In maps, videos and photos, how Russia’s attack on Ukraine is unfolding on the ground

Military analysts and Western officials had been warning of a brutal assault that could lead to the worst conflict in Europe since World War II. In photos, videos and maps, this is how the situation on the ground is unfolding, including reports from journalists for The Washington Post on the ground.

For the latest developments from Ukraine, follow our live coverage.

In Ukraine and neighboring Poland Washington Post reporters witnessed the attack unfold firsthand. Siobhán O’Grady took shelter with other colleagues in a Kyiv hotel basement as Russian forces attacked an airbase nearby.

Post photojournalist Salwan Georges reported from a Kharkiv subway station, where hundreds were taking shelter from bombardments. Some of the Ukrainians there said their family members were above ground, fighting with the military.

And The Post’s Loveday Morris reported from the Ukrainian-Polish border where a steady stream of people were crossing into Poland on foot. U.S. troops inside Poland are moving closer to help process those fleeing.

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, residents flocked to gas stations in the morning to fill up. They wanted to be prepared, but not everyone was set on leaving.

“We will stay in Ukraine,” Kristina Nimenko, 18, told The Washington Post. “We will stay at home because we are from Ukraine.”

Across the country, Ukrainians faced a new reality on Thursday.

They got in their cars to drive west.

But had to avoid Ukrainian carriers in the streets.

They fled to train stations.

They took shelter from the strikes in underground subway stations.

And they looked on as smoke from Russian bombardments rose.

In a Kharkiv hotel lobby, a boy played the piano as Russian tanks advanced on the city.

By Thursday morning, it became clear the attack was coming from multiple areas. Video published by Ukraine’s border guard showed Russian military vehicles entering the country through Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

In central Ukraine, east of the Dnieper River, explosions near a Ukrainian airfield were documented.

Washington Post reporter Siobhán O’Grady is in Kyiv and could hear loud explosions in Ukraine’s capital. She sent in this report just after the strikes began.

“From central Kyiv, the booms just after 5 a.m. appeared to be relatively far from major urban centers. As dawn begins to break here, traffic appears to be moving relatively normally with plenty of cars driving calmly and no audible sirens or panicked pedestrians,” O’Grady said.

Large explosions could also be seen and heard in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv, the country’s second largest after Kyiv.

Just hours before Putin’s declaration, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for peace in an emotional video address. Speaking directly to the Russian people, in their language, he warned that the Kremlin had ordered nearly 200,000 troops to enter his country.

“If these forces attack us,” Zelensky warned, “if you attempt to take away our country, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. Not attack, defend.”

On Wednesday, satellite imagery released by Maxar Technologies showed new deployments in western Russia, according to the organization, which has been tracking Moscow’s military movements. Maxar released photos it said showed deployments within 10 miles of the Ukrainian border and less than 50 miles from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The satellite image below showed equipment deployed near Kupino, Russia, some 11 miles from Ukraine’s border, according to Maxar.

In Belarus, about 22 miles from Ukraine’s border, an increased Russian presence was also captured. On Feb. 4, the Bolshoy Bokov airfield, near Mazyr, Belarus, was an empty snowy field.

By Tuesday, equipment had filled the space.

Russian troops are “ready to go,” Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby told reporters Wednesday. “They could attack at any time,” he added, “with a significant military force.”

On a potential invasion path, Ukrainians watch, worry, plan — and some dance

Activists in Kharkiv, about 50 miles from where Russian troops amassed, held an annual vigil on Tuesday to remember those killed in Ukraine’s years-long conflict with Russian-backed separatists. But this year’s vigil was just as much a memorial as it was an act of defiance.

In a Ukrainian city on Russia’s doorstep, Putin’s plans stir deep worries and defiance

“Everyone understands that a war has already been declared,” said Voloymyr Chistilin, one of the organizers of Patriots’ Day in Kharkiv. “And this is a critical, decisive moment.”

But life in Kharkiv looked surprisingly normal even as Ukraine absorbed Putin’s latest moves.

