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Venezuela accused the US forces of hitting residential areas in a wave of strikes early Saturday, and announced a major deployment of military resources. The "invading" US forces "have desecrated our soil, going so far as to strike, using missiles and rockets fired from their combat helicopters, residential areas populated by civilians," said Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez in a video statement shared on social media, according to media reports.

According to reports of the Sputnik News on Saturday, US strikes on Venezuelan territory have affected the capital, the states of Miranda and Aragua, and several other locations across the country, Lopez said.

With Venezuelans nervously wondering what would come next, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state TV on a street and wearing a helmet and flak jacket, urging people not to cooperate with the "terrorist enemy," Reuters reported.

Cabello said Venezuelans should not fall into "despair" and avoid making it easier "for the enemy invader, the enemy terrorist that cowardly attacked us," according to the NBC News.

According to the report, Venezuela has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council in response to the US attack on the country, Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto said. "No cowardly attack will prevail against the strength of this people, who will emerge victorious," he said on Telegram, sharing the letter sent to the UN.

At the outbreak of the strike, attention focused on whether Venezuela's defense minister would comment. After the video was posted by the defense minister on social media, Global Times reporters could not verify whether it was released before or after US President Donald Trump announced earlier that Maduro had been captured and flown out of Venezuela following a large-scale US strike on Caracas.

According to multiple US media outlets, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X on Saturday.

Global Times