Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, forcing residents to flee for their lives and leaving hundreds dead.Follow the latest news as it happens:Thursday 24 February3:45 p.m.:A Ukrainian military plane with 14 people aboard crashed south of Kyiv on Thursday, the emergencies service said.The service said it was "still determining how many people died." The incident occurred about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Kyiv, amid reports of several locations around the city coming under attack.3:37 p.m.:The UN refugee chief warned Thursday Russia's invasion of Ukraine would have "devastating" humanitarian consequences and urged neighbouring countries to keep borders open to those fleeing the violence."We are gravely concerned about the fast-deteriorating situation and ongoing military action in Ukraine," Felippo Grandi said in a statement.3:30 p.m.:Several Russian cultural figures also made statements against the war."Soviet crimes went unpunished in Russia, and so they recur.
The price for what was not done in 1991 are the Russian missiles and bombs killing Ukrainians today," Sergei Lebedev, author of Untraceable, wrote under a photograph of the Bykivnia graves outside Kyiv where enemies of the people executed by the NKVD were buried."It is too early to ask Ukrainians to forgive us," he wrote.
"We will ask for forgiveness after the criminals who began this war are punished.
If they are punished."Yelena Kovalskaya, director of the Meyerhold Theater Center, announced her resignation from the state theater Thursday, saying: "It is impossible to work for a murderer and receive salary from him.
I will finish the work Ive started, but without pay."2:31 p.m.:Eighteen people died in an air strike on a military base near Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odessa, the local administration said."Eighteen died eight men and 10 women.
At the moment, we are still digging through the rubble," the Odessa regional administration said in a statement.2:30 p.m.:Russian forces have broken throughinto the north of the Kyiv region, Ukraine's border guards said, staging an attack with Grad missiles on government positions.Videos circulating on social media showed Russian Mi-8 and Ka-52 helicopters assaulting the Antonov International Airport in the Kyiv suburb of Gostomel.AFP contributed reporting.