World expresses raw outrage at Russian attack on Ukraine

A Ukrainian national flag waves over the centre of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city (Mstyslav Chernov/AP)

World leaders have expressed raw outrage, condemning Russia’s attack on its neighbour Ukraine as the European Union and others promised unprecedented sanctions to hit the Kremlin.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called it a “barbaric attack” on an independent nation that also targeted “the stability in Europe and the whole of the international peace order”.