Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday (Friday morning AEDT), hitting cities and bases with airstrikes or shelling, as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee.
Ukraine's government pleaded for help as it said Russian tanks and troops rolled across the border in a "full-scale war" that could rewrite the geopolitical order.
President Vladimir Putin ignored global condemnation and cascading new sanctions as he unleashed Moscow's most aggressive action since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and chillingly referred to his country's nuclear arsenal.
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He threatened any foreign country trying to interfere with "consequences you have never seen."
Ukrainian officials said their forces were battling Russians on a series of fronts.
"Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won't give up its freedom," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted.
READ MORE: Russia begins full-scale military invasion of Ukraine
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496787304811315202?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwLater, he offered Russia an end to the hostilities.
"It wasn't Ukraine that chose the path of war, but Ukraine is offering to go back to the path of peace," he said.
He said the Russian airborne unit at an airport outside the capital of Kyiv was being destroyed.
The Ukrainian leader said many Russian warplanes and armoured vehicles across the country were destroyed but didn't give numbers.
He also said an unidentified number of Russian troops were taken prisoners.
Zelenskyy, who earlier cut diplomatic ties with Moscow and declared martial law, described Russian forces advancing on multiple fronts, including a "difficult situation" developing in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, just over 20km away from the eastern border with Russia, and Russian troops slowly advancing from the north on the city of Chernihiv.
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He appealed to global leaders, saying that "if you don't help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door."
Zelenskyy said Russian forces were trying to seize the Chernobyl nuclear plant, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, and Ukrainian forces were battling other troops outside Kyiv for control of a strategic airport.
Large explosions were heard in the capital and in other cities, and people massed in train stations and took to roads, as the government said the former Soviet republic was seeing a long-anticipated invasion from the east, north and south.
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The chief of the NATO alliance said the "brutal act of war" shattered peace in Europe, joining a chorus of world leaders who decried the attack, which could cause massive casualties, topple Ukraine's democratically elected government and upend the post-Cold War security order.
The conflict was already shaking global financial markets: Stocks plunged and oil prices soared amid concerns that heating bills and food prices would skyrocket.
Condemnation rained down not only from the US and Europe, but from South Korea, Australia and beyond — and many governments readied new sanctions.
As the first major world leader to make a big move, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a freeze on the assets of all large Russian banks and plans to bar Russian companies and the Kremlin from raising money on British markets.
Britain will also ban the export to Russia of a wide range of high-tech products, including semiconductors, and prohibit the nation's flagship airline, Aeroflot, from landing at British airports.
Even friendly leaders like Hungary's Viktor Orban sought to distance themselves from Putin.
While some nervous Europeans speculated about a possible new world war, the US and its NATO partners have so far shown no indication they would join in a war against Russia.
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They instead mobilised troops and equipment around Ukraine's western flank — as Ukraine pleaded for defence assistance and help protecting its airspace.
In Washington, President Joe Biden convened a meeting of the National Security Council on Ukraine as the US prepares new sanctions.
Biden administration officials have signalled that two of the measures they were considering most strongly include hitting Russia's biggest banks and slapping on new export controls meant to starve Russia's industries and military of US semiconductors and other high-tech components.
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The attacks came first from the air.
Later Ukrainian authorities described ground invasions in multiple regions, and border guards released footage showing a line of Russian military vehicles crossing into Ukraine's government-held territory.
European authorities declared the country's airspace an active conflict zone.
In a worrying development, Zelenskyy said Russian forces were trying to seize the Chernobyl plant, and a Ukrainian official said Russian shelling hit a radioactive waste repository and an increase in radiation levels was reported.
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The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
Other governments did not immediately corroborate or confirm the claims.
The plant was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a nuclear reactor exploded in 1986, spewing a radioactive cloud across Europe. The plant lies 130km north of the capital of Kyiv.
After weeks of denying plans to invade, Putin launched the operation on a country the size of Texas that has increasingly tilted toward the democratic West and away from Moscow's sway.
The autocratic leader made clear earlier this week that he sees no reason for Ukraine to exist, raising fears of possible broader conflict in the vast space that the Soviet Union once ruled.
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Putin denied plans to occupy Ukraine, but his ultimate goals remain hazy.
Ukrainians who had long braced for the prospect of an assault were urged to shelter in place and not to panic despite the dire warnings.
"We are facing a war and horror. What could be worse?" 64-year-old Liudmila Gireyeva said in Kyiv.
She planned to flee the city and try to eventually get to Poland to join her daughter. Putin "will be damned by history, and Ukrainians are damning him."
With social media amplifying a torrent of military claims and counter-claims, it was difficult to determine exactly what was happening on the ground.
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Associated Press reporters saw or confirmed explosions in the capital, in Mariupol on the Azov Sea, Kharkiv in the east and beyond.
AP confirmed video showing Russian military vehicles crossing into Ukrainian-held territory in the north from Belarus and from Russian-annexed Crimea in the south.
Russian and Ukrainian authorities made competing claims about damage they had inflicted.
Russia's Defence Ministry said it had destroyed scores of Ukrainian air bases, military facilities and drones, and confirmed the loss of a Su-25 attack jet, blaming it on "pilot error." It said it was not targeting cities, but using precision weapons and claimed that "there is no threat to civilian population."
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Ukraine's armed forces reported at least 40 soldiers dead, and said a military plane carrying 14 people crashed south of Kyiv.
Poland's military increased its readiness level, and Lithuania and Moldova moved toward doing the same.
Border crossings increased from Ukraine to Poland, which has prepared centres for refugees.
Putin justified his actions in an overnight televised address, asserting that the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the US had predicted he would make as a pretext for an invasion.
READ MORE: Russia declares 'military action' in Ukraine, warns other countries against interfering
He accused the US and its allies of ignoring Russia's demands to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and for security guarantees.
Anticipating international condemnation and countermeasures, Putin issued a stark warning to other countries not to meddle.
In a reminder of Russia's nuclear power, he warned that "no one should have any doubts that a direct attack on our country will lead to the destruction and horrible consequences for any potential aggressor."
Among Putin's pledges was to "denazify" Ukraine.
World War II looms large in Russia, after the Soviet Union suffered more deaths than any country while fighting Adolf Hitler's forces.
READ MORE: Russia declares 'military action' in Ukraine, warns other countries against interfering
Kremlin propaganda paints members of Ukrainian right-wing groups as neo-Nazis, exploiting their admiration for WWII-era Ukrainian nationalist leaders who sided with the Nazis.
Ukraine is now led by a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust and angrily dismissed the Russian claims.
Putin's announcement came just hours after the Ukrainian president rejected Moscow's claims that his country poses a threat to Russia and made a passionate, last-minute plea for peace
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The attack began even as the UN Security Council was meeting to hold off an invasion. Members still unaware of Putin's announcement of the operation appealed to him to stand down.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the emergency meeting, telling Putin: "Give peace a chance."
But hours later, NATO's Jens Stoltenberg indicated it was too late: "Peace on our continent has been shattered."
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