Update 22:04- There are 57 people who have died and 169 people have been injured – including both combat and non-combat injuries – following attacks by Russian forces, said Ukraine’s Minister of Healthcare Viktor Lyashko, CNN reports
Lyashko said hospitals and medical workers had also come under fire including in Avdiivka and Vuhledar in Donetsk – with casualties reported among medical workers.
Update 17:46- Ukrainian authorities say 7 people have been killed and 17 wounded in a missile attack on a military area northeast of the capital of Kyiv, according to CNN.
The mayor of the city of Brovary, Ihor Sapozhko, said the attack occurred at 2:30 p.m. local time. Brovary has a Ukrainian Special Forces base. It was one of several Russian strikes close to Kyiv.
Update 17:22- A Turkish-owned ship was hit by a bomb off the coast of Ukraine’s port city Odessa, Turkey’s Maritime General Directorate said, adding there were no casualties and the ship was safely en route into Romanian waters, according to Reuters.
Update 17:12- An air raid warning has been issued by the Kyiv city government. All residents are being asked to seek underground shelters. Air sirens can be heard across Kyiv, CNN reports.
Update 16:42- Russian airborne troops have taken control of the Antonov Airport, which is about 25 miles away from the center of Kyiv, Ukraine, according to CNN.
“The troops have an orange and black band on the arm of their uniforms to identify them as Russian forces,” CNN’s Matthew Chance reported
The commander of the unit told CNN there was a fire fight presumably with the Ukrainian military, which says it is staging a counteroffensive to try and take back this airport.
Update 16:13- Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed 74 above-ground military infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, including 11 aerodromes, the RIA news agency reported, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian police said Russia had carried out 203 attacks since the beginning of the day, with fighting going on almost everywhere throughout Ukraine’s territory.
State border guards said the Ukrainian military was fighting Russian forces near the eastern city of Sumy. Ukraine’s defence minister said some Russian forces had been taken prisoner in heavy fighting.
Update 15:56- A Ukrainian military plane was shot down and five people were killed, Ukrainian police and the state emergency service said, as its armed forces sought to defend against a massive Russian military operation, according to Reuters.
Update 15:32- Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelensky says his country’s armed forces are repelling attacks in the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine as well as other parts of the country. The Ukrainian military says it has killed about 50 Russian “occupiers” and shot down at least six Russian aircraft, although this has not been independently verified, according to BBC News.
Update 14:26- Multiple explosions could be heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a Reuters reporter said, after Russia launched a massive military operation.
Update 13:15- Regional authorities of Ukraine’s southern Odessa region said on that 18 people were killed in a missile attack. At least six people were killed in Ukraine’s town of Brovary, located near the capital of Kyiv, authorities from the town said, according to Reuters.
Update 12:47- Russian missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities. Ukraine reported columns of troops pouring across its borders into the eastern Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, and landing by sea at the port cities of Odessa and Mariupol in the south, according to Reuters.
Russian forces fired missiles at several cities in Ukraine and landed troops on its coast on Thursday, officials and media said, after President Vladimir Putin authorized what he called a special military operation in the east, according to Reuters.
Shortly after Putin spoke in a televised address on Russian state TV, explosions could be heard in the pre-dawn quiet of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Gunfire rattled near the capital’s main airport, the Interfax news agency said, and sirens were heard over the city.
“Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.
“This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”
U.S. President Joe Biden, reacting to an invasion the United States had been predicting for weeks, said his prayers were with the people of Ukraine as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack, while promising tough sanctions in response.
“I will be meeting with the leaders of the G7, and the United States and our allies and partners will be imposing severe sanctions on Russia,” Biden said in a statement.
Russia has demanded an end to NATO’s eastward expansion and Putin repeated his position that Ukrainian membership of the U.S.-led Atlantic military alliance was unacceptable.
He said he had authorized military action after Russia had been left with no choice but to defend itself against what he said were threats from modern Ukraine, a democratic state of 44 million people.
“Russia cannot feel safe, develop, and exist with a constant threat emanating from the territory of modern Ukraine,” Putin said. “All responsibility for bloodshed will be on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine.”
The full scope of the Russian military operation was not immediately clear but Putin said: “Our plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. We are not going to impose anything by force.”
Speaking as the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York, Putin said he had ordered Russian forces to protect the people and appealed to the Ukrainian military to lay down their arms.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had carried out missile strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and border guards, and that explosions had been heard in many cities. An official also reported non-stop cyber attacks.
Zelenskiy said that martial law had been declared and he had appealed to world leaders to impose all possible sanctions on Russia, including on Putin, who he said wanted to destroy the Ukrainian state.
Three hours after Putin gave his order, Russia’s defence ministry said it had taken out military infrastructure at Ukrainian air bases and degraded its air defences, Russian media reported.
Earlier, Ukrainian media reported that military command centres in Kyiv and the city of Kharkiv in the northeast had been struck by missiles, while Russian troops had landed in the southern port cities of Odessa and Mariupol.
A Reuters witness later heard three loud blasts in Mariupol. Russian-backed separatists in the east later said they had captured two towns, the RIA news agency reported. There was no immediate comment by authorities in Ukraine.
Hours before the invasion began, the separatists issued a plea to Moscow for help to stop alleged Ukrainian aggression – claims the United States dismissed as Russian propaganda.
Queues of people waited to withdraw money and buy supplies of food and water in Kyiv, while traffic was jammed going west out of the city towards the Polish border.
“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,” said Biden, who spoke to Zelenskiy by telephone.