeing dozens of people with suitcases heading for their cars to leave the city.

“We are facing a war and horror. What could be worse?” 64-year-old Liudmila Gireyeva said in Kyiv. She planned to head to the western city of Lviv and then to try to move to Poland to join her daughter.

Putin “will be damned by history, and Ukrainians are damning him,” she said.

Russian claims about knocking out Ukrainian air defenses and Ukrainian claims to have shot down several Russian aircraft could not immediately be verified.

The Ukrainian air defense system and air force date back to the Soviet era and are dwarfed by Russia’s massive air power and its inventory of precision weapons.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it was not targeting cities, but using precision weapons and claimed that “there is no threat to civilian population.”

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on Facebook that the Russian military had launched missile strikes on Ukrainian military command facilities, air bases and military depots in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.

After the initial explosions in Kyiv, people could be heard shouting in the streets. Then a sense of normality returned, with cars circulating and people walking in the streets as a pre-dawn commute appeared to start in relative calm.

Later in the day, photos emerged of lines forming outside Kyiv grocery stores.

Markets shudder

The consequences of the conflict and resulting sanctions on Russia could reverberate throughout the world, upending geopolitical dynamics in Europe as well as affecting energy supplies in Europe and jolting global financial markets.

Asian stock markets plunged and oil prices surged as the attack began. Earlier, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index fell 1.8% to an eight-month low after the Kremlin said rebels in eastern Ukraine asked for military assistance.

Anticipating international condemnation and countermeasures, Putin issued a stark warning to other countries not to meddle.

“Whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats for our country and its people, must know that the Russian response will be immediate and lead to the consequences you have never seen in history,” he said.

Putin urged Ukrainian servicemen to “immediately put down arms and go home.”

Nuclear threats

In a stark reminder of Russia’s nuclear power, Putin warned that “no one should have any doubts that a direct attack on our country will lead to the destruction and horrible consequences for any potential aggressor.” He emphasized that Russia is “one of the most potent nuclear powers and also has a certain edge in a range of state-of-the-art weapons.”

Though the U.S. on Tuesday announced the repositioning of forces around the Baltics, Biden has said he will not send in troops to fight Russia.

Putin announced the military operation after the Kremlin said rebels in eastern Ukraine asked Russia for military assistance to help fend off Ukrainian “aggression,” an announcement that the White House said was a “false flag” operation by Moscow to offer up a pretext for an invasion.

Putin’s announcement came just hours after the Ukrainian president rejected Moscow’s claims that his country poses a threat to Russia and made a passionate, last-minute plea for peace.

“The people of Ukraine and the government of Ukraine want peace,” Zelenskyy said in an emotional overnight address, speaking in Russian in a direct appeal to Russian citizens. “But if we come under attack, if we face an attempt to take away our country, our freedom, our lives and lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. When you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs.”

Zelenskyy said he asked to arrange a call with Putin late Wednesday, but the Kremlin did not respond.

In an apparent reference to Putin’s move to authorize the deployment of the Russian military to “maintain peace” in eastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy warned that “this step could mark the start of a big war on the European continent.”

“Any provocation, any spark could trigger a blaze that will destroy everything,” he said.

He challenged the Russian propaganda claims, saying that “you are told that this blaze will bring freedom to the people of Ukraine, but the Ukrainian people are free.”

At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by Ukraine because of the imminent threat of a Russian invasion, members still unaware of Putin’s announcement appealed to him to stop an attack.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the meeting, just before the announcement, telling Putin: “Stop your troops from attacking Ukraine. Give peace a chance. Too many people have already died.”

Even before Putin’s announcement, dozens of nations imposed sanctions on Russia, further squeezing Russian oligarchs and banks out of international markets.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has shrugged off the sanctions, saying that “Russia has proven that, with all the costs of the sanctions, it is able to minimize the damage.”

The threat of war has already shredded Ukraine’s economy and raised the specter of massive casualties, energy shortages across Europe and global economic chaos.

Karmanau and Heintz reported from Kyiv. Angela Charlton in Paris; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Lorne Cook in Brussels, Frank Bajak in Boston, Robert Burns, Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, Eric Tucker, Ellen Knickmeyer, Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed.

The announcement came a day after Russia’s foreign minister indicated the country was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that led to the Ukraine crisis — changing the tenor after weeks of rising tensions. Still, Western officials continued to warn that an invasion could come at any moment and said some forces and military hardware were moving toward the border, muddying the picture.

