Russia-Ukraine live updates: Biden speaks as defense official says Russia is aiming at big cities

The Russian incursion into Ukraine is taking place along three main fronts, according to a senior defense official, who said the moves were “clearly designed to take key population centers” and topple Ukraine’s democratically elected, pro-Western government.

“Our assessment that they [the Russians] have every intention of basically decapitating the government and installing their own method of governance,” the official said, adding: “We haven’t seen a conventional move like this, nation-state to nation-state, since World War II.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military movements.

The heaviest fighting is around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest population center, which is less than 30 miles from the Russian border. Early this morning, Pentagon officials also observed “Russians start to initiate some ground incursions” from positions in Belarus and appeared to be “making a move on Kyiv,” the senior defense official said.

The official confirmed that Russian forces have used the area around Chernobyl — a town famous for the meltdown of its nuclear reactor in 1986. They have not yet been observed moving into the western part of Ukraine, the official added.

The Russian military has launched over 100 missiles into Ukraine, the preponderance of which were short-range ballistic missiles — but also included medium-range ballistics, cruise, surface-to-air and sea-launched missiles, the defense official said. The strikes were carried out by 75 fixed-wing bombers and were primarily focused on neutering Ukrainian military and air defenses, targeting barracks, ammunition warehouses and nearly 10 airfields.

The official stressed repeatedly that Russia has made only its “initial onslaught,” suggesting that worse is likely to come. Russia has still not involved the majority of the troops it had placed surrounding Ukraine, the official said. The official added that the United States is positioning two F-35s each in Estonia, Lithuania and Romania.

“We haven’t been surprised by what we’ve seen unfold thus far,” the official said, but noted that “if it unfolds the way that we have … come to believe that it will, it has every potential to be very bloody, very costly and very impactful on European security writ large, perhaps for a long, long time to come.”

As the sun rose over Ukraine Thursday, Russian forces had launched a massive assault on the European country, bombarding cities and leaving residents scrambling. They got in their cars to drive west, they fled to train stations, they looked on as smoke from Russian bombardments rose into the sky.

From Kyiv to Kharkiv, Washington Post photographers captured the scenes as Ukrainians faced the new realities of Russia’s attacks across the country.

In a brief statement Thursday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) condemned Putin’s actions and said the Russian leader needed to be held accountable.

“Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is reckless and evil,” McCarthy said. “The United States stands with the people of Ukraine and prays for their safety and resolve. Putin’s actions must be met with serious consequence. This act of war is intended to rewrite history and more concerning, upend the balance of power in Europe.”

Global markets convulsed Thursday as Russia launched a military assault on Ukraine, with the three major U.S. indexes opening in correction territory as investors braced for further uncertainty and energy-related disruptions.

Most major Asian stock indexes fell about 3 percent, and markets in Europe dropped just as sharply in the early hours. For many indexes, it was the steepest decline since late last year, when the omicron variant of the coronavirus sparked fears of another dark phase in the pandemic.

U.S. markets careened at the open, with the Dow Jones industrial average tumbling nearly 750 points, or 2.25 percent. The S&P 500 declined 2.3 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.5 percent. Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, said that tech names are likely to see “significant pain” as the escalating tensions send investors running for safer assets.

“The risk-off environment that has been in effect so far in 2022 will now be significantly exacerbated,” Ives said in comments emailed Thursday to The Post. He noted that the damage will be “hard for already battered tech investors to absorb.”

Ukrainian authorities said Thursday that Russian invasion forces have penetrated into the zone of the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the scene of a 1986 disaster, and President Volodymyr Zelensky charged that the invaders “are trying to seize” the facility.

“Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,” Zelensky said on Twitter. “This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, recalling the catastrophe that ranks as the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident, said the Russian attack “may cause another ecological disaster.” If the war continues, it said, Chernobyl “can happen again in 2022.”

There was no immediate confirmation of what Russian forces are doing in the zone.

In April 1986, core explosions and fires broke out at the Chernobyl plant, then under the control of the Soviet Union. Large quantities of radioactive material contaminated the surrounding land, and a nearby city had to be evacuated.

Large areas of Europe were affected, and a radioactive cloud spread as far away as Norway. The Chernobyl zone has remained closed since then.

Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said Russian forces invading from Belarus were battling Ukrainian national guardsmen, who were “fighting hard” to protect storage facilities for “unsafe nuclear radioactive waste.” His account could not immediately be confirmed.

If artillery hits the facilities, “radioactive nuclear dust can be spread over the territory of Ukraine, Belarus” and European Union countries, he warned.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will bolster its eastern flank and host an emergency summit in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Calling Russia’s moves “a brutal act of war,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the alliance plans to send more troops east “in the coming days and weeks,” but he did not provide additional details. He said the alliance has activated “defense plans” to help ensure that there is no spillover into any NATO member country. He did not disclose what that activation means.

“Russia has attacked Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told journalists from NATO headquarters in Brussels. “Peace on our continent has been shattered.”

Stoltenberg’s remarks followed an extraordinary meeting of NATO members and formal requests by officials in eight Eastern European and Baltic nations, including Poland and Estonia, to hold a security consultation under Article 4 of NATO’s 1949 founding treaty. The measure lets allies register their defense concerns in a way that stops short of a formal request for assistance after an attack.

Internet outages are more widespread and severe on Thursday than in previous days, according to Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis for Kentik, a network monitoring company.

“The internet of Ukraine is under stress presently,” Madory said.

“Following the initiation of hostilities last night, we began seeing sporadic outages across the country. At the same time, the DDoS attacks directed against Ukrainian institutions that began last week are continuing.”

Last week, a declassified U.S. intelligence report said that Russian government hackers had likely broadly penetrated Ukrainian military, energy and other critical computer networks to collect intelligence and position themselves potentially to disrupt those systems in the event of a military assault on Ukraine.

Biden will address the nation about “Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine” at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, the White House said in an update to the president’s daily schedule.

Biden met virtually with the leaders of other Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union — at 9 a.m. He has also gathered the National Security Council in the Situation Room to discuss the crisis, a White House official said.

On Wednesday evening, Biden said he planned to announce “further consequences” from the United States and its allies to Russia on Thursday.

“We will also coordinate with our NATO Allies to ensure a strong, united response that deters any aggression against the Alliance,” he said in a statement.