Ukraine’s president said Friday his country had been left on its own to fight Russia after the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine invasion that killed over 130 Ukrainians in the first day and pleaded for help as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee.

“We have been left alone to defend our state,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in an emotional video address to the nation after midnight.  “Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid,” he added.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that could rewrite the global post-Cold War security order.

Zelensky said that 137 “heroes,” including 10 military officers, had been killed and 316 people wounded. The dead included all border guards on the Zmiinyi Island in the Odesa region, which was taken over by Russians.

Zelensky also said that Russian “sabotage groups” had entered the capital Kyiv, and urged the city’s citizens to remain vigilant and observe a curfew.

He concluded the speech by saying that “the fate of the country depends fully on our army, security forces, all of our defenders.” He also said the country had heard from Moscow that ”they want to talk about Ukraine’s neutral status.”

Earlier, he tweeted that “Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom.”

His grasp on power increasingly tenuous, he pleaded Thursday for even more severe sanctions than the ones imposed by Western allies and ordered a full military mobilization that would last 90 days.

Nevertheless, he said that he and his family remained in Ukraine, despite Russia identifying him as “target number one.”

“They want to destroy Ukraine politically by taking down the head of state,” Zelensky said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ignored global condemnation and cascading new sanctions as he unleashed the largest ground war in Europe since World War II and chillingly referred to his country’s nuclear arsenal. He threatened any country trying to interfere with “consequences you have never seen,” as a once-hoped for diplomatic resolution now appeared impossible.

Ukrainian forces braced for more attacks after enduring a Russian barrage of land- and sea-based missiles, an attack that one senior US defense official described as the first salvo in a likely multi-phase invasion aimed at seizing key population centers, “decapitating” Ukraine’s government and installing a new one. Already, Ukraine officials said they had lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

US officials told Newsweek they expected Kyiv would fall to incoming Russian forces within days, and the country’s resistance to be effectively neutralized soon thereafter.

Fearing a Russian attack on the capital city, thousands of people went deep underground as night fell, jamming Kyiv’s subway stations.

At times it felt almost cheerful. Families ate dinner. Children played. Adults chatted. People brought sleeping bags or dogs or crossword puzzles — anything to alleviate the waiting and the long night ahead.

But the exhaustion was clear on many faces. And the worries.

“Nobody believed that this war would start and that they would take Kyiv directly,” said Anton Mironov, waiting out the night in one of the old Soviet metro stations. “I feel mostly fatigue. None of it feels real.”

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. Ukrainian and US 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.

Zelinsky, who had earlier cut diplomatic ties with Moscow and declared martial law, appealed to global leaders, saying that “if you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door.”

US President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, saying Putin “chose this war” and that his country would bear the consequences. Other nations also announced sanctions, or said they would shortly.

Though Biden said he had no plans to speak with Putin, the Russian leader did have what the Kremlin described as a “serious and frank exchange” with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Both sides claimed to have destroyed some of the other’s aircraft and military hardware, though little of that could be confirmed.

Hours after the invasion began, Russian forces seized control of the now-unused Chernobyl plant and its surrounding exclusion zone after a fierce battle, presidential adviser Myhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said it was told by Ukraine of the takeover, adding that there had been “no casualties or destruction at the industrial site.”

The 1986 disaster occurred when a nuclear reactor at the plant 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Kyiv exploded, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. The damaged reactor was later covered by a protective shell to prevent leaks.

Alyona Shevtsova, adviser to the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, wrote on Facebook that staff members at the Chernobyl plant had been “taken hostage.” The White House said it was “outraged” by reports of the hostage-taking.

The chief of the NATO alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said the “brutal act of war” shattered peace in Europe, joining a chorus of world leaders decrying an attack that could cause massive casualties and topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government. 

HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?

God, who knows history in advance, provided through the Bible a description of what the world would be like in the time prior to Jesus Christ’s second coming to the earth.

“Increased geopolitical unrest within the world, including ‘wars and rumors of wars,’ is among the signs emphasized, by Jesus, as a sign of the end of the age (Matthew 24:3-8),” Harbingers Daily Reporter Brandon Beckham recently explained.

Matthew‬ ‭24:3-4, 6‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them… ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars…”

As the world witnesses Bible Prophecy begin to unfold, Beckham underscored the importance of not putting off making a decision for Christ.

“As we witness, among other things, increasing geopolitical unrest in the world, it is important to heed the words of the Apostle Paul, as written in 2 Corinthians 6:2, ‘now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,’” Beckham wrote. “If you don’t know Jesus Christ, now is the time to come to experience the assurance of salvation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ – including forgiveness of sin, salvation, the hope of heaven.”