It wasn’t immediately clear where exactly the troops that the Russian Defense Ministry said were pulling back were deployed or how many were leaving, making it hard to understand the significance. The announcement pushed world markets and the ruble up, but Ukraine’s leaders expressed skepticism.

“Russia constantly makes various statements,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. “That’s why we have the rule: We won’t believe when we hear, we’ll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we’ll believe in de-escalation.”

A U.S. defense official said the Pentagon is reviewing the Russian claims.

“We are aware of reports of Russian claims that they are withdrawing some forces away from the border with Ukraine,” the defense official told Military Times. “Our analysts are reviewing, but we have nothing further at this time.”

Russia has massed more than 130,000 troops near Ukraine, sparking the fears of an invasion. Russia denies it has any plans to invade Ukraine, despite placing troops on Ukraine’s borders to the north, south and east and launching massive military drills nearby.

The new glimmers of hope accompanied a flurry of diplomacy. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz planned to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a day after he sat down with Ukraine’s leader in Kyiv. Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau of Poland, one of Russia’s most strident European critics, was also in Moscow on Tuesday to meet Lavrov, while Ukraine’s foreign minister hosted his Italian counterpart.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comments came at a made-for-TV meeting with Putin and seemed designed to send a message to the world about the Russian leader’s position. The foreign minister argued that Moscow should hold more talks, despite the West’s refusal to consider Russia’s main demands.

The talks “can’t go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage,” Lavrov said, noting that Washington has offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

Moscow wants guarantees that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join as members. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.

Lavrov said possibilities for talks “are far from being exhausted.”

Putin noted that the West could try to draw Russia into “endless talks” and questioned whether there is still a chance to reach agreement. Lavrov replied that his ministry would not allow the U.S. and its allies to stonewall Russia’s main requests.

The U.S. reacted coolly.

“The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively,” White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.”

One possible off-ramp emerged this week: Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.K., Vadym Prystaiko, pointed at a possibility of Ukraine shelving its NATO bid — an objective that is written into its constitution — if it would avert war with Russia.

Prystaiko later appeared to back away from the idea, but the fact that it was raised at all suggests it is being discussed behind closed doors.

Even amid the hopeful signs, the U.S. and European countries kept up their warnings.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated Tuesday that the danger of an invasion still exists, telling Sky News that it “could be imminent.” But she added that “there is still time for Vladimir Putin to step away from the brink.”

Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt issued a similar warning.

U.S. officials have said the Russian military continued apparent attack preparations along Ukraine’s borders. A U.S. defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not publicly released. CBS News was first to report on the movement of the units.

Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup, reported increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations. The photos taken over a 48-hour period also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation.

Still, Ukrainian security and defense council chief Oleksiy Danilov downplayed the threat of invasion but warned of the risk of “internal destabilization” by unspecified forces.

“Today we do not see that a large-scale offensive by the Russian Federation can take place either on (Feb.) 16th or the 17th,” he told reporters. “We are aware of the risks that exist in the territory of our country. But the situation is absolutely under control.”

As if to show defiance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday would be a “day of national unity,” calling on the country to display the blue-and-yellow flag and sing the national anthem in the face of “hybrid threats.”

“It is not the first threat the strong Ukrainian people have faced,” Zelenskyy said Monday evening in a video address to the nation. “We’re calm. We’re strong. We’re together.”

If Russia does de-escalate, international pressure will have played a key role, a former senior Ukrainian military official told Military Times.

“Ukraine has our own intelligence capability,” Andrii Ryzhenko, former deputy chief of staff of the Ukraine navy. told Military Times Monday afternoon. “It’s not so sophisticated like the US, but the U.S. and U.K. are also providing that capability.”

While Ukraine doesn’t see any signs of an immediate attack on the 16th or 17th, the U.S. is putting “psychological pressure on Russia,” Ryzhenko told Military Times. “If you say that Russia, ‘I know you’re gonna attack Ukraine, on the 16th or 17th, regardless if it’s true or not, they will not do it on this date. It’s psychology.”

The country is preparing nonetheless. Kyiv residents received letters from the mayor urging them “to defend your city,” and signs appeared in apartment buildings indicating the nearest bomb shelter. The capital has about 4,500 such sites, including underground parking garages, subway stations and basements, the mayor said.

Dr. Tamara Ugrich said she stocked up on grains and canned food and prepared an emergency suitcase.

“I don’t believe in war, but on TV the tension is growing every day, and it’s getting harder and harder to keep calm,” she said. “The more we are told not to panic, the more nervous people become.”

Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers called on Putin on Tuesday to recognize rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, voted to submit an appeal to Putin to that effect.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the issue of recognizing the self-proclaimed republics is “very, very relevant to the public.” But it was unclear how he would respond or how this could influence Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

While the U.S. warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day, and Kyiv is alerting residents to locate their nearest bomb shelters, the drumbeat of war is all but unheard in Russia itself.

The Kremlin has cast the U.S. warnings of an imminent attack as “hysteria” and “absurdity,” and many Russians believe that Washington is deliberately stoking panic and fomenting tensions to trigger a conflict for domestic reasons.

Few expect a war.

In Russia’s Belgorod region about 18 miles from Ukraine’s border, residents carry on with life as usual, even as more military personnel have been passing through village streets.

“Planes, helicopters just started flying, I guess, to patrol the border,” said Vladimir Konovalenko.

Villager Lyudmila Nechvolod says she’s not worried.

“We are friends with Ukraine. And we are not sure that Ukraine wants war with us. … We are really on the border, we really have relatives here and there, everyone has somebody there (on the Ukrainian side),” she said. “No one wants war.”

Karmanau reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jill Lawless in London, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Robert Burns in Washington and Military Times senior managing editor Howard Altman contributed to this report.

Putin was referring to hundreds of U.S. troops stationed in eastern Syria and working with Kurdish-led fighters in battling the militant Islamic State group, as well as Turkish forces in northern Syria. He said the presence of the foreigners is illegal because they don’t have permission to be there from the United Nations or Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.

Putin made his comments during a meeting in Moscow on Monday night with his Syrian counterpart Assad, who made a rare foreign trip to Russia. The two discussed cooperation between their armies and ways to continue operations to gain control of the last rebel-held areas in Syria, state media in Damascus reported.

Putin later announced he was going into self-isolation because of coronavirus cases in his inner circle. Assad and his wife tested positive to coronavirus in March, and recovered three weeks later.

It was the first meeting between the two allies since they held a summit in the Syrian capital in January last year, and Assad’s first public trip to Moscow since 2015. The two also met in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2017. Syrian state TV described Monday’s meeting as “long” and said the two were later joined by Syria’s foreign minister and Russia’s defense minister to discuss mutual relations and fighting terrorism.

“This clearly violates international law and doesn’t allow you to make maximum efforts to consolidate the country,” Putin was quoted as telling Assad about the foreign forces, according to a statement released by the Kremlin.

Russia joined Syria’s 10-year conflict in September 2015, when the Syrian military appeared close to collapse, and has since helped in tipping the balance of power in favor of Assad, whose forces now control much of the country. Hundreds of Russian troops are deployed across Syria and they also have a military air base along Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

“Only a consolidation of all forces in Syria will allow the country to get on its feet and start steady development, moving forward,” Putin said.

Putin and Assad also discussed the political process in the war-torn country, the TV said.

“I am happy to meet you in Moscow, six years after our joint operations to fight terrorism,” the Syrian TV quoted Assad as saying. The Syrian leader has made very few visits abroad since the conflict began.

In recent weeks, Syrian opposition activists said that Russian warplanes have been carrying out strikes on the northwestern province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the country. The region is home to some 4 million people, many of them internally displaced by the conflict.

Last week, a Russian-negotiated cease-fire deal went into effect to end a government siege and intense fighting in the southern city of Daraa. The deal brought areas held by the rebels in the city under government control for the first time since 2013.

“We have the intention in Syria as a government and institutions to move in parallel between the liberation of land and the political process,” the TV also quoted Assad as saying.

The TV said the during the meeting, the two leaders discussed cooperation between their armies “in fighting terrorism and the continuation of liberating lands held by terrorists.” Assad’s government refers to all armed opposition groups as terrorists.

The Russian president noted that “our joint efforts have liberated the main, overwhelming territory of the Syrian Republic.” Speaking to Assad, Putin added that “the terrorists have suffered very serious, significant damage, and the Syrian government, headed by you, controls 90% of the territory.”

Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests and later turned into a civil war that has killed half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, including 5 million who are refugees outside the country.

Litvinova reported from Moscow.

The tough statement appeared to indicate his resolve to raise the stakes should a similar incident happen again.

Speaking in a marathon call-in show, Putin also revealed that he received the domestically produced Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine and urged Russians to get vaccinated as the country battles a devastating surge of cases and deaths amid widespread hesitancy to get the shot.

Putin was asked about the June 23 incident in the Black Sea, in which Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of Britain’s HMS Defender to force it from an area near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters. He said a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft had joined what he described as a “provocation” to test Russia’s response.

