Air-raid sirens rang out in Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday morning as Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Thousands of people are now trying to flee the capital as Russian troops have begun military action in multiple major Ukrainian cities.
“Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote on Twitter. “Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes. This is a war of aggression. 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.”
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Ukrainian security forces accompany a wounded man after an airstrike hit an apartment complex in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Photo: Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesFirefighters work on a fire on a building after bombings on the eastern Ukraine town of Chuguiv on February 24, 2022. Photo: ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty ImagesPeople stand outside a destroyed building after bombings on the eastern Ukraine town of Chuguiv on February 24, 2022. Photo: ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images A woman stands in a street as black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv on February 24, 2022. Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images Inhabitants of Kyiv leave the city following pre-offensive missile strikes of the Russian armed forces and Belarus on February 24, 2022. Photo: Pierre Crom/Getty Images A religious woman holds a cross as she prays on Independence square in Kyiv in the morning of February 24, 2022. A couple speaks with each other at a metro station in Kyiv early on February 24, 2022. Photo: DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty ImagesA column of army trucks moves across the town of Armyansk, northern Crimea. Photo: Sergei Malgavko\TASS via Getty ImagesPeople take photos of a rocket as it is removed on February 24, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty ImagesPeople wait for buses at a bus station as they attempt to evacuate the city on February 24, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: Pierre Crom/Getty Images An Ukrainian armored military vehicle is pictured in central Kyiv on February 24, 2022. Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images
