BBC journalist Clive Myrie appeared to shed a tear while reporting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last night.
Myrie was reporting live in Kyiv for BBC News at 10 in front of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery as sirens blared around him.
He told viewers that ‘fierce fighting’ was taking place and said Russia had attacked Ukraine ‘by land, sea and air’ on a brutal day of violence and bloodshed as the invasion got underway yesterday.
Then, as he introduced BBC News international correspondent Orla Gueri, a tear visibly streaked down his face. Dozens took to social media to share their shock at the scene.
One person wrote: ‘Extraordinary! Clive Myrie presenting the @BBCNews at 10 from Kyiv with a tear rolling down his cheek.’
As Clive Myrie introduced BBC News international correspondent Orla Gueri, a tear visibly streaked down his face
Another said: ‘Wow, a tear ran down the face of Clive Myrie just now while presenting the BBC News at 10.’
While a third said: ‘Extraordinary – Clive Myrie delivering the news from Kyiv with great dignity, and a tear on his cheek.’
The assault, anticipated for weeks by the U.S. and Western allies and undertaken by Putin in the face of international condemnation and cascading sanctions, amounts to the largest ground war in Europe since World War II.
The invasion began early Thursday with a series of missile strikes, many on key government and military installations, quickly followed by a three-pronged ground assault.
Ukraine officials said they had lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Ukrainian and U.S. officials said Russian forces were attacking from the east toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city; from the southern region of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014; and from Belarus to the north.
Civilians piled into trains and cars to flee.
Meanwhile, a British news crew covering the Russian advance were forced to run for their lives during shelling in the south-east of Ukraine.
Dramatic video shows Sky News correspondent Alex Rossi scrambling for cover from mortar fire in Berdyansk on the coast of the Sea of Azov around 50 miles from the strategically important port city of Mariupol.
Sheltering in a nearby building, he says: ‘It just shows how quickly things can change here. We were outside filming. [It was] really calm. There had been shells that had come in this morning. But again, it had gone quiet, everything felt very, very normal. We’ve just had to come in here to take cover because there’s been incoming mortar fire.’
Mariupol appears to have come under fire attack by Kremlin forces as Russian dictator Putin attempts to strangle a vital shipping route used by Ukraine to wreck the country’s economy as it fights a war of national survival.
Russian troops are also expected to arrive in Kyiv today and are now fighting just 20 miles from the outskirts, an official has said, as US intelligence warned of a plan to seize an airport, fly in troops, and ‘decapitate’ the government.
Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the country’s interior minister, said Friday will be the war’s ‘hardest day’ as Russia armour pushes down from Chernihiv – to the north-east of the capital – and Ivankiv – to the north-west – in an attempt to encircle the city, where President Volodymyr Zelensky is still holed up.
Once the city is surrounded, US intelligence believes the plan will be for Russian special forces to move in and seize an airport – likely Sikorsky or Boryspil – which would then be used to fly in a much larger force of up to 10,000 paratroopers who would assault the capital.
The job of the paratroopers would be to enter the city, find Zelensky, his ministers, and parliamentarians, before forcing them to sign a peace deal handing control of the country back to Russia or a Moscow-backed puppet regime – effectively ending the war without Putin’s ground forces going to the difficult and bloody trouble of seizing and occupying the whole country.
Natali Sevriukova, a resident of Kyiv, is pictured weeping on the streets of Kyiv after a Russian rocket strike destroyed the apartment block where she lives overnight
Firemen pick their way through the rubble of a destroyed apartment in Kyiv, as President Zelensky said the Russian military is now targeting civilian areas
Ukraine claimed to have shot down a Russian jet over the outskirts of Kyiv overnight, with wreckage falling on a house and leaving several people injured
It appears the Russians almost pulled off the plan on Day 1 of the invasion when 20 attack helicopters landed a crack team of troops at Antonov Airport, 15 miles to the north of Kyiv, where they spent the day fighting. But Ukrainian national guard units managed to retake the landing strip overnight, scattering the surviving Russian attackers into the surrounding countryside.
The Russian attack on the capital would likely be coordinated with a push by troops on southern and eastern fronts – Crimea and Donbass – aimed at pinning down Ukrainian armed forces so they cannot retreat and reinforce the city, officials told author Michael Weiss.
It may also be accompanied by bombing raids and sabotage attacks on power grids and infrastructure to sow panic and force people to flee, snarling up roads and making it difficult for forces already in Kyiv to move around.
The plan appeared to be underway in the early hours, as explosions sounded before dawn with the city under bombardment from what the defense minister called ‘horrific rocket strikes’ not seen since 1941.
Ukraine’s armed forces claimed to have shot down a Russian jet over the outskirts of the city, with flaming wreckage seen falling from the sky, as Zelensky gave a national address, saying Russia has identified him as ‘target number 1’ of the invasion but he and his family were remaining in the city.
He said invading Russian forces are targeting civilian areas, praising his countrymen for their ‘heroism’ and assuring them that the armed forces are doing ‘everything possible’ to protect them.