Britain, which like most other nations didn’t recognize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, insisted the Defender wasn’t fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters. “HMS Defender was conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

Asked if the events could have triggered a global war, Putin responded that the West wouldn’t risk a full-scale conflict.

“Even if we had sunk that ship, it would be hard to imagine that it would put the world on the brink of World War III because those who do it know that they can’t emerge as winners in that war, and it’s very important,” Putin said. The statement followed Russian officials’ warning that if a Western warship enters the waters again, the military could fire on it.

Putin charged that the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft that took off from the Greek island of Crete was operating in concert with the British ship on an apparent mission to monitor the Russian military’s response to the British destroyer.

“It was clearly a provocation, a complex one involving not only the British but also the Americans,” he said, adding that Moscow was aware of the U.S. intentions and responded accordingly to avoid revealing sensitive data.

Asked about Putin’s claim, Navy Capt. Wendy Snyder, the chief of public affairs for the U.S. European Command, said that “yes, we did have aircraft in operations,” but reaffirmed the Pentagon’s earlier dismissal of the Russian description of the incident as false.

“We are operating in and watching everything in the Black Sea region, as we always do,” Snyder said.

The Russian leader specifically lamented that the incident closely followed his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva this month.

“The world is undergoing a radical change,” he said. “Our U.S. partners realize that, and that’s why the Geneva meeting took place. But on the other hand, they are trying to secure their monopolist stance, resulting in threats and destructive action such as drills, provocations and sanctions.”

Even though the West doesn’t recognize Crimea as part of Russia, Putin said the naval incident took the controversy to a new level.

“They don’t recognize something — OK, they can keep refusing to recognize it,” he said. “But why conduct such provocations?”

Putin insisted Russia would firmly defend its interests.

“We are fighting for ourselves and our future on our own territory,” he said. “It’s not us who traveled thousands of kilometers (miles) to come to them; it’s them who have come to our borders and violated our territorial waters.”

Dmitri Trenin, the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, warned that last week’s Black Sea incident presages a new, riskier level of confrontation.

“Fresh attempts to expose Russian ‘red line’ deterrence as hollow — whether on the ground, in the air, or at sea — would push Moscow to defend what it cannot give up without losing its self-respect,” Trenin said in a commentary. “This would almost inevitably lead to clashes and casualties, which would carry the risk of further escalation. Should this happen, Russia-NATO confrontation would deteriorate literally to the point of brinkmanship, a truly bleak scenario.”

Putin on Wednesday also reaffirmed his claim of a close kinship between the Russian and Ukrainian people, but accused Kyiv of hostility toward Russia and voiced doubt about the value of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him a Western pawn.

“Why meet Zelenskyy if he has put his country under full foreign control and key issues for Ukraine are decided not in Kyiv but in Washington, and, to a certain extent, Paris and Berlin?” Putin asked.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba retorted by tweeting that Putin wishes Ukraine’s issues were decided in Moscow. “This is our country and it’s only up to us to decide our fate,” he added.

Earlier this year, Russia bolstered its forces near Ukraine and warned that Moscow could intervene if Kyiv used force to reclaim areas in the east controlled by Russia-backed separatists since a conflict there erupted in 2014. Moscow later pulled back some troops, but Ukrainian authorities said the bulk of them remain close to the border.

Putin spent most of the four-hour “Direct Line” show discussing domestic issues — typical for the tightly choreographed annual rite that helps him polish his image as a strong leader caring for people’s needs. It didn’t feature any questions about Russia’s beleaguered opposition and Putin’s most prominent political foe, Alexei Navalny, who is in prison.

He voiced hope the country could avoid a nationwide coronavirus lockdown amid a surge of new infections. Reported deaths in Russia hit a daily record Wednesday, with authorities reporting 669, but Putin said decisions by regional officials to make vaccinations mandatory for some workers should help.

Russia has been registering over 20,000 new coronavirus cases and about 600 deaths every day since June 24. On Wednesday, 21,042 new infections were recorded.

Russian officials blame the June surge on Russians’ lax attitude toward taking precautions, more infectious variants, and a low rate of vaccinations, which experts attribute to widespread hesitancy to get the shot and limited vaccine production. Although Russia was among the first countries to deploy a vaccine, just over 15% of the population has received at least one shot.

Amid this hesitancy, Putin revealed he received the Sputnik V vaccine. Putin got his first shot in late March out of the public eye and has remained tight-lipped about which vaccine he chose.

