Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Thursday, assaulting by land, sea and air in the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.
Missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities. Ukraine reported columns of troops pouring across its borders from Russia and Belarus, and landing on the coast from the Black and Azov seas.
Explosions were heard before dawn and throughout the morning in the capital Kyiv, a city of 3 million people. Gunfire rattled, sirens blared, and the highway out of the city choked with traffic as residents fled.
The assault brought a calamitous end to weeks of fruitless diplomatic efforts by Western leaders to avert war, their worst fears about Russian President Vladimir Putin's ambitions realised.
"Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in the WW2 years," tweeted Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself & won't give up its freedom no matter what Moscow thinks."
Mr Zelenskyy on Thursday called on all citizens who were ready to defend the country from Russian forces to come forward, saying Kyiv would issue weapons to everyone who wants them.
He also urged Russians to take to the streets to protest against their government's actions.
US President Joe Biden said he was praying for Ukrainian victims of an "unprovoked and unjustified attack". EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said: "These are among the darkest hours of Europe since the Second World War."
Russian bombing
A resident of Kharkiv, the closest big city to the Russian border, said windows in apartment blocks were shaking from constant blasts.
Outside the southern port of Mariupol, near a frontline held by Russian-backed separatists, a Ukrainian armoured column headed along the road, with soldiers seated atop turrets smiling and flashing victory signs to cars which honked their horns in support.
In Mangush and Berdyansk towns, people queued for cash and gasoline. Civilians from Mariupol packed bags.
"We are going into hiding," one woman said.
Ukrainian officials said Russian helicopters attacked Gostomel, a military airport near Kyiv, and Ukraine downed three of them. Ukrainian border officials said the Russians were trying to penetrate Kyiv region and the Zhytomyr region on the Belarusian border, and they were using Grad rockets.
Initial unconfirmed reports of casualties included Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian bombardment and border guards defending the frontier. Regional authorities of Ukraine's southern Odessa region said 18 people were killed in a missile attack. At least six people were killed in Brovary, a town near Kyiv, authorities there said.
Ukraine's military said it had destroyed four Russian tanks on a road near Kharkiv, killed 50 troops near a town in Luhansk region and downed six Russian warplanes in the east.
Russia denied reports its aircraft or armoured vehicles had been destroyed. Russian-backed separatists claimed to have downed two Ukrainian planes.
'Unprovoked and unjustified'
In an early-morning declaration of war, Mr Putin said he had ordered "a special military operation" to protect people, including Russian citizens, subjected to "genocide" in Ukraine - an accusation the West calls absurd propaganda.
"And for this we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine," Mr Putin said.
"Russia cannot feel safe, develop, and exist with a constant threat emanating from the territory of modern Ukraine...All responsibility for bloodshed will be on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine." read more
Mr Biden has ruled out sending US troops to defend Ukraine but he and other Western leaders promised tough financial sanctions.
"Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way," Mr Biden said.
Putin a 'dictator'
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin was a "dictator" who now faced "massive" Western sanctions for invading Ukraine.
"We cannot and will not just look away," Mr Johnson said in a televised address to the nation, after phoning Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just as Russian forces moved in.
Ukraine can be assured of continued UK support given that "our worst fears have now come true and all our warnings have proved tragically accurate", the prime minister said.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned Russia of an uncompromising response to its attack on Ukraine, which he described as a turning point in European history.
"We will respond without weakness to this act of war, with calm, determination and unity," Mr Macron said in an address to the nation.
He added that the events were a "turning point in the history of Europe and our country" that would have "deep and lasting consequences for our lives".
NATO has announced it will take additional steps to strengthen the alliance's deterrence and defence after Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine.
The defence alliance will also hold an emergency summit of its 30 member nations on Friday.
The UN refugee chief warned Thursday Russia's invasion of Ukraine would have "devastating" humanitarian consequences and urged neighbouring countries to keep borders open to those fleeing the violence.
"We are gravely concerned about the fast-deteriorating situation and ongoing military action in Ukraine," Felippo Grandi said in a statement.
"The humanitarian consequences on civilian populations will be devastating. There are no winners in war but countless lives will be torn apart."
Economies around the world threatened
Russia is one of the world's biggest energy producers, and both it and Ukraine are among the top exporters of grain. The prospect of war and sanctions threatens economies around the world already facing supply disruption as they emerge from the pandemic.
Stocks and bond yields plunged; the dollar and gold soared. Brent oil surged past US$100/barrel for the first time since 2014.
A democratic country of 44 million people, Ukraine is Europe's biggest country by area after Russia itself. It voted overwhelmingly for independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, and aims to join NATO and the European Union, aspirations that infuriate Moscow.
Mr Putin, who denied for months he was planning an invasion, has called Ukraine an artificial construct carved from Russia by its enemies, a characterisation Ukrainians see as an attempt to erase their more than 1,000-year-old history. While many Ukrainians, particularly in the east, speak Russian as a native language, virtually all identify as a separate nationality.
Three hours after Mr Putin gave his order, Russia's defence ministry said it had taken out military infrastructure at Ukrainian air bases and degraded its air defences.
Earlier, Ukrainian media reported that military command centres in Kyiv and Kharkiv had been struck by missiles, while Russian troops had landed at Odessa and Mariupol. A Reuters witness later heard three blasts in Mariupol.
Russia announced it was shutting all shipping in the Azov Sea. Russia controls the strait leading into the sea where Ukraine has ports including Mariupol. Ukraine appealed to Turkey to bar Russian ships from the straits connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
'We're afraid'
Queues of people waited to withdraw money and buy supplies of food and water in Kyiv. Traffic going out of the city towards the Polish border was jammed. Western countries have prepared for the likelihood of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing an assault.
Residents of Kyiv leave the city following pre-offensive missile strikes of the Russian armed forces on 24 February, 2022. Source: Getty / Pierre Crom/Getty Images
"We're afraid of bombardments," said Oxana, stuck in her car with her three-year-old daughter on the backseat. "This is so scary."
World leaders expressed near-universal outrage at the invasion, with China, which signed a friendship treaty with Russia three weeks ago, a notable exception. Beijing reiterated a call for all parties to exercise restraint and rejected a description of Russia's action as an invasion.
