The global leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad has urged world leaders to discontinue the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, asking that they consider a peaceful solution through diplomacy.

Mr Ahmad made his comments in an address seen by Peoples Gazette on Thursday. 

“There is still time for the world to step back from the brink of disaster and so, for the sake of humanity, I urge Russia, NATO and all major powers to concentrate all their efforts on seeking to de-escalate the conflict and working towards a peaceful solution through diplomacy,” Mr Ahmad wrote. 

His comments come as Russia’s Vladimir Putin began invading Ukraine on Thursday, unleashing airstrikes and missiles on Ukrainian cities and military bases. Russian forces surrounded and invaded the European countries from the east toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city; from the southern region of Crimea, and from Belarus to the north.

Mr Putin had warned against interference from world powers, threatening “consequences you have never seen.” 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, in an address, that 137 civilians and military personnel had been killed in the country on the first day of the Russian invasion. Mr Zelensky called them “heroes” adding that 316 people had been wounded.

Ukraine has lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to Russia, as well as its international airport.  Ukraine’s military said it had destroyed four Russian tanks near Kharkiv, killed 50 troops near a town in the Luhansk region and downed six Russian warplanes elsewhere in the east.