On other issues, Putin said Russia has no intention of banning Western social media platforms but emphasized that the government merely wants them to abide by the law, promptly remove inappropriate content and open offices in Russia.

“We tell them: ‘You’re spreading child pornography, or instructions on (how to commit) suicide, or how to create Molotov cocktails. … You must take it down,’ and they simply don’t listen, don’t want to listen to what we tell them,” Putin said. “But this is wrong.”

Associated Press National Security Writer Robert Burns in Washington and Sylvia Hui in London contributed.

The push by President Bashar Assad’s forces into towns and villages in the northwestern Idlib province has caused the displacement of more than a half million people in just over two months, compounding a humanitarian disaster in the region packed with internally displaced people. It has also angered Turkey and risked a military confrontation between Turkish and Syrian troops.

The town of Saraqeb, near the Turkish border, has been at the center of intense fighting for days. Opposition fighters pushed out government soldiers who entered it Wednesday, while Turkey sent in new reinforcements Thursday and threatened to use force to compel the Syrian forces to retreat by the end of the month.

The town sits at the intersection of two major highways, one linking the capital Damascus to the north and another connecting the country’s west and east.

State news agency SANA and state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV said Syrian army units entered the town before nightfall and were combing it for remaining fighters and explosives.

The Syrian army had earlier besieged the town and at least four Turkish military posts set up to protect Saraqeb against the advance were also besieged.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said army units entered Saraqeb but had not yet taken control.

Video taken by The Associated Press showed rebel fighters lobbing shells at government troops from around the town of Binnish, northwest of Saraqeb. Fighters stacked artillery shells and burned tires.

“Today, we are burning tires for the war that’s hitting the town of Binnish,” said one unidentified fighter, pledging to defeat anyone who tried to advance on the town. “Let them come here and we will stomp on their head one after another,” he added.

The government advance came after a rare confrontation between Turkey and Syria forces Monday that killed seven Turkish soldiers and a Turkish civilian member of the military, as well as 13 Syrian soldiers.

In Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that Russian soldiers had been killed in a northern Syrian province alongside Turkish servicemen, without saying when the incident occurred or how many were killed. The ministry blamed “terrorists” for the deaths.

Russia is a main backer of Assad’s forces, while Turkey supports insurgents fighting his government.

Syrian troops have been advancing since December into the country’s last rebel stronghold, which spans Idlib province and parts of nearby Aleppo. Turkish troops are deployed in some of those rebel-held areas to monitor an earlier cease-fire that has since collapsed.

Turkey has set up four military posts to prevent Syrian government forces from marching deeper into Idlib, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said. It said Turkish troops have “flagrantly violated” Syria’s border and deployed in several areas, including the villages of Binnish, Taftanaz and Maaret Musreen.

The Syrian offensive to retake the rebel held areas in the northwest has led to a humanitarian crisis, with more than 580,000 civilians fleeing their homes since the beginning of December, according to the U.N. Many of them have sought safety in areas close to the border with Turkey. At least 53 health facilities have suspended work in the area, according to the World Health Organization.

Idlib province is home to some 3 million people, many of them displaced from other parts of Syria in earlier bouts of violence.

The European Union called Thursday for an end to the fighting and urged warring factions to allow aid workers and supplies into the area.

“Bombings and other attacks on civilians in north-west Syria must stop,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the bloc’s Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic said in a statement.

They said the EU, a major aid donor, would continue to provide help but that “unimpeded, safe and secure access” was required.

The Observatory said Syrian warplanes on Thursday attacked a military air base in the village of Taftanaz, where Turkish troops deployed recently.

The Observatory said Syrian rebels later launched an attack under the cover of intense Turkish artillery shelling on the village of Nairab, which Syrian troops captured earlier in the week.

The insurgents carried out at least one suicide attack with an armored personnel carrier rigged with explosives, according to citizen journalist Taher al-Omar, who is embedded with the militants on the edge of the village.

Turkish leaders have repeatedly called on Russia to “rein in” Syrian government forces.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded Thursday that Russia was concerned about the concentration of insurgent groups in Idlib and their “continuing activity. “

Peskov said the Kremlin doesn’t rule out a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss the situation in Syria.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said a delegation from Russia would arrive in Turkey soon for talks on the situation following the attack on Turkish soldiers. He said a follow-up meeting between Erdogan and Putin could also take place “if there is a need.”

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue reported this story in Beirut and AP writer Daria Litvinova reported from Moscow. AP writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.