Russia attackedUkraine early Thursday, with reports of strikes and explosions across the country.- Ukraine's foreign minister said Russia "launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine."
Ukraine said on Thursday that Russia had launched a "full-scale invasion" of the country and was attacking from multiple directions.
Russia attacked Ukraine early Thursday morning, launching a new war in Europe for the first time in years.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said Russia was "launching attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities from different directions, including from the territory of the temporary occupied Donbas and Crimea, as well as from South-East region."
"This is an act of war, an attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, a brutal violation of the UN Charter, basic norms and principles of the international law," it said.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister, tweeted: "Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes."
"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."
The foreign ministry statement also called for even harsher sanctions on Russia, something the UK and the European Union said they were working on.
Ukraine's border guard said Russian military columns had crossed into at least three Ukrainian regions Thursday — Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Luhansk — Reuters reported.
The BBC reported that missile strikes and explosions were heard across Ukraine.
Russia previously invaded and took control of Ukrainian territory — the Crimean Peninsula — in 2014. It also backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, with which it shares a border, creating an eight-year conflict.
The reports of missile strikes and explosions across Ukraine suggest Russia's ambitions this time are much larger; Western leaders had long warned that a major invasion of Ukraine would constitute the largest military operation in Europe since World War II.