Newlyweds posed for photos, the downtown mall was bustling, and grocery stores were stocked — as if people don’t want to give Putin the satisfaction of disturbing daily life.

— Isabelle Kurshudyan, Whitney Leaming and Salwan Georges

On Monday evening, after Putin recognized the legitimacy of the breakaway territories of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent, he ordered what he called “peacekeeping” troops into the region, only parts of which are controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.

The Kremlin said Tuesday that its recognition of the two separatist enclaves covers areas controlled by the Ukrainian government. NATO and Western nations were braced for a full-scale invasion into Ukraine.

Wetlands and radioactive soil: How Ukraine’s geography could influence a Russian invasion

Earlier Monday, Putin called a meeting of Russia’s Security Council and grilled members on the merits of recognizing these separatist areas.

After that meeting, Putin aired an angry, prerecorded speech that recognized the sovereignty of the regions, where fighting first broke out in 2014, and rejected Ukraine’s legitimacy as an independent nation.

In Ukraine’s separatist Donbas region, war is an ever-present reality

Zelensky later responded to Putin’s speech in a televised address, calling for a “peaceful, diplomatic solution” to the situation. “We are on our land,” he added. “We owe nothing to anybody.”

Putin’s screed came after a sharp increase in violence in eastern Ukraine over the weekend. Civilians in Ukrainian-controlled parts of the east said they thought their homes were being targeted by separatists to provoke a response from Ukrainian forces. U.S. officials repeatedly warned that Russian troops might stage an attack that appeared to come from Ukrainian government forces to justify an invasion.

In Ukraine’s war-weary east, intensifying shelling and battered homes signal attempts at provocation by Russia

“We have no doubt in our minds where this shelling is coming from and who is firing it,” Diana Levenets said, pointing to the hills where the separatist forces are posted. “We can literally see where it’s coming from.”

Meanwhile, leaders of the separatist areas announced a mass evacuation of civilians, saying they knew of plans for an imminent attack by Ukrainian forces. Buses were escorted by the head of police from Donbas to Rostov, a city in southwestern Russia.

The increase in violence in the east began on Thursday, with shelling from Russian-backed separatists that put civilians in the crossfire.

What to know about shelling in Ukraine that hit a kindergarten

A Washington Post photographer captured images of a badly damaged kindergarten in Stanytsia Luhanska. No children were harmed, but three adults were injured, according to the Ukrainian military. The kindergarten director describes hustling the children to hide from the shelling in this video.

Although they have increased in intensity, clashes between Ukrainian soldiers and the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine are nothing new. More than 3,000 civilians have been killed there since 2014, according to the United Nations.

In Ukraine’s trenches: Soviet relics, video games and hope for more Western weapons

Despite military aid from Western countries and newly delivered equipment, the 209,000 active-duty Ukrainian fighters face a potential battle against Russia. In the trenches, the soldiers acknowledged the challenges ahead.

“Our defense is our job,” Oleksander, a battalion commander, told The Post. “But whoever helps us, we’ll be grateful for it.” He took The Post into the trenches, where his troops were preparing for a possible Russian assault.

— Isabelle Kurshudyan, Whitney Shefte and Michael Robinson Chavez

As tensions escalated in Ukraine’s east, Russia also was conducting military exercises in Moscow-allied Belarus, which is to Ukraine’s north. Belarus’s southern border is about 50 miles from Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

Both countries said Russian troops would withdraw when the exercises ended Feb. 20. When that deadline arrived, both announced that Russian forces would stay in Belarus indefinitely.

The strains between Russia and Ukraine involve land borders and strategic influence. Ukraine once was a part of the Soviet Union, a fact that Putin used to question the legitimacy of the country’s independence. He sees Ukraine, which has been an independent nation since 1991, as an integral part of greater Russia.

Four maps that explain the Russia-Ukraine conflict

He has demanded that Ukraine not join NATO because such a move would increase the alliance’s footprint on Russia’s borders.