Russia-Ukraine live updates: U.S. vows to hold Russia responsible after it begins attack on Ukraine

Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs says Russia has “launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”

“Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes,” Dmytro Kuleba tweeted early Thursday morning local time. “This is a war of aggression.”

He said that Ukraine “will defend itself and will win" and urged the world to “stop Putin.”

In a later tweet, he called for the world to immediately impose further sanctions on Russia, as well as dispatch weapons and equipment, humanitarian assistance and financial support to Ukraine. “Fully isolate Russia by all means, in all formats,” Kuleba wrote.

Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs, said troops are in Odessa — one of Ukraine’s most populous cities — and are crossing into Kharkiv, a city in the country’s northeast, according to NBC.

KHARKIV, Ukraine — Just after Russian President Vladimir Putin finished his speech announcing military action against Ukraine, distant booms could be heard in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which is 50 miles from the Russian border.

It’s unclear what caused the explosion or what targets were hit.

Russian troops, tanks and missile launchers had been massing in Belgorod, a Russian city 90 minutes from downtown Kharkiv. This is a majority Russian-speaking city that was long considered a target in a full-scale invasion by Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared martial law, according to a Ukrainian government official.

As the sun rose, some people in the city reacted with confusion. At one hotel, a staff member asked a guest what was happening. Told this was likely a Russian invasion, she cursed.

“I don’t watch the news,” she said.

Outside of the hotel, a mother and child packed their car to leave Kharkiv. There were commuters with suitcases on the subway and people were in line at a water-filing station near the city center.

President Biden said Russia “alone is responsible for the death and destruction” its military action in Ukraine may bring, according to a statement released late Wednesday after Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced plans to launch a “special military operation” in the country.

“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Biden’s statement read. “The world will hold Russia accountable.”

Calling Putin’s military actions "unprovoked and unjustified,” the president pledged that the United States and allies will coordinate their responses in a “united and decisive” fashion. Biden will meet with leaders from the Group of Seven nations Thursday morning and will address the American people on further sanctions to deter Russian aggression.

Shortly after Putin’s speech, explosions could be heard in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and Kharkiv, in the country’s northeast. A senior Ukrainian official said there were explosions at Kyiv’s Boryspil airport.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law after Russia on Thursday launched a multipronged attack on its neighbour, with explosions heard across a wide swath of the country.

In a statement posted on the president’s website, Zelensky described Russia’s military operation as “an unjustified, deceitful and cynical invasion.”

Russia is carrying out strikes on military targets and other important defense facilities, border units are under attack, and the situation in Donbas — in the country’s east, where Ukrainian government forces have been fighting Russian-backed separatists for the past eight years — has degraded, the statement said.

The country’s armed forces and law enforcement agencies are on alert, while the National Security and Defense Council is working in emergency mode ahead of a meeting called by Zelensky.

“Ukrainians will never give up their freedom and independence to anyone,” the statement said. “But now the fate of not only our state is being decided, but also what life in Europe will be like. Whether at least something of the force of international law remains will depend on the world’s fair and just response to this aggression.”

President Biden has promised that “the world will hold Russia accountable” for what he described as an “unprovoked and unjustified attack” on Ukraine, and other global leaders were also quick to condemn Russia’s actions and call for a decisive response.

In a video address posted on social media Thursday, his second of the day, Zelensky urged Ukrainians to remain calm, and stay at home if they can.

Hours earlier, before the assault began, the president made an emotional appeal to the Russian people to stop their leadership from sending troops across the border and into his country, warning of the despair that would come from a needless war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation against Ukraine in an address carried on Russian state television early Thursday, as the Kremlin attacked military targets across Ukrainian territory in what President Biden called “premeditated war” against Russia’s western neighbor.

Putin described the goal of the military operation as ending the “genocide” against the people in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists have been at war with Ukrainian forces since 2014.

“Its goal is to protect people who have been abused by the genocide of the Kyiv regime for eight years,” Putin said. “And to this end, we will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. We will also bring to justice those who committed the numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation.”

Though Putin said the operation was about the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine, the Russian military proceeded to attack a wide range of targets across the country, including in the capital, Kyiv, and the eastern city of Kharkiv.

Putin said Russia didn’t plan to occupy Ukrainian territory but made references to the right to self-determination by local peoples, suggesting that Moscow could be planning to organize referendums in areas of Ukraine after the military campaign.

The Russian leader made mention of the referendum that Russia held in Crimea in 2014, subsequently annexing the piece of Ukrainian territory located on the Black Sea.

Putin also directly addressed members of the Ukrainian armed forces, calling on them to lay down their arms and refuse to take orders from their superiors in Kyiv.

He also warned anyone considering interfering with Russia’s plans of grave consequences, appearing to threaten the use of nuclear weapons.

“Whoever tries to interfere with our actions should know that the Russian response will be immediate and will lead to the kind of consequences you have never experienced in your entire history,” Putin said. “We are ready for any scenario of events.”

He said Russia could no longer tolerate a Ukraine that he said had been taken hostage by forces hostile to Russia.

Putin said Russia “cannot feel safe and develop and exist with the constant threat coming from the modern territory of Ukraine.”

Therefore, he said, he had no choice but to authorize a military operation. He noted, “We simply weren’t given any other option to defend Russia and our people other than that which we will use today.”