Russia launches full-scale invasion of Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin ordered a military assault across multiple fronts, the largest attack on a European state since the Second World War.
Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine before dawn on Thursday, striking cities across the country with missiles and sending troops across the border from the north, east and south in the largest military assault on a European nation since the Second World War.
President Vladimir Putin announced the attack in a televised address, casting it as a "special military operation" to "demilitarise" and "denazify" Ukraine — claims that Kyiv and Western governments dismissed as a pretext for conquest. Explosions were reported in the capital Kyiv, in Kharkiv, Odesa and other cities, and Russian columns advanced toward the capital.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law and urged citizens to defend their country, rallying a resistance that proved far fiercer than Moscow appeared to expect. Long lines formed at borders as hundreds of thousands of civilians fled westward in what would become Europe's largest refugee crisis in decades.
The invasion drew swift and sweeping condemnation. The United States, European Union and allies announced far-reaching sanctions targeting Russian banks, companies and members of the elite, and began supplying weapons to Ukraine. Protests against the war broke out in cities around the world, including in Russia itself.
The assault shattered the post-Cold War security order in Europe and set off a conflict whose consequences — in lives lost, in energy and food markets, and in the realignment of global politics — would be felt far beyond Ukraine's borders.