Russia attackedUkraine early Thursday morning.- This map tracks reports of explosions across the country, and Russian troops entering by by various routes.
Russia attacked Ukraine early on Thursday morning, with reports of explosions across the country as well as Russian troops entering by various routes.
Ukraine's foreign minister described it as "a full-scale attack from multiple directions," and Ukrainian police said Russia has carried out 203 attacks since the beginning of the day, Reuters reported.
The above map of some attacks was compiled by Insider from its own sources and some media reports.
Red entries are explosions and yellow entries show Russian troops entering by land.
The capital city Kyiv was hit by numerous explosions, seen in photos and described in news reports. One source described to Insider hearing explosions and gunfire near its Boryspil
Kharviv, a major city near the border with Russia was also hit with explosions. A source there told Insider they heard explosions. Russian troops entered across the border just 20 miles from the city, The New York Times reported.
Explosions were also reported in Kramatorsk, Dnipro, Odessa, Mariupol, Lutsk, and Ivano-Frankivsk, and Russian troops were reported crossing the border near Chernihiv and Kherson, according to the Reuters and New York Times reports.
Russia's conflict with Ukraine has been rumbling for years but escalated dramatically in recent weeks.
Russia assembled vast numbers of troops around Ukraine — as many as 190,000, per US estimates — in the largest military operation in the region since World War II.
On Monday, Putin recognized the claims to independence of the breakaway Luhansk and Donetsk areas of Ukraine, ordering troops there for what he described as a limited peace-keeping operation in the east of the country.
Less than 72 hours later, Putin authorized a full-scale attack on Ukraine. In the hours that followed, explosions pounded cities around Ukraine, many hundreds of miles from the previous conflict zone. Ukrainian officials reported fighting on its borders with Russia, and dozens of casualties.
The new wave of hostilities expanded the clash from a limited incursion over disputed land into the most serious armed conflict in Europe for at least a decade.
Insider's live blog of the invasion is covering developments as they